OS: Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center (x64)
Norton Product: Norton Security with Backup
Several days ago I installed the latest nVidia GPU driver update onto my Windows 8.1 system; something I have done countless times before but this time something went horribly wrong: Norton stopped working and in fact it's exact error code instructions directed me to run the Norton Removal Tool, Update the GPU Drivers, and Reinstall Norton. I tried that and it didn't work. I tried it again and rolled back to the previous GPU drivers and it still didn't work.
After about ~3 restarts, Norton Security with Backup just stops launching on startup. I checked the event log and when it runs it says the NBSU Service is Starting and then the NBSU Service has started. When it stops working, two follow up events appear: NBSU Service is Stopping and NBSU Service has Stopped. Otherwise, the event viewer shows the exact same events at each restart whether it's working or not.
I've done clean boot, safe mode, and pretty much everything under the sun. I don't know if it's this new Norton update that was recently released or not. I've run "sfc /scannow" and "dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth" to no avail. I have run Check Disk on every drive and about to do it on the OS drive and even memtest86.
For all intents and purposes, Norton just stopped working and a long with it a few strange behaviors with drivers (I had to reinstall the WiFi driver because of a TCP/IP thing that's apparently rather common; Paragon's Block Storage Driver had registry corruption).
Now I am at the "nuclear option." I am in the process of downloading the Windows 8.1 Update ISO from Microsoft and about to do some fancy work to slipstream the ProWMC key in so I can run an unattended in-place repair reinstall because to me it sounds like something in Windows just decided to go horribly wrong and the original triggering driver update was what shattered the glass.
However, I wanted to reach out and see if anyone else in the Norton community has experienced this recently before I proverbially drop a nuclear bomb on my Windows installation.