Norton causing crash... but Norton is uninstalled

[Powder]

Windows XP
P4 3.4GHz
1GB RAM

My PC locked up about 5 times yesterday, and now about 4-5 times again today. In the event viewer, this same error shows up at the time of every crash:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7000
Date: 11/10/2005
Time: 4:33:05 PM
User: N/A
Computer: DESKTOP1
Description:
The Norton AntiVirus Auto Protect Service service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.

Yesterday I uninstalled Norton completely, and even followed the instructinos as shown here to manually remove it from the registry, to try to rid my PC of it completely. But even after all that, with it gone, I'm still getting this same error message in the event viewer at the time of every crash. Wierd.

[just_a_nobody]

You may need to download the Norton removal program which will remove Norton entries in the registry. http://www.majorgeeks.com/Norton_Removal_Tool_SymNRT_d4749.html

Then go into Windows Explorer, and delete any Norton and Symantec folders. Also, go to Start?Run/type in msconfig then go to Startup tab, and uncheck anything with Norton or Symantec referenced.

[Powder]

I can't use the norton removal tool on my version (corporate)

[just_a_nobody]

Perhaps you missed one of the registry entries.

[Powder]

I've checked & rechecked. If I missed something then its hiding pretty good.

[just_a_nobody]

Did you go into Windows, and delete anything related to Norton, also, check Program files/Common files, and look in there too.

[Powder]

Yup. I've deleted anything to do with Symantec or Norton from anywhere that I could find it.

[just_a_nobody]

Do you see any processes running in the task manager that relates to them?

[Powder]

Do you see any processes running in the task manager that relates to them?

No processes. Here is where I am so far...

The reason I was getting the auto-protect error in the event viewer was because there was still a service for it on automatic and it was looking for something that wasn't there, so that's why I got the errors. I disabled this and I'm still locking up, but now no errors in event viewer. I'm now convinced that this is not a Norton issue, but still a security issue. Also in add/remove programs, I notice that there was a security update installed 2 days ago. I uninstalled this and it still freezes. In the middle of all this, I caught a BSOD with my audio driver. I think nothing of it, probably just a system hiccup, but I updted that driver anyway.

So now after all this the only thing I can do now is wait and see if it freezes again. If it does, then I'm gonna reseat my RAM. If it still does, I'm gonna turn off my firewall. If it still does, I don't know what I'll do, maybe kill myself just kidding. I'm gonna stop posting now so that I don't get pissed of if my PC freezes again after I typed all this out.

[Powder]

I uninstalled BlackIce 2 days ago and I haven't locked up since. I'll just settle for using the Bit Defender firewall.

[just_a_nobody]

Glad you got it fixed.

[jwenting]

Norton replaces some Microsoft files when you install it with its own and doesn't remove those when you uninstall Norton (at least some Norton products do this, maybe not all).

The ONLY way to get rid of those products is to reinstall Windows from scratch (format harddisk, install Windows), just running a system repair won't do it as the Windows installer won't notice the files are not its own.

[kc0arf]

Hello,

This is one of the few times that I will agree with Mr. Wenting. Formatting and rebuilding from scratch is the only way to remove the Symantec parasite from your system.

Christian

[just_a_nobody]

Perhaps, but I have removed Norton from a lot of computers, but I have never did the corporate version. There are tools at the Norton site that is supposed to uninstall Norton, but it does not do the most thorough job, so removing it, from the registry, was a real hassle, but it worked. I think it was quicker, manually removing Norton, from the registry, rather than doing a complete install.

I hate Norton!