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Norton Antivirus kills another recording !

76.172.194.64
Posted on May 14, 2008 at 10:43:42
Bambi B
Audiophile

Posts: 3304
Location: Los Angeles
Joined: March 24, 2005



PHOTO: My low budget 5'X 8' recording studio, an alcove in the living room. Not visible is the Kawai KG-5C (6'8") and Oktava MC012 microphones. The monitoring amplifier is a 1971 Marantz 2235 receiver, headphones are Sennheiser HD280, power conditioner is a 6.5A Oneac isolation transformer. NEC 3V monitor is from 1993!

Mates,

I have a Dell Pentium 750 running Windows 98 with an M-Audio 2496 Audiophile sound card and 40 and 80GB HDs I use for recording. Sources are either a Yamaha S90 syntheiser or Oktava MC012 mics > Peavey VMP2 tube mic pre> M-Audio 2496. Software is Cakewalk Home Studio 2 XL.

The results with this setup have been quite good- the M-Audio card is amazing for $100, but try as I might, the residual Norton Antivirus on this computer has killed another recording. It insists on intrusive random messages to renew the subscription and starts virus scans in the middle of work. It once stopped a recording, announcing, "an attempt has been made to access your computer" -except this computer has not been connected to the Internet for three years. I can't seem to remove the Norton and turning it off is limited to 15 days- it insists on resurrecting itself to destroy my recordings.

I don't want to start over with the HD- it would take two days- but what can I do to safely remove Norton?

And, what is the best alternative to Norton?

Also, my Dell 2.4 Ghz uses Norton- and as I'm fed up with what seems to be serious resources hogging, what are you happy with for virus protection? I used Mcafee a long while and never had the fuss of intrusiveness I experience with Norton.

TA!

Cheers,

Bambi B

 

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    ...
Run the Norton Removal Tool, posted on May 14, 2008 at 11:15:58
AbeCollins
Audiophile

Posts: 46333
Location: USA
Joined: June 22, 2001
Contributor
  Since: February 2, 2002
 We use the "corporate" edition of Norton antivirus and unlike the retail versions, it doesn't have a fancy GUI and is not nearly the resource hog.

In any case, you can download the Norton Removal Tool from Symantec's website and it will completely remove all the Norton crap on your system.

 

Norton is a wonderful product, posted on May 14, 2008 at 11:27:43
Bruce Kendall
Dealer

Posts: 27050
Location: SoCal
Joined: February 4, 2005
 if your livelihood is dependent upon the sales of Norton Antivirus.

For your Win98 system, you'll have to go into your startup file and change Norton so that it does not start when the computer is turned on. Then you'll have to start your computer again. Use the control panel to remove all of the Norton programs (there are probably three or four individual programs). And last but not least, then you'll have to use Explorer to go through your HDD and manually wipe out all of the Norton program remnants and folders that remain. And be sure to empty the old trash can. ;~)

Norton is designed to be as obnoxious and pesky as possible so that you'll opt to renew instead of getting rid of it. I was so angry with their tactics that I took great delight in the time I spent exorcising it from my computer. As I recall, I sang Klingon war songs throughout the effort.

I use Zone Alarm, although I am not sure if it is compatible with 98.


 

RE: Norton Antivirus kills another recording !, posted on May 14, 2008 at 11:45:23
RGA
Reviewer

Posts: 15177
Location: Hong Kong
Joined: August 8, 2001
 We had Norton and got a virus and had a tech come in - he pulled off the Norton and installed the FREE AVG system - and things have been much better.

I get the same message on my laptop every 14 days so I think I'll do as you and delete it. Pain in the arse system. Mcafee wasn't great either. Plenty of better ones that are less well known. Check some reviews - norton is actually pretty lousy overall in comparison apparently, and more expensive. The Bose of the anti-virus world perhaps.

 

If not 'Net connected, why have an A-V program?, posted on May 14, 2008 at 11:55:18
cdb
Audiophile

Posts: 2948
Joined: April 6, 2001
 NOD32 is my current choice for A-V software, rates very well in tests, is nearly invisible in terms of resource requirements.

 

RE: Norton Antivirus kills another recording !, posted on May 14, 2008 at 12:06:54
Bob Brines
Manufacturer

Posts: 97
Location: Central Arkansas
Joined: March 15, 2006
 Another vote for AVG Free.

Contrary to what was posted below, Norton can be very obtrusive in a commercial environment. I worked for the largest tax preparer this year, and we had Norton Antivirus on our desktops running XP. On the first startup of the week, Norton would do a full scan -- took ~2 hours. I would have to apologize continuously to my clients for the sluggish performance of my computer.

I will never ever allow any Symantics product near my personal computers.

Bob

 

RE: Norton Antivirus kills another recording !, posted on May 14, 2008 at 13:10:44
Caucasian Blackplate
Industry Professional

Posts: 8313
Location: Seattle
Joined: June 18, 2004
 If you're not running Outlook/Outlook epxress or a similar e-mail client off your computer, you likely don't need any intivirus software at all (stick to yahoo!, Gmail, hotmail, etc.). Internet based e-mail scans attachments for you, and you should have no problems. All I would run is a simple spyware guard, there are many available for free.

 

I don't know if this will exactly fit your needs..., posted on May 14, 2008 at 14:41:46
PAR
 ... I ran and hated Norton for a few years then switched to MacAvee which was even worse. I read an article in one of the UK (that's where I am)PC mags which tested a number of competing protection systems and found both of the above almost useless in effectiveness, loads of viruses/spyware were not spotted. They did find that AVG is good (as per other posters to this thread) but equal was Kasperski Labs.

I bought Kasperski and have been knocked out with it. Updates overnight? forget it , Kasperski updates several times a day. Plus (here in the UK) they have a contact facility operated by real people, not just a mechanised response, which is here in the UK - not an Indian call centre.

To your main point; it won't scan the system (except for incoming) unless you instruct it to or schedule it to.

I don't know what the USA situation is for this but if you don't mind buying Russian and the backup is as per the UK - top stuff.

 

RE: Norton Antivirus kills another recording !, posted on May 14, 2008 at 17:49:57
Mag
Audiophile

Posts: 168
Joined: July 27, 2005
 I've had lots of practice with viruses and suspected viruses on my computer. These newer computer however with automatic windows boot throws me off when I need to try and fix something. My old computer was more manual oriented and I knew how to navigate through it, even if it took me a few days.
Anyway IMO your Norton anti-virus program was compromised when you were connected to the web. Some worms attack anti-virus software. Once compromised there is no way to get rid of it with a virus scan as it is hidden in the anti-virus registry.
Even without anti-virus on my computer, I had a virus that remained that would migrate to different folders on my computer and duplicate itself. Very difficult to get rid of without rewriting the hard drive. Initially I tried a free download that scanned my computer. This scan found like 8 worms and a bunch of spyware. Then I tried Stop Sign which picked up 2 more viruses that the first scan didn't detect. However I still this migrating virus that couldn't be eliminated after spending days deleting files.
Finally I re-wrote the hard drives and installed a purchased copy of Stop Sign. With a clean computer this firewall and anti-virus software Stops all attacks. Highly recommended.

 

I Second Kaspersky, posted on May 14, 2008 at 18:17:25
WW85
Audiophile

Posts: 739
Location: NYC
Joined: October 30, 2007
 Far and away the best AV program I've used and has solid reviews from the press.

My last program was Mcafee and it felt like the computer had been taken over by aliens. Norton was almost as annoying. It was like marrying a used car salesmen. Apparently their reminder to renew clock starts the moment you install the program...

Kaspersky on the other hand is unobtrusive and fast and they didn't remind me once to renew until there was less than 10 days to go.

 

Avast Antivirus, posted on May 14, 2008 at 19:30:39
Jonathan
Audiophile

Posts: 620
Location: NE Ohio
Joined: April 10, 2000
 It's free, uses limited resources, and it works.

 

If Norton kills another recording just kill IT., posted on May 14, 2008 at 19:43:14
Topper
Audiophile

Posts: 957
Location: New England
Joined: April 19, 2001
 I KNOW what reaction this might trigger but... just get a mac. Even an old one. Especially if you're using it for recording. I built my own windows machines for twelve years plus and have finally gone over. For the last year I haven't given a thought to virus or Norton or AVG or two hour startup scans. Really. I have the last music based PC that I configured just sitting on the shelf unused. Vista? Who cares. All my friends know I'm not a mac guy but, still, that's what I run now and it frees a lot of time to just do the things that I used to do after the crap of daily dealing with the problems of a PC. There. I said it. Somebody had to.
W

 

Are you sure it's Norton and not one of the others?, posted on May 14, 2008 at 20:02:20
Godzilla.
Dealer

Posts: 1828
Joined: July 1, 2002
 There are a few that look like virus killers but in fact are sneaky software companies infecting your pc just so you buy their product. I solved this with my pc by reformatting the HD. Something i know you don't want to do. Hope you can get it fixed!

 

Optimizing a dedicated audio workstation, posted on May 14, 2008 at 20:41:56
Paul_A
Audiophile

Posts: 2553
Location: New York City
Joined: April 3, 2000
 I have a computer that is dedicated to music / midi and nothing else. The audio related functions can be very demanding of throughput speed, so I have gone out of my way to optimize everything that I can. My sampled piano, Ivory, reads its samples directly from the hard drive as I play. To avoid any dropouts, I put the samples on a separate hard drive used only to store those samples.

I haven't connected the computer to the internet or installed anything that I don't need for music--no printer drivers, no anti-virus, I never set up outlook express or anything else that might poll the operating system. The video card is set to 16 bit color which redraws the screen faster than 24 bit color. I also disabled any Windows services that weren't needed. I've heard that Norton can be hard to remove; it can leave traces even after a disk has been reformatted. I've heard it suggested that to fully remove all traces of Norton, you should repartition the hard drive a few times and then reformat it.

I'm sure that this all sounds draconian, and I'm also sure that it's more than you need to clean things up and get up and running again, but if you have problems with audio drop-outs or hangs, you might want to strip down your system to the bare essentials. The link below has a few tips for speeding up an audio computer, and there are better resources for this sort of thing somwhere on line.

 

Advice buyers of new computers, posted on May 15, 2008 at 07:26:47
Feanor
Audiophile

Posts: 9898
Location: London, Ontario
Joined: June 17, 2003
Contributor
  Since: March 12, 2004
 Not Bambi B's problem exactly, but for new buyers my earnest advice is to immediately delete all Norton programs; also delete all trialware you aren't going to want, especially anything & everything from Microsoft.

I did this on a low-cost computer my mother, (age 89), bought and performance was much improved. I installed AVG free anti-virus and Open Office 2.3 to replace the bloatware.
___
Feanor's list of 250 Core Classical Compositions

 

RE: this, posted on May 15, 2008 at 04:25:05
LousyTourist
 he beat me to it.

Hot ginger and dynamite / There's nothing but that at night / Back in Nagasaki where the fellas chew tobaccy / And the women wicky-wacky-woo.

 

Zone Alarm, posted on May 14, 2008 at 12:32:11
DustyC
Audiophile

Posts: 963
Joined: November 4, 2000
 Good stuff. I have it both both PC's at home.

 

RE: Norton is a wonderful product, posted on May 14, 2008 at 13:41:49
Awe-d-o-file
Dealer

Posts: 21037
Location: 50 miles west of DC
Joined: January 10, 2004
 Yes, well said. They are all a pain pretty much. And they slow things down, especially startup. I don't use any virus protection. I just use hi-kack this, Spybot and a firewall. No problems here. I practice safe use on the net and use Firefox and Proximiton. One XP machine one 98SE machine. Virus software can really suck. My last company had a 5 page tech doc on how to manually remove McAfee as it was f-ing things up.

ET

 

RE: Norton Antivirus kills another recording !, posted on May 14, 2008 at 12:03:51
double28
Audiophile

Posts: 3236
Location: Greensboro, NC
Joined: February 20, 2008
 I will second the free AVG....dumped Norton off every computer in my company and had everyone download the free version of AVG. We should have done this several years and dollars ago. Will

 

RE: Norton Antivirus kills another recording !, posted on May 14, 2008 at 17:42:09
Bigromano
Audiophile

Posts: 935
Location: Manitoba
Joined: April 6, 2005
 LOL, it's funny you mention the free AVG. I started using it last year after my Norton expired. It's been great, not a single problem yet.

 

I agree, posted on May 14, 2008 at 18:36:01
6eye
Audiophile

Posts: 77
Joined: May 6, 2004
 I second NOD32, and then add in the free version of threatfire.

 

A very good point..., posted on May 15, 2008 at 06:36:24
AbeCollins
Audiophile

Posts: 46333
Location: USA
Joined: June 22, 2001
Contributor
  Since: February 2, 2002
 Why even have an anti-virus program if your computer hasn't been connected to the net in 3 years!

As I mentioned toward the very bottom of this thread, there's a Norton Removal Tool available from Symantec as simply using Windows tools to remove it is not sufficient.

 

My slight complications,.., posted on May 15, 2008 at 07:16:52
Bambi B
Audiophile

Posts: 3304
Location: Los Angeles
Joined: March 24, 2005
 cbd,

Yes, of course in it's use for recording, the anti-virus programme is not only useless, it's the problem. The problem is, I need that computer to be completely ready for office use as a backup to my troublesome Windows XP computer. The 40GB main hard drive of the office 2.4 Ghz Dell is full and it's behaving badly. I have to restart it at least twice a day. The signs of unreliability means I need the recording computer to have AutoCad, CoreDraw, Wordperfect, and the Internet/email ready to go.

It's a slightly silly situation that will be cured when I put the new 500GB drive in the office computer and reload everything, but this is always a dreaded two day plunge into frustration. Getting 3 versions of AutoCad (R14, 2000, 2004) set up with the dozens of subtle drawing and display preferences, configure for 6 plotters and printers, plus email and etc. is painful.

Cheers,

Bambi B

 

Yeah, that's what I use (after getting fed up with Norton and McAfee) [NT], posted on May 14, 2008 at 19:59:56
David Spear
 nt

 

I dream of the simple life, posted on May 15, 2008 at 07:37:49
Bambi B
Audiophile

Posts: 3304
Location: Los Angeles
Joined: March 24, 2005
 Paul_A,

Yes, ever since the days of my IBM 486 (with it's 2MB of RAM and 85MB HD- thats' right- I had DOS 6, Windows 3.1, Wordperfect DOS 6, AutoCad DOS 10, CorelDraw 3 and some others with room for files on an 85MB drive)- I've always been frugal with disk space and still try to keep the computer as simple as possible. By the way, adding only 2MB of RAM to the 486 in 1993 cost $180, and 8MB would have $540 -except the 486 except could recognise only 4! I have never used a screensaver and turn off every single automatic feature possible. The recording computer has no power saving running. There are only two icons in the lower right of the startup bar- te M-Audio control panel and of course the dreaded Norton.

However, until I put in the new 500GB main drive in the office computer to cure it's troubles- qurikiness due to full HD- I need the recording computer fully ready as a backup. After that, the Dell 750 will get a fresh start, I'll reformat and have only the Cakewalk recording software, and the Nero CD- writing.

Thanks very much for your considered reply and the links. The ideas for speeding up the old 750 look promising.

Cheers,

Bambi B

 

RE: Norton Antivirus kills another recording !, posted on May 17, 2008 at 18:31:36
Jagdeep
Audiophile

Posts: 701
Location: Asia
Joined: December 3, 2004
 Mate,
I cant really help, but, dump Norton and use PC CillinNorton is a very intrusive software.

 

I second these suggestions (nt), posted on August 8, 2008 at 09:56:23
K-Bob
Audiophile

Posts: 614
Location: Missouri
Joined: December 21, 2000

--

Mucking around the low-end since 1986.

 

Another vote for Avast, posted on March 28, 2010 at 23:43:37
Record Squid
Audiophile

Posts: 118
Location: Portland Oregon
Joined: June 28, 2009
 I have used Avast for over 5 years with nary a virus to date. Norton is a serious resource hog. I've seen quite a few computers brought to their knees trying to run Windows and Norton with to little RAM. Dump Norton and your world will be faster....and safer. The first thing I did when I switched to Avast was run a scan. It picked up a virus that Norton had let through. And it's free.....
Life's A Long Song...

 

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