Dear floplot
How true "Success always occurs in private and failure in full view."
I posted my message here on the Forum for lack of any apparent alternative. The telephone support I have received has not been helpful, but, I have a huge constraint. I am un-willing to unistall and reinstall the product completely.
Current System: Custom Built SuperMicro MB, Intel i7 processor, 12Gigs of RAM, NVIDIA GeoForce 8400GS, C-Drive 300Gig 10K Vista-64 Ultimate (Sorry about Vista)\
All Drivers from SuperMicro and NVIDIA (AMD)are all current as of 8/21/2010.
Vista-64 Ultimate SP2 has all current required and reccomended updates as of 9/5/2010.
System has been operational without problems from 3/30/2008 approx through July 2010.
Initial system installation - Clean install
1. Vista 64
2. Vista Updated via Internet Microsoft Update
3. Installed Symantec 360 (Version 2?) from electonic downloaded copy
4. Updated Symantec
3. Installed free versions of ccleaner (piriform.com), Advanced SystemCare (iobit.com) and SpyBot Search & Destroy from (Safer-Netorking.org)
ccleaner - Integrated into "Recycle Bin" but not configured to run in an automated fashion
Advanced SystemCare - Not configured to run at startup. Although I sometimes miss the request and it starts on the next startup I then disable it using Microsoft (SysInternals) startall to locate the entry and uncheck it.
SpyBot SD - Installed/Updated - Manually run immunization feature and manually update Hosts. file.
I never use TeaTimer. I find it annoying.
I setup MS to download updates and allow me to install them and I generally install the updates within a week of them being pushed.
I update ccleaner if there is a new update when I use the program. I use it about once or twice a month to clean up my system.
I update Advanced SystemCare if I am having problems or once a month to once a quarter to see what has accumulated. Some stuff I just have it delete others I leave (Registry entry dependent).
I update SpyBot every other month or so. I hardly ever run the full scan. I ran it at system installation. I will run it if my browser seems to be having problems. IE seems to be the only browser impacted by self-install stuff. I tend to use Firefox as my default browser.
In February of this year I upgraded to Symantec 360 V3. I do not recall the installation process. I downloaded the file and installed the upgrade. I may have uninstalled the old version but I do not recall.
In the past I have had issues with my system where Software did not seem to be operating properly (Not just Symantec). Generally reboot with a scheduled Chkdsk /F on all drives would take care of the problem.
In July Symantec 360 identified itself in the systemtray with a red x on the icon. After opening the software I could see that the product was unable to update via the liveupdate feature. After multiple reboots and logging on to a less complicated Administrative profile I contacted Support via the Text Chat feature.
I do not allow remote access to my system.
A few hours later with no success I was given a process of steps which included links to programs to download. The process and programs were to support me in the complete removal of Symantec 360 V3.x.
During the process I had disabled and removed ccleaner, Spybot Search and Destroy and the Advanced SystemCare programs. I had multiple reboots and we were still unable to get Symantec 360 V3.x to run the live updates.
This past week:
It appeared that the same problem with the Symantec 360 V3.x had returned. Although, the only difference that I noticed is that there was no visual notice that the software was disabled. I only noticed because I was having difficulty connecting to a computer in my home and I attempted to open up the network view Feature. When this did not respond I noticed that the last update from liveupdate had been many hours previously. Usually it is under 4 hours old.
I was unable to manually run the LiveUpdate.
I ended up clicking on something (?) in Symantec and the main interrface stopped responding and only provided an audible error beep. After 30 to 60 seconds an alert poped up stating "Access denied can only be modified while your license is valid".
[SeeAttachedImage]
Next I ended up in One-Click Support. The system said it could not reach its servers and gave me an option to release/renew my ip address. I opted to not release renew since I am not controlled by DHCP. Next the system notified me that my hosts. file was corrupt and wanted to know if I would like to fix the problem. After checking the hosts file and finding that there was no corruption I opted to click "No" to not repair my hosts file.
Next I went into a chat session and went over all of the basics. Since this seems to be a repeat of my problem in July I have no interest in solving a problem by uninstalling and reinstalling the complete program. I did not want to do this in July, but, I finally conceeded due to the apparent lack of Tier2/3 support skills being available via chat to locate the root cause of the problem.
My current problem as with the problem in July Symantec via the main screen shows that I have a valid license that does not expire for ### of days. Yet, all of my protection from Symantec 360 appears to be disabled and not functioning as expected.
After spening a great deal of time on the chat, killing the various processes advanced system console and SpyBot, removing spybot using ccleaner to wipe the spybot registry entries and rebooting - Symantec 360 still would not operate.
I received a call back from a case manager where they said that I refused to let support take control of my system. I responded that I refused to let anyone remotely control my system and had to repeatedly request the steps the remote support was going to take to resolve the problem. The steps that they provided to me were the manual steps of removing Symantec 360 completely from my system.
I recieved another call from a case manager who said I have to remove SpyBot Search & Destroy because it is a program that is known to cause problems with Symantec Software. I told him that it is not causing the problem at which point we continued to disagree. I then conceeded and asked if he would hold while I went to my system and removed SpyBot and rebooted the computer. I removed SpyBot from the system and rebooted. I was still unable to get Symantec run LiveUpdate.
I went back to the phone and apparently had been disconnected from the support tech. I had not heard back from anyone since that call. That is when I entered this forum to look for support.
Floplot although this is a stupid thing to get upset about I tend to get emotional about this whole issue.
My Expectations:
1 I expect that any/all security software free or purchased will stay operational and provide protection as advertised
(Purchased software I had assumed would stay operational and provide the protection as well as
possible from the last paid update files)
2 If a problem any problem with the security software occurs I still expect the software to function within reason.
3 For software that is under a subscription plan I expect that if and when a problem occurs that the software company
producting the security software will provide competent support to isolate the root cause to prevent the problem
from recurring.
My expectations may be unrealistic, but, they are my expectations. In July none of my expectations were met and I gave in on expectation #3 above and performed the uninstall/reinstall procedure.
Current ISSUES:
Since my problem has returned and the uninstall/reinstall procedure did not eliminate the issue. I am reluctant to repeat the process.
During my conversations with support via phone and text - no one has provided me with any insight as to why Symantec 360 would, almost comletely disable, almost all; if not all of its security/anti-virus system protections. Support has told me that it was due to not being able to find their update servers, yet, I can ping, traceroute and nslookup the server name they provided.
Additionally no one can explain why part of the software still connects to Symantec and verifies that my account exists and will expire in ### of days.
--Current Problem
After uninstalling SpyBot rebooting and finding that support had been disconnected. I re-installed SpyBot to get some minimal protection added back to my system
Today while responding to this Forum request and realizing that I provided you with nothing technical to make even a guess as to what could be causing this issue I noticed that Symantec was able to run LiveUpdates.
I started to poke around Symantec 360 and everything seemed to be working (Not Greyed out). NOT..
I am back to my basic installation with ccleaner, Advance SystemCare and SpyBot SD as outlined above minus the hosts file update and now Symantec 360 is able to run LiveUpdate.
But, when I go further I find that pretty much all of the features are disabled and when I go to fix any one of the multple problems with the fix button I receive the complete unistall/reinstall directions with hot links to the files to download.
I feel right now that if I do not find the root cause of this issue: I will be uninstalling/reinstalling the Symantec 360 software 6 to 9 times a year and my computer system will be open to viruses and other issues from 6 to 25 days a year assuming that the Symantec 360 software disables itself one time while I am on holiday.
I have used Norton and Symantec products for a very long time, I reccomend the product to my corporate clients and other in the general public that I come in contact with. I even defend the product when talking to small business and home users who complain about the system performance issues.
But, I am still astonished that the software has disabled itself with the only reason provided: The software will disable itself when it can not contact the update servers. For those who live in the real broadband arena this may not be an issue, but, there are many of us who survive on high-speed and even dial-up (yep-dial-up is still around).
ONE NOTE
The number of days on the main screen shows 528, but, the realtime subscription status shows 526 days. The LiveUpdate seemed to run a number of times, but, now it takes me to the One-Click-Support.
Questions- Answer
1. Previous security program -- Symantec since computer install
May have upgraded to 360 - do not recall
Upgraded existing 360 V2 to V3 in February 2010
First problem July 2010 -- Complete Symantec 360 removal / reinstall
Second problem (same or similar to July) September 2010
2. MS Vista-64 Ultimate SP2
All updates current
3. System clock is a non-issue
Generally within 1 to 2 seconds of atomic clock
Syncronize daily to pool.ntp.org
4. Other real-time security programs Installed
Other than SpyBot Search & Destroy and sometimes Advanced SystemCare
there are no other resident security applications running
5. SpyBot Search & Destory
TeaTimer is not enabled - I find it annoying
Resident Shield - I am not familiar with this name
Under Tools | Resident
I have checked the checkbox for "SDHelper" (Internet Explorer bad download blocker) active
I also update the immunizations for all of my browsers - this is termed as passive protection
I do not beleive it is running in memory
I also normally update the hosts file with the SpyBot - although at this moment the hosts
file is set to whatever Symantec 360 does when it tell you the hosts file is corrupt.
Sincerely