I have a WIN 8.1 x64 PC with Norton Internet Security (NIS), PaperPort 14.5 Standard (PP), and TrueCrypt. I have an 8GB TrueCrypt encrypted file that I mount and then access with PP. It all works. NIS was to expire in one day. A month earlier I had previously purchased a 5-user license for Norton Security (NS) in anticipation of the expiration of my NIS installs.
After installing and updating Norton to NS, when I open PP with the mounted TrueCrypt volume, the PC blue screens with PNP_DETECTED_FATAL_ERROR. PaperPort is critical to me. It is a single product that lets me scan, OCR, create PDFs, and manage all my family data. I needed to find a solution to the PNP error.
Note: I also have a two WIN7 x64 PCs with the same software. Those PCs work just fine with NS installed and updated – using the identical TrueCrypt .tc file - no PNP error.
I called Norton and spent a couple of hours on the phone with two levels of tech support. What we found was:
- If I install NS and do not update NS, the PNP error does not occur.
- If I install NS and update NS the PNP error occurs. On PC restart Windows attempts to repair the PNP problem. The repair fails. On reboot the SrtTrail.txt log file says that “\Windows\system32\drivers\NSx64\1601000.009\SymELAM.sys is corrupt”. (SymELAM reports as a Symantec Corporation “System file”).
Norton support says the PNP error is unique to my PC and not their problem. (But I know that this exact PNP blue screen has been previously reported in a Swedish language group.) Norton support wanted to convert my five NS licenses to three(!) NIS licenses –I’m not interested in running a year-old AV when I’ve paid for the current version. The other choice Norton support offered is to have me pay Norton $50 for a 1-PC NIS license so I don’t have to update the WIN8 PC to NS. I know that this problem is one that Norton support probably could not have resolved for me in a timely manner. But their intransigence admitting that the PNP error was a direct result of the installation and updating of NS, and their refusal to grant me a temporary license to keep using NIS, forcing me into an immediate lengthy and time consuming search for a work around, annoyed far more than the fact that Norton NS had a problem.
Finally, after exhausting all other solutions, I downloaded a trial copy of Kaspersky Internet Security, and, to no surprise, the PNP errors disappeared. I have used Norton for many years without problems, but this experience has me doubting the ability of Norton to deliver and support a viable product.