Norton AntiVirus problems
 

I am having problems with Norton Antivirus 2001.

I keep getting this message at logon (see the attached screenshot). I can logon as normal and everything seems to be working OK (apart from NAV). If I try and enable the auto protection from the main program screen, it still displays the same message and does not work.

I had this problem last time around (before I decided to reinstall Windows 2000 because of this very problem). Last time I tried to deinstall/reinstall but that did not appear to work. It would stop when it tried to reinstall the NAV Services and would say that it could not be installed and terminate.

No amount of removing/reinstalling could get it to work and I was left with no antivirus software.

Before anyone says it, I will not change AV program to anything else or upgrade it, as I do not trust free antivirus software and cannot stand the bloat of versions of NAV above 2001.

I have googled for an answer, but all the pages I find are ones written in another language (Russian or Thai ?!) or those dealing with hardware configurations (RAID) that I do not have.

I am running Windows 2000 Professional SP4

EDIT - Attached screenshot from Event Viewer.

Thanks :)

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

the only thing I've come across that prevents NAV working like this is a virus. I know you said that you don't trust the free ones, but it may be an idea to try one like AVG & scan your hard disk with that & see what it comes up with. You could also try scanning with Adaware or Spybot. My thinking is that something has altered a registry entry that is staying "sticky" even when you uninstall and that is preventing NAV from working when re-installed.

- or I could be barking up totally the wrong tree altogether :) (I use McAfee).

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

I'm guessing that the service is trying to run as a specific account, do you have anything in event viewer that indicates that it couldn't start do to a logon failure?

Although the error would indicate that it couldn't find the files - did you use the default directories for installation?

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

I have heard that if you uninstall and then reinstall norton, it won't work or has difficulties working because of files or registry settings left behind from the uninstall process and that the only wat around it was to format the h/d and start again. Drastic I know.

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

there should never be a necessity to wipe a hard disk because of 'sticky' registry setting. There are plenty of tools around that can sort this out, one of the best is one called jv16 Power Tools, unfortunately this used to be free, but the latest version has to be paid for.

you should still be able to get the free version at this link

http://www.pcmedixwebs.com/jv16.htm

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

Last time around, I used the rnis program and tried to reinstall NAV and encountered the same problems that I described in post #1, so nothing had changed.

The result, I had to wipe and reinstall everything which took a long time :cry:

Nothing. The only other things I get related to NAV is the one attached to this post.

Yes. It is located in e:\program files\norton antivirus\

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

Hi ya! I have had this problem myself a while ago, it is quiet easy to fix (well it was for me) hopefully for you too, what it is the virus definitions have became currupted.
1, make sure that the auto protect is turned off
2, start windows explorer, and navigate to the following folder:C:\programs\common files\symantec shared\virusDefs
3,in the right pane, locate the numbered folders.They will look something like this 20000713.068 20010118.008 etc
4,Delete each one.DO NOT Delete any of the other folders!!
5,close windows explorer
6,click start,point to search,and then click files or folders
7,make sure that look is set to (C:)
8,in the "search for files or folders named" box type or copy and paste the following, and then click search now
livetri.zip settings.liveupdate
9,Delete any files that are found!!
10, now run liveUpdate to download new virus definitions

if you follow the steps you should have norton up and running again!

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

if you asked me Norton is a waste of space
usually peddled to an unknowing buyer at PC world
by a salesman

it causes so much aggro and alters so many settings
behaving like a server etc

that you are porbably better off just having the virus
and downloading the cure

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

norton can cause some problems if not set correctly! but it does do a good job!!

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

Well I've tried that and although NAV definitions do install, but they do not seem to install, as a subsequent LiveUpdate causes it to download them agin.

Also, my NAV window has changed as well. When I click to see the contents of the quarantine, it says it cannot find the quarantine. When I click to see the date of the NAV definitions, it says it cannot find them and that they may have been corrupted, even after a manual application from the Symantec website and download on LiveUpdate

EDIT - forgot the attachment. D'oh!

:cry:

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

another alternative is to uninstall norton, then reinstall with a different path/folder ie NAV1, then try updating the defs again!

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

Symantec do have a tool on their website to clear your computer of any keys and stuff left over, but I cant seem to find the link right now.

To be honest I run 2003 and have only had one episode of this in the past but I just restored back a ghost of my C: partition from a backup I took the week before.

I have read about this on Symantec's website and IIRC it was a virus that causes it (it was 8ish months ago so I could be remembering wrong). I think a reinstall is gonna be your only option I'm afraid. :(

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

from your screen shot i notice that you also had a virus 14 days ago! was this the time that norton started to play up? also if you type in to symantecs web site on the support page (unable to initialize the virus scanning engine database files) there are a lot of topics which can help

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

Just to update you on the situation, I decided to manually deinstall Norton Antivirus with the aid of an article from the Symantec support site. After a reboot, NAV reinstalled successfully and is now not having any problems - yet!

Touch wood that nothing else happens ;)

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

thanks for letting us know - glad you got it sorted :tu:

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

Aaahhh....maybe I spoke too soon.

I've just rebooted and the problem has come back yet again. It was fine after I rebooted after the installation though. :cry: :blush:

AARRRGGHHH!!!!!!

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems part III
 

It's come back again ...

"NAVAPSVC.EXE" always crashes when logging on and the autoprotect does not work. If I try and start it manually via services it displays the same "could not initialise NAVAP device" box on screen. :mad:

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

Get rid of Norton. Get something else like Sophos or AVG. I have found a way around Sophos, you can go onto their website and get a username and password that lasts 30 days, then every 30 days you register for a new one and they say you can keep registering which I do and I have never had any problems.

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

Hmm ... I've been tempted to, but I'm a bit sceptical of AVG as an antivirus software product, as it is free. Surely, there has to be a catch, such as disabled and/or limited features etc?

They used to use Sophos at the college I go to. The UI wasn't too nice. They also seem to update their definitions monthly from what I can gather from their website - is this something to be worried about, seeing as NAV update theirs daily. :shocked:

I have a copy of Mcafee Virusscan (enterprise edition) v7. Does this offer email scanning? :confused:

I refuse to install the latest NAV and Mcafee products on my system because of their bloatedness.

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

Yes it does :)

Mcafee doesn't seem bloated to me :shrug:

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

Try Avast anti-virus :)

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

AVG works fine here :confused: daily updates and so far it has yet to let me down when people have emailed me attachments without realising they are infected :D It may be free but it works well ;)

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems part III
 

Have you tried this -

Error: "Could not initialize NAVAP device. Unable to get drive status"

Situation:
When Norton AntiVirus (NAV) Auto-Protect loads, you see the error message "Could not initialize NAVAP device. Unable to get drive status." When you open the Event Viewer, you see the error message "NAVAP - unable to determine the location of the virus definition files."

Solution:
To solve this problem, try each of the solutions listed below until the problem is solved:

NOTE: These solutions assume that you are familiar with, and have necessary rights to use, some of the advanced features of Windows NT. If that is not the case, then contact your network administrator.


Check the Event Viewer. In some cases, additional error messages that point to the cause of this problem will be logged to the Event Viewer at the same time as the error messages described in this document.
Verify permissions. The user must have full control rights to the hard drive.
Run Windows NT diagnostics. Make sure that the hard drives are not reporting zero bytes free.
Run Disk Administrator. When it runs for the first time, Disk Administrator generates a new signature. This may resolve the problem if no signature was created previously.
Start NAV to ensure that the user interface loads. If it does not, then uninstall and reinstall NAV.
If you have a hardware RAID, confirm that the controller is not locking the drive. (A hardware RAID uses a separate controller card.)
Open the registry and navigate to the following subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\LanmanServer\Parameters

Increase the decimal value of IRPStackSize to 11
For additional information, see the document Error: "Failed the Call to NAVSTATInit" and "Unable to Get Drive Status" when Loading Auto-Protect.
Confirm that a Temp variable exists and that it is pointing to a valid folder. Delete temporary files.
Make sure that the swap file is large enough and that, if it is not a fixed size, that there is enough room on the hard drive on which it is located.
Open the registry and navigate to the following sub-key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Symantec\Shared Defs.

The following entries should be present, and pointing to the same valid directory:
NAV_50_QUAR
NAVNT_50_AP1
NAVNT_50_AP2
NAVNT_50_NAVW

If none of these solve your problem, then uninstall and then reinstall NAV.

Taken from here

Also if you have recurring problems with Auto Protect take a look at me post here

:D

Edit scratch part 2 of my post as it appears you have NAV 2001.

:D

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems
 

I'd get over your skepticism and go for AVG. :)

Even though I did pay for the v7 licence, even then it was quite cheap, still nothing wrong with v6. :D

Re: Norton AntiVirus problems part III
 

No such entries in my log I'm afraid. Although I do recall these being the problem last time. Deinstalling and reinstalling it fixed it temporarily but it just kept coming back again. And even reinstalling it was a right bitch - it took about several attempts to get it to install as a fatal error would happen every time!

If I try and open the main NAV window it just crashes saying "NMain.exe has generated errors blah blah blah".

All I get in the system log is the following:

Also I have various problems with other programs since doing a reboot - Neotrace crashes with an error when opened, the computer loses internet connectivity randomly and ends up with a 0.0.0.0 IP address, when attempted to be renewed just hangs the computer and after you get this IP address, the computer hangs if you try and reboot it, shut it down or press ctrl-alt-del to bring up the task manager/security screen. And yes, I have applied that JPEG patch - my reason for the reboot!

Could this be a virus? :disturbd:

I've now installed Mcafee Virusscan Enterprise v7 and I find it's quite good. The antivirus email scanning does take a bit of getting used to though - it has a habit of just deleting the attachment and inserting lots of text into the email and subject title. Surely it could be a bit more subtle like NAV was?!

Hopefully with time I should be able to 'tame' the beast! :p: