Can anybody out there please help with Norton crashing my computer every time I open it to do anything. I first noticed this problem several months ago but nothing I tried to fix it had any effect so I just left it. I was hoping that either a Windows update or a Norton update would resolve the problem later on, but it still continues.
Situation: When opening Norton the screen goes completely blank. After a few seconds it returns and the Norton control panel reluctantly appears. All seems normal, but whatever you select results in the screen going blank again and the computer totally crashing a few seconds later (i.e. HDD light stops and keyboard NUM LOCK light is stuck). I can’t access the settings, do a scan or anything at all. The only thing I can do is a hard reset or power off.
Computer: Dell Studio 540 desktop dating from 2009 booting with legacy BIOS only (i.e. does not support UEFI). 8Gb Ram. Windows 10 professional at 64 bit. Windows was installed onto a brand new blank HDD in September 2020 so it is a “clean” install, not an upgrade from 7 etc. Norton has been running on this computer for many years (on previous hard disks) with no faults until Windows 10.
What I’ve tried so far: Updated to the latest Windows 10 version 21H1 but no difference. Ran various different Windows “repair tool” third party software (some of which reported issues and fixed them), but it made no difference to this problem. Ran sfc/scannow which also reported issues and fixed them, but still this problem continues. Ran a registry cleaning software but that didn’t help either. Deleted all the recently installed drivers in connection with a bricked Android tablet I’m trying to flash just in case that might be the cause, but it also made no difference. One thread on the community said to do the remove and reinstall tool. This completed successfully but the fault still continues. Another thread said to turn off fastboot, do a “remove only”, log into my account and reinstall Norton from there then do liveupdate twice. All went fine with reboots between every stage as instructed, but the fault still continues before I can even do a liveupdate so that too made no difference. I’ve done whole that procedure twice now as well.
Everything seems to suggest it a Windows issue because: 1) Norton runs correctly with the computer in Safe Mode – but all I can do from there is a full system scan, nothing else. 2) Three reinstalls of Norton made no difference. 3) My other computer runs on an identical configuration of O/S and software and is of a similar age yet Norton works fine on that. However, since Windows appears to be running normally, since all diagnostics said they had fixed problems found and since no other software causes this same behaviour to happen, that would suggest it might be a Norton problem and not a Windows one! I am guessing here, but could there be a setting inside Windows somewhere which conflicts with Norton somehow that I need to change? Are there any known software or drivers that conflict with Norton which maybe I have?
Any suggestions that do NOT involve wiping the hard disk and reinstalling Windows from scratch would be gratefully appreciated as I’ve already spent many hours trying to resolve this problem with no luck!!!