Since the November 2008 (around the end of the month, if memory serves), I started having a problem on my Vista 32-bit machine running Norton Antivirus 2009. If I download a file (most or perhaps always a PDF) from the Internet, create a PDF with my scanner, etc. and try to move it from my local hard drive to a network drive (Linux machine running Samba) via a "right-click, cut, right-click-paste" operation, Explorer and Norton will both freeze on me. I can see the window appear showing the file copy status, it will create a new empty file on the network drive, but nothing gets copied. Windows reports that both Explorer and "Symantec Service Framework" are not responding. I have to force my machine to shut down by holding the power button -- normal shutdown will not work. It tries, but just sits forever.
I contacted Symantec support, but I got the usual "it must be fault of some other software". Prior to this new change in NAV behavior, I had not installed any new software on my PC -- no new software installs for a few months, though I am sure there were updates to existing packages (e.g., Office, Photoshop, etc). I really doubt there is anything else producing this problem. I have absolutely no other spyware or antivirus software on my machine -- and it's been running quite nicely for a couple of years now.
I opened the NAV 2009 program and turned off the Antivirus, AntiSpyware, and Advanced Protection functions. I let it run for a couple of weeks and I had no problems at all. I then turned them back on and I had the problem again. I then decided to try to systematically figure out what was causing the problem. I turned off "Advanced Protection", but that did not help. I just now turned off "AntiSpyware" -- so we'll see how it goes.
What makes this frustating is that it does not happen all the time. Sometimes it will and sometimes it will not. So, I usually only see the problem once or twice per week -- but that's enough!
As I mentioned, it appears to only happen with PDF files, but I might be entirely wrong. I just cannot recall when this happened with other document types.
Symantec has updated the software a few times since then and I am presently running version V16.2.0.7.
Does anybody have any ideas why this is happening?
Thanks,
Paul