Why on earth does the Norton Removal Tool take nearly an hour to open after clicking on it? I'm a technician and remove broken installations often. Sitting around for an hour is a waste. My theory is that it's made to pause that long so you dont think it works, and you will end up keeping the broke-ware
Something is broken on your system if it takes that long; I've used it on many systems and it takes about 1 second to open, and 10 seconds from you run it to it is finished.
Hi railstop,
I have never had the NRT fail to start instantly and complete within a reasonable amount of time. Are you using it on infected or damaged systems?
It is not my computer. I repair computers, so they are all customers computers. Even on a fresh factory restore and removing the trial Norton version.
Railstop,
Well you are in the right place to try to sort this out !
One point: Where do you get the copy of Norton Removal Tool and how recently did you download it? It does change from time to time.
Here's my boilerplate for the two similar tools -- the newer Norton Rermove & Reinstall Tool and the older Norton Removal Tool.
Here is a link to the new Norton Remove & Reinstall tool that, like the older Norton Removal Tool removes most Norton Products from your system, but the newer tool uninstalls the Norton products from your computer and reinstalls the latest version of your Norton security product.
Note that it does not reinstall other Norton products you may have installed -- that you have to do manually and we can point you to the download point for the current versions.
This link Symantec Norton Removal Tool. will direct you to the older Symantec Norton Removal Tool which can be used if the newer Norton Remove and Reinstall Tool does not fix the problem -- it does a more thorough clean up than the NR&RT
Are you running it by downloading and installing on the subject PC or trying to run it from a USB drive (I don't even know if you can but it's something I know technicians like ....)
I always download the newset version at symantec.com/nrt
railstop wrote:I always download the newset version at symantec.com/nrt
And install it on the PC you are treating? You don't try to use it as a portable version from a thumbdrive?
Just trying to eliminate variables ....
Apparently there was an issue with the NRT recently. You may not have seen the same error, but it may have been related to the issue you are seeing.
See this post.
I believe it has been fixed now, as a user I was helping was able to get the new download.
It is always on the local machine. I just tried it again. same result. although, this time I waited 1.5hrs for the screen to appear. When I check the task manager, it is running.
You are working on other people's computers, so you may or may not be sure what has been installed on those machines.
If any other security software was ever installed on those computers, it could be conflicting with the Norton products.
Just to confirm, you are downloading a fresh copy of the NRT directly to the computer you are planning to use it on?
Do you see this long delay on all computers you work on? If so, what diagnostic tools might you be using before going to the NRT?
Ok, Yes I download a fresh copy everytime. The removal tool typically isnt run right away. depending on situation we may opt to pull the HDD to run several scans on it using our "scanning" stations. if not, we run anything from combofix, malwarebytes, Microsoft Fix-It tools, etc... When the computer is near finished, the out of date/broken Norton installation is removed.
This is not always how we use it:
When doing a full factory restore to original fatory condition, there may be an old version of Norton we remove right away and suggest gettting a newer version.
It doesnt matter which way is chosen, NRT is absolutely dead for an hour or so after clicking on it, It is verified to be running by checking the processes. Once in about 100 PC's I'd say it actually does open right away.
Thanks for all of the replies..
railstop,
This is so weird!
I'm not in the blame game so don't take this that way but for it to happen so consistently to nearly all your machines and so far as I can remember never to others here or to me it must be something about the way you are using the NRT.
You have not directly answered the question I asked earlier: do you install the download and run it on the PC being treated or do you try to run it from an external drive, like a thumbdrive .... as a portable application?
Another point -- when you can (ie a not crippled installation) do you first run the normal uninstall routine and then the NRT or just the NRT?
I'd be grateful if you would answer this one specifically.
Now the holiday weekend is over I'll flag this for Norton to know about.
If possible, I download it directly from the machine being worked on. If not, I DL it to a thumb drive on my bench them copy it to the desktop and run it.
Another point, Is I have attempted to run with elevated rights first, with the same results.
I have run the uninstall then the tool with same result.
I agree, very odd. I know it is not just a weird juju in the building as it happens anywhere I have attempted it ie; customers locations. I remember last year not having this issue, It has just started happening in the last 6-10months.
I would think the same thing in being the way I use it, but it has been run using absolutly every way possible.
rs,
Thanks for your patience -- let's see if I can get some help from Norton. Do you have a "patient" available if they should want to do a remote?
I actually do have a machine available with an expired Norton the customer would like removed. I have attempted NRT and waited over an hour and gave up. It is actually this machine that spurred this topic.
Have you tried Safe Mode?
Sure have, almost everytime just to make sure.
Please let us know if Norton gives a solution for you. This is an odd one.