Norton problem

My wife and I use NIS 2010 along with some other software and have never had a serious problem.
When I first went to install it I had to get customer service involved and they were great.
So when my friend asked what we were using, because he was having problems, I suggested NIS 2010.
NIS has yet to update. His pc has slowed to a crawl. There is the possibility of a trojan called 'explorer.exe' from what I've been told.
Norton customer service is refusing to help him, even though he has only had it on his pc for a few days, unless he pays them for the help.
I haven't heard of this before, where Norton will refuse help to a new client.
In the mean time, his pc is virtually useless due to the problems.
Does anybody here have any experience with this type of problem with Norton.
And I will no longer recommend them to anyone.
Thanks for any help.
Hugger

 

Bearing in mind that according to Symantec's terms your friend is entitled to a refund up to 60 days after purchase it might be worth informing Norton customer service of that fact.

 

andyman35,
Thanks. I already suggested that.
Hugger

 

I'm sorry to hear that.
You and your friend should use free security products, and you will get a better support from their communities (most free products have big communities ready to help), anyway the best support that you can get with a security problem is here in wilders. The Tech support (call support) of many paid AV's consist in low paid non professional workers from developing countries

 

Hugger, did you try booting your PC with the Norton Bootable Recovery Tool CD disc (available from the Symantec website), performing a scan, and removing any malware? It’s possible that your disappointing product experience may be due to the existence of prior malware installed on the PC.

 

Some of the comments that have been above above mine aren't very productive . There are two things involved here - one is "slow down after Norton has been installed" ; second is - "malware infection".
Each and every real professional would tell you that these might be connected.

If you contact Norton Support and tell them "I think I have a malware on my computer" , the first thing they will want you to do is transfer you to a special dept. that deals with this (asks you to pay). Why? Because Symantec has a paid service . It is another question,though , that they might also mention that you are entitled to free possibilities , too such as Norton Community (forum) or Norton Recovery (bootable disk)

The refund is valid if you have bought the product from Symantec directly . If it was from a local store or something like that , forget about a refund.

So Hugger , don't blame Symantec so fast and slow down about the refund . Trust me , I am well aware of the Support departments of many security vendors and Symantec offer one of the best . I would suggest you or your friend try to clean the infection using

• Norton version 2010
• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
• Norton Recovery tool

Additionally , optimize . Defragment the hard drives and use programs like CClenaer.

At the end , if still a problem with malware , contact a special forum such as MBAM forum , Aumha , Spybot forum ,Bleepingcomputer and other to professional malware cleaning.

If Norton is still slowing down then you might ask for a refund. This is what I think.

Have a great day!

 

Very good idea paid for norton and them use Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware for clean the computer if actually the pc is infected. xD

My advice:
Start the pc in safe mode, uninstall norton, install Malwarebytes and avast free, scan the computer with both, enable the windows firewall or install only comodoFW, and them restart the computer and get your refund and spend the money something else.
If avast and Malwarebytes find malware you can also try with the demo version of prevx or hitman pro after avast and Malwarebytes for check if the computer is still infected

 

well symantec forum too doles out the same advice...and its been mentioned before that one of the tools used by norton support is mbam

i'd throw in hitman pro too in the mix

 

If you use Norton, you cannot run it alone for 2 reasons. Firstly, they are slower than most in signature updates. Secondly, it is poor in cleaning malware infections. It's strength is initial detection and blocking the malware. If it misses it, your in trouble.
Just another example why it is so important to use virtualization and/or a backup strategy and put minimal reliance on AV solutions.

 

This is pointless . All you say is to change the antivirus . That's not needed.

Your advice is useless because a novice user won't be able to install all these applications such as PrevX or HitMan.

 

A novice user is not able to install PrevX and is able to install NIS? have you ever "installed" Prevx or hitman? I think you dont know what are you talking about

I think that even a 5 years old child can install prevx and hitman since you dont need to install it, just open it, and press a big button called scan.

He doesn't need to change AV? jajajaja of course is better keep NIS and dont use the computer because a process is eating the 100% of the CPU with NIS installed

 

norton is very good actually at cleaning. what i would suggest is to download dr web cure it, as well as hitman pro to start with. run both to see if they do find anything nis2010 missed. and explorer.exe is not always a virus either why do you believe it is?

also you said it has not updated. have you tried to update it manually? and did you try in safe mode with networking option picked. norton will offer support for some things as some companies do but also charge for major help which a lot of companies also do. they must consider this to be past the normal help line. i could also suggest getting a different rep from norton involved. try the online chat and start over fresh with them. most of the time even if they consider if to be beyond their normal assistance they will still help anyway

 

Yes.

I do know what I am talking about.

No,you are wrong. A 3 year old child can do that.

Norton doesn't eat 100% CPU




http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/performance-tests



The OP initially posts about one thing , however some members of this forum have turned the discussion into one products against other product.

 

Thanks for all the feedback.
I may not have stated it properly in my original post.
This problem really is on my friends pc.
However, he does not live close to me so I can't go over there and try to fix it or break it more.
I'm trying to locate him so that I can try to talk him through some of the ideas from your posts.
He already has MBAM free on his pc.
Norton appears to be having trouble updating because of a slowdown online in general. I believe the slowdown is caused by something else he did.
I have also suggested he disable or remove Norton or use system restore to try to get to a point where the pc was working better.
He had Avira free on it but removed it before downloading Norton.
He also decided to remove MS One Care and now has the scanner running full blast-a known problem with removing One Care.
I suggested he reinstall One Care and then just set it to only scan on demand.

Question-is 'explorer.exe' really a trojan? I don't remeber reading about it.
Thanks.
Hugger

 

You are so funny xD

I think that I dont need to reply this.

Yes of course... xD

So I was right? a 3 year old child can do it and Hugger's friend cant?
I think that nobody knows why you say that he wont be able to install Hitman or Prevx, It was so difficult for you?

This is the best, jeje, you lost your time taking 2 screenshots showing that NIS dont use the 100% xD but I think that everybody knows that xD, totally useless because everybody knows that should be some conflict with another software or just some malware that doesn't like NIS.

Could you tell please where I said NIS vs something? I would like to read this too.

 

Probably will not be a malware, maybe is a conflict with any other software.
Which OS are your friend using? he keeps the OS update?
He should try to scan with hitman pro and MBAM before install a new AV

explorer.exe is a safe process, is the process that manage the windows desktop so I would say that is a conflict with NIS but also could be a fake name of a malware.
Your friend can try to make an integrity check of the windows files http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/verify-the-integrity-of-windows-vista-system-files/

 

For a story eerily similar to the one reported in this thread, please see the recent PC Magazine article: Analyst's View: You Deserve Better Support.

 

I think a few people are missing the point here.It's not so much that Hugger's friend is experiencing issues since installing NIS,that can happen sometimes,it's the generally unhelpful attitude of those at customer "support".They refused to help a customer that only paid them a substantial amount a few days before,unless he pays even more cash for the privilege,that is unacceptable by any reasoning.Whether this issue is down to NIS or the result of an existing malware infection is almost secondary to the poor service offered.

I suggested that he remind Symantec of his refund rights since it's amazing how often companies suddenly change their attitude when faced with losing money.

 

He's using XP Pro and I don't have a clue if it's up to date or not. Though, honestly, I'd be surprised if it was.
He's not called me back yet so I have nothing new to offer.
Thanks for your help.
Hugger

 

You're right.
It's virtually identical.
Thanks for the link.
Hugger

 

.
In order for any of us to offer helpful suggestions we would need to be given more information - exactly what security software is currently installed on the PC? You mentioned he removed Avira, but did it uninstall completely? You said he also attempted to remove OneCare, but it sounds like it didn't uninstall properly. Just based on this partial information I'd suggest he uninstall NIS and not reinstall it until he sorts out the problem with OneCare and makes sure there are no other apps that can cause conflicts.

 

He has just told me that he uninstalled NIS.
I gave him the suggestions and offered to drive up there, he's in another state, this weekend if he wanted me to.
I thank all of you for your help.
For now I'm going to sit back and see what he wants to do.
He is my friend for many years, however, he's also a good bit older than me and a bit set in his ways.

 

Hello Hugger!

Is this your friend (John?) posting over Norton forums ?
http://community.norton.com/t5/Nort...ing-trojan-quot-explorer-exe-quot/td-p/209380

This post in NC describes exactly what you post about here at Wilders.

 

3GUSER,
Yes that's him.
However, I don't know how he comes up with '28 days' when he only asked me what I was using last week.
I'm going to just let him sit for awhile. He told me this afternoon that NIS was off his system and he put Avira back on it.
Thanks for the link. I can keep track of this now.
Hugger