NOD32/nVidia nForce 4 Ultra/Creative X-FI Issue

All,

I've just upgraded my AV to NOD32 from Norton AV 2006. At first the install was fine, but after about 5 mins, my StyleXP theme started to revert back to the Win 2K desktop (I'm using XP with SP2). The main issue is that I have a Creative X-Fi sound card and WMP10. With Norton AV2006 all my music tracks played fine through WMP10/X-Fi but with NOD32 WMP10 crashes with a 'you don't have a sound card to play music on' type error. My volume control in the system bar says I don't have a mixer configured on the system. If I reboot all is ok for a few mins then back to the issue noted above.

I have a nForce 4 Ultra motherboard and use active armour (nVidia's hardware accelerated firewall). I suspect there is a conflict somewhere, but don't know where to start looking. I have reloaded Norton AV2006 and with no changes to system settings all works fine.

Could I ask if anyone has had similar problems with NOD32 or could advise on where to investigate for a resolution. As far as I am concerned I would like to stay with NOD32 as it is significantly faster and my PC is more responsive but if it keeps trashing my WMP10 music and video playback then its gotta go.

Thanks and Rgds

Martyn

 

Are you certain that you completely uninstalled Norton? It is a difficult task to accomplish most of the time.

 

Hi,

I also used RegSupreme Pro to remove any lingering traces.

M

 

I don't know anything about the registry cleaner you used, but maybe these links will help?

Norton Removal Tool Updated

Using the Norton uninstall tool

 

Elwood,

Thanks. I'll give these a try and see what happens

Rgds

Martyn

 

You're welcome, good luck.

 

if Elwood's links dont help, id try uninstalling/reinstalling ur x-fi drivers.

 

I reckon there used to be a lot of problems with Nvidia's firewall, not only with regard to NOD32.

 

Make sure your X-Fi has been flashed to the latest firmware edition; Creative might have to flash it for you. There are numerous issues between the bottom two X-Fi cards and nForce4 chipsets, with each party blaming the other. I don't think NOD32 is the whole of the problem, it just exascerated symptoms caused by the incompatible hardware.

And as for ActiveArmor, it's a memory pit and conflict generator supreme. You're honestly better off with a third party software firewall.

 

Ok,

I've carried out a full un-install of NAV 2006 with the tools provided on the Symantec website. I have tried a number of different virus checkers (Avast, PC-Chillin, AVG and NAV2006) and did not experience any issues with my Creative X-Fi card.

I tried calling the help desk this afternoon who advised to try stopping each of the (x)MON's. This I tried and the culprit seems to be AMON. I've tried exempting my Program Files folder (Long and 8 character filenames), this seems to work for about 5 mins then issue re-occurs. I've un-installed and then re-installed the latest Creative drivers , issue remains after about 5 mins use. What's worth noting is that when I play a DVD or play an avi file, I get video but no sound.

StyleXP is not more stable, but will revert to Win2K style for the NOD32 control centre window.

Any further ideas?

Yours

Confused

 

Do me a favor, can you provide me with:

Motherboard brand/model; CPU; driver versions (motherboard and xfi)

I have a couple things I'd like to check.

 

Actually from intel i gathered, the problem is limited solely to nForce4 mobo and Creative X-Fi soundcard. NOD32 has nothing to do with it.

 

I thought that's what I said?

It's too bad... The XFi series is amazing, and so are nForce4 chipsets. You'd think they'd want to work harder at making them work together eh...

 

AshG,

I've gone back to Norton AV2006 as I use the PC for work. As an experiment, I un-installed the NOD32 Av software, the Network Access Manager (nVidia's firewall) and the Creative Drivers. I then reloaded the Network Access Manager and the Creative Driver. I had no reported issues, therefore I don't feel the comments that the issue is between the nVidia nForce 4 Mobo and the X-Fi is warranted in my case.

What I did notice though, was that when NOD32 was installed, no messages were being logged within the Firewall logs about applications loading and attempting to access the network. I also noticed that when NOD32 was loaded, the nVidia firewall did not present a dialogue box asking for an action i.e. permit/deny. I suspect the issue is a low level issue somwhere

I have spoken with Aspect-Systems in the UK (NOD32's distributer and Helpdesk). Mark was very helpful. We tried disabling the AMON (but leaving NOD32 running). What was interesting was that the fault then occurerd, however if I unloaded NOD32 the fault disappeared.

As it stands, I would much prefer to use NOD32 as its memory (RAM) footprint is very low (about 200Mb lower) and at bootup I only have 28 processes (2 for NOD32) running against the 38 for Norton (about 10 for Norton) and its bloody fast (790K files scanned in 46Mins as against about 1hr 15mins+ for NAV2006). But the bottom line is what works and what doesn't. NAV 2006 works out of the box (as did the PC-Chillin trial I tried just to prove one way or another about the nForce 4/X-Fi compatability) and NOD32 doesn't on my system at least.

Motherboard - Gigabyte nForce 4 Ultra GA-K8N Ultra 9
Driver - nVidia Forceware 6.70
Creative X-Fi Premium - wHQL - 5.12.14.1144

Thanks

Martyn

 

Its a Creative Platinum not a premium

Rgds

Martyn

 

in solving this x-fi/nforce4 issue, creative labs first recommends updating ur BIOS. in failing that, u can contact creative support (make sure to include ur mobo model and bios version).

 

I run a NF3 Ultra chipset with an Audigy X-Fi Platinum and Nod32, no issues here.

 

nforce3 doesnt have the x-fi conflict.

 

Yeah, no kidding. I heard it was so awful that when I built my new nForce 4 Ultra-based PC recently, I didn't bother installing it when I was installing the chipset drivers.

I'm planning to get an X-Fi card soon, so I'll have to keep an eye out for any potential problems with my mobo (a Foxconn NF4UK8AA-8EKRS).

 

Ok,

I tried everything suggest above. No joy. As a last resort I re-build my computer and installed NOD32 before any nVidia drivers. This cured the volume issue, but created another in that I did not have application level control of my nVidia firewall.

I've decided that although NOD32 is a fantastic AntiVirus software, it just isn't working for me and I'm not going to install a software firewall when I have a hardware accelerated one to play with with 0% CPU time. (my preference). So its back with Norton AV2006 for the time being in that with the launch of Windows Vista, and with the driver model changes I hope that NOD32 and the nVidia drivers will work together.

Thanks for all you suggestions

Rgds

Martyn

 

I'm really glad I have a router.

I don't remember reading anything exceptional about the built in firewall anyways, but I can understand your frustration, regardless.

 

For some strange reason, following a Creative x-Fi driver update I decided to uploaded the latest version of Nod32 (v2.7). With some trepidation I unloaded my copy of AVG 7.5Professional (which I felt was the only real alternative to Nod32 for speed and resource usage) and installed Nod32.

About 2-3 mins after uninstalling AVG, rebooting and installing Nod32 I checked the volume control to 'see' of the problem remained as detailed in the earlier posts. To my surprise the latest driver updates (or could it be the latest version of Nod32 as I originally used v2.5) 'appear' to have cured the issue.

I've now been using Nod32 for over 2 weeks with no issues and love the scanning speed and lightweight resource footprint.

Rgds

Martyn