I Know Someone Here Can Help

[ArcticDiver]

I know someone on this board of bright folks can help solve this problem. So here goes:

I had AVG Antivirus/Firewall installed on two computers Came time for renewal they offered an "Upgrade" to a newer version. Long story short; it didn't work, I couldn't uninstall, nor reinstall. I put in a tech support call. No response for 6 days. In the meantime I did their work for them and figured out it was a corrupted config file, which I fixed. I then uninstalled the AVG8.0. After all , who wants an application that doesn't provide timely tech support?

Based on reviews I purchased and installed Norton Internet Security 2009 on both computers. I did this from a CD purchased at a retail store. Immediately the following were malfunctions: Desktop Icon not working, gives a Path Error, Computers take 5 minutes to boot, slow as mollasses launching programs, one computer could not use Outlook until email scanning was turned off.

Called Tech Support. Really quick response. Using Remote Link the rep scanned both computers, removed some left over old Symantec files that had not been removed from a previous uninstall, uninstalled and reinstalled Norton 2009. This whole process took 6 hours what with the reboots, etc. No solution. If anything the computers are slower.

I went through the Symantec Knowledge Base and didn't see any conflicts with applications I have installed. I also did a virus scan. Nothing identified.

Today I spent another 2:45 on the phone with Tech Support. This time the rep downloaded another Norton Security Scan product that he put on the Desktop. This one wouldn't run giving the following error: "The parameter is incorrect". A Complete Scan showed no viruses.

They are sending a fresh CD to me and telling me to uninstall and reinstall from it. That will be here in a few days, while I'm on the road for a pair of back to back trips.

I can make all the original problems go away simply by turning off Norton. But, obviously that doesn't solve the problem.

OK, I've put a bunch of time into this and so far no result. What can I do to solve the problems???

[spatman]

What can I do to solve the problems???

buy a mac.


sorry, i just couldn't resist.

[ArcticDiver]

What can I do to solve the problems???

buy a mac.


sorry, i just couldn't resist.

Good that you got that off your chest. We're already off to a good start.

[defied]

What are the "Original problems"? This started off with an upgrading avg issue, and moved into a "Turning off Norton, things work" issue.

If you're experiencing slowness with Norton enabled, well, yes, unfortunately Norton is a VERY proc and memory intensive application, and I personally don't care for it.

I've had issues with FreeAVG, but use that, or clamAV (which is open source, and free). I don't call customer support for any issues, though.

[Sounder]

Chocolate starfish and the hotdog flavored water?

[defied]

Chocolate starfish and the hotdog flavored water?

Ugh.... bad.... bad! No!.....No!......

Fred's a punk. 0]

[airsix]

Give us a baseline.
Processor
RAM
Hard-drive size and available space
OS (2k, xp home, xp pro, vista, other)
date problems started (did it coincide with "patch Tuesday"?)
List of stuff you have running on strartup.


For users who are hands-on types my AV recommendation is NOD32. Highly user configurable. Excellent results in independent lab tests. Low resource use. We did a lot of research before making this choice. It was a good decision. I've just past the 1-year mark using it on my work network (a dozen Dell pc's between 0-3 years old, running XP Pro). Been happy. Waiting out my Trend subscription at home so I can switch mine/wife's pcs.

-Ben

[ArcticDiver]

Sorry I wasn't very clear. I only mentioned AVG to let you know that is what I started with. In fact I was happy with the paid edition and gladly gave them my money. But, when they didn't respond to the Tech Support request for 6 days that cooked it for me. I uninstalled AVG and verified it was gone.

I bought Norton Internet Security 2009 at a local store. Based on reviews on various forums Norton has returned to its' roots as a fast, effective program. It installed in my XPPro, 1G RAM, 40G left on the Hard Drive machines(2). It installed with no errors showing.

Then I could not launch it with the Desktop Icon. Attempts just brought error message: "C:\Program Files\Norton Internet Security\Engine\16.1.0.33ustub.exe The parameter is incorrect"

The application would and will launch out of the System Tray OK. It launches on Startup OK.

The other symptoms are as I listed above. All problems are associated with Norton. The slow boot and application launch started when Norton was installed. The email scan problem is associated with Norton directly. Times are approximately 50% slower than before.

I called Symantec Tech Support as I said. They agreed there was a problem. They used Remote LInk to run some utilities to be sure no conflicting programs were on either computer. As I posted after 6 hours the tech "elevated" the problem.

The tech today, downloaded another program called Norton Security Scan. It is supposed to do a deeper cleaning than the normal retail product. But, it refused to run saying "The parameter is incorrect".

There seems to be a common thread in that Norton is apparently setting parameters wrong. I'm not enugh of a OS guy to know how to troubleshoot that.

I don't think the problem is a virus because I can get "normal" performance merely by turning Norton off.

??

[defied]

Hmmm... sounds like a bad install, or a bad registry entry. A lot of times a full uninstall does not remove registry entries, and they may have to be hand cleaned using regedit.exe. Fun.

D(B)

[ArcticDiver]

You mean it installed bad to start with and on each of the following three installs? Also, the NSS that was installed today was bad too?

If so that means Norton has a real problem with their quality control because I think that is akin to a series of call functions from the application to the installer the registry, etc.

I don't think I know enough to do a manual registry edit.

[defied]

You had mentioned that you had some conflicts with some older symantec files that had once been installed. There could be keys in the registry from the older version that affect the newer version for some reason.

There are some registry cleaners out there, but I don't know which one to trust. My house is running a few linux, and BSD servers, as well as linux and OSX laptops. The only thing here that is MS is a vmware image that runs on occasion, and my xbox 360. 0] So I'm not savvy on the latest registry cleaners.

[ArcticDiver]

Supposedly those all were taken out by the first tech. The second one looked at the first tech's notes and thought so too.
But it could be.

As we speak I've got a Backup copy of reg open with notepad. Now to make sure I don't save it, eh?

Any other ideas?

[defied]

I dunno. If the tech has taken them out of the registry, and it's still causing issues, then you could have directory corruption, or another program interfering with the process. There are virus'es which intentionally kludge up an AV program from running, but don't show any performance hits otherwise. These are usually viruses that want to export keylogged data out of your system, so they want you to assume that everything is fine, and antivirus is jacked up. They are a virus/trojan chunk of code. Besides that, nothing short of a reinstall. 0]

D(B)

[ArcticDiver]

Well, it looks like some of the stuff I used to see in another lifetime. Without the map it is pretty meaningless. Hope one of you can come up with something that will not require me to go back to school.

[Kirby]

Dump norton and get pc tools spyware doctor with antivirus. This is the first program I have ever had that has been able to intercept infections before they occur, and remove any that get by due to my stupidity. I had infections that norton either could not detect, or remove, now, no problems. I too was frustrated by errors like the one you have, I did a manual registry rebuild (dangerous) and finally got rid of the AVG and norton traces along with the pesky trojan that was behind it all.

[ArcticDiver]

We overlapped.

Hmmm, everything looks fine except for the errors I mentioned. The Techs, both of them, claim that since the problem goes away when Norton is turned off and no viruses show in the Complete Scan the problem is not a virus. BUT, the one today also said if a reinstall from the disc he is sending doesn't work I'll need to pay for their folks to do a manual virus check and removal. Cost unknown. That will be sometime a week from now.

[ArcticDiver]

Now I overlapped with Kirby.

That may be the end. But, how to get there? Mechanically I mean.

I mean what was the sequence to be sure you got rid of AVG and Norton and The Trojan?

[defied]

Hmmm.... That sounds stupid. If it's their product not working properly....

Okay, so another thing you can try is burning a bootable virus scanner onto a CD and booting from it. This will cleanse the system thoroughly, not giving any programs or devices on disk or the MBR to load. That's the most effective way to clean a system.

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_bart_cd.html

I guess try that guy or something like it. Boot to the Cd, and run AV. If it detects something, then you may know what it is.

D(B)

[ArcticDiver]

Hmmm, logically that stands a chance of working.

But, since both computers have the problem wouldn't downloading it onto my HD to burn the CD just take the trojan with it when I burned the CD?

[defied]

Depends on the intelligence of the virus. Usually, no. The burn would fail if the virus were interracting with it at all, as the MD5 sums would be off during the burn, and most bootable CD AV images will check against there own MD5 hash. Otherwise it just won't boot.

Obviously if you can get it burned from an apparently unaffected system, that would be key, but working with what you have is acceptable also. The Virus would have to be coded to somehow recognize every AV CD image out there. Usually it's coded to look for the process function of an AV tool, not and ISO.

[ArcticDiver]

I just went to the BART site. They say it is designed for pros. I'm not one of those any longer, You've used it. difficult?

Believe what they advertise?

[ArcticDiver]

Just looked at it more. $150. My my that is three times what it cost for the Norton in the first place. If I go that route I suer won't be coming back to Norton.

But, if it works, it works.

[defied]

Nah, don't go spending money like that. That's a waste when a new virus comes out attacking them specifically.

That was an example. I'll look for some Open source options, like ClamAV.

[defied]

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Boo ... 4WIN.shtml

This looks to have potential.

[ArcticDiver]

OK, I get you now.

I think this has been a l o n g day following another l o n g day. The spider webs are taking over inside. I need some brain reset.

Tomorrow I'll come back to check on this thread. Then I'll maybe do the PCTools thingy. Years ago, when PCs were new I used them almost daily and they were very effective. Or maybe your ClamAV or the link you just posted.

Then go from there. If I go that route then it seems to me I should just abandon Norton? Or, maybe just assume the original install disk had the thing on it and just download via the internet?

If it is a virus then Norton isn't picking it up so maybe putting that back on would be an exercise in futility?