Norton bricked my laptop

Norton 360 for Windows
1

Norton has been the source of multiple crashes on my devices. I ran WinDBG, put the crash dump info into AI and it pointed to a norton driver as the cause. Today it crashed my laptop and I updated it to the latest definitions. There was a patch that needed a restart. My device has not booted since. I will probably have to reinstall the OS. After over 20 years of using Norton and valuing their products, the two years left on my subscription will go to waste. I’m uninstalling on all my devices and letting MalwareBytes handle security. I’ve got a lifetime license anyways

2

@jmacbill Care to share the driver that was the cause? What about Norton caused the issue you have? Did you run Driver Updater or Software Updater when this took place? We’d be glad to help get your laptop running again if that is possible.

-What is the OS on the laptop and its version?
-What version of Norton was installed?

SA

3

Thanks for your reply SA
Windows 11, Dell XPS 9720
The latest version - right before this happened I updated and rebooted to install a patch. My device never booted properly again

As mentioned Norton had caused multiple crashes on my desktop. Luckily as my mine driver it still boots. My laptop is not so lucky. Here is the exact wording of the AI analysis of the crash dump for the FIRST crash caused on my desktop. It’s similar to the cause of my non booting laptop - both have Norton at the scene of the crime

What the crash is actually saying

Key lines:

  • PROCESS_NAME: NortonSvc.exe

  • FAULTING MODULE: NETIO.SYS

  • Warning: *** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for nllStm.sys

  • Stack shows repeated calls into nllStm right before the crash.

So here’s the real story:

Windows’ networking component (NETIO.SYS) crashed while executing a network filter callout from nllStm.sys inside the Norton service process.

nllStm.sys is a Norton network/stream filter driver. It hooks into the Windows firewall/platform to inspect or modify traffic. That driver fed NETIO a bad pointer (rax = 0 then mov rcx, [rax+8] → classic null‑pointer dereference), which caused the SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION (3b).

:bullseye: Direct answer: the culprit driver

The driver causing your crash is: nllStm.sys — a Norton network filter driver. NETIO.SYS is just where it blew up; Norton’s filter is what made it happen.

4

Give the information in this article from Dell a go. Lets see if we can get this recovered for you and Norton removed. Please advise with your status.

SA

6

Thank you for your reply. I had to do a full total reinstall. It was a cascading catastrophe in which everything that could go wrong, went wrong. I couldn’t boot into SM. It’s working now but I have to reinstall all my programs, some of which I don’t remember if they were on or not, some are old programs used for a specific purpose. I removed Norton from my computer and this is the end of over 20 years as a faithful customer. I watched it get more and more bloated (cryptomining??) and more and more away from the central mission of Antivirus and a powerful robust firewall. The upselling, the additional modules (VPN, privacy monitor) - it’s no wonder it wrecked my OS. I’ll be using MB going forward and probably HMP for a second opinion

1 Like
7

Thanks for the information and post back. Good luck going forward, I hate seeing users leave a good product as Norton is. AI is all the craze these days, doing more harm that it is good. We are here in case you need us in the future.

Regards,
SA