Irony abounds: Norton Anti-virus Update cripples millions of machines
Anti-virus software is ubiquitous these days, and for good reason. Norton makes some of the industry’s most robust and widely used anti-virus software. Viruses are ever-changing and anti-virus software requires frequent and diligent updates to remain current against attacks. It seems, however, as if Norton’s most recent update has caused far more trouble than good. Released and implemented last Friday, May 18th, the update seems to have caused random unexpected system crashes in millions of affected PCs. The most common symptom is a blue screen of death, followed by an error prompt. Ouch! Norton has confirmed the incident, blaming "improper handling of upgrading Antivirus software" (huh?) and promising a fix as soon as humanly possible. While Norton certainly deserves some kudos for their quick reaction, the question remains: How could something like this happen in the first place? Has anyone up here on BGR been affected?
[Via FareastGizmos]
nope – not here
thank god for my mac.
No – NOD32.
Avg free, not the best (nod) but also not the worst.
Nope, NOD32 here. I left Norton a year ago, used to be their fan. But in these years, why have faith in something that you have to wait long time and might never happened. There are so many products out there. just like wireless provider, they let you down, move on to another.
I have experienced the Blue Screen recently but believe that was before 5/18. I experiened my svchost.exe hogging memory after I installed a Maxtor Backup program for a new external hard drive. Found plenty of writings on Net for this issue. Removed and reinstalled and problem was gone. Still receiving the Blue Screen. Now I am wondering if it was more on the Norton side. Will let you know if I find out more.
From what I have read on other websites, only the Chinese version of Windows XP is affected – where two system files (lsasrv.dll and netapi32.dll) are falsely detected as viruses and resulting in the BSOD.
I use BitDefender. No Norton or McAfee here. I used Avg Free for a bit but it never caught anything and hosed my box at one point where it wouldn’t boot normally until I removed it.
This is why I dont use Norton or any of the other “robust and widely used” ones. AVAST! Its free!
Yeah i was a Norton fan at one time, but I wised up and are now using NOD32!
I went through multiple crashes and reinstalls with Symantec Norton 360. I narrowed the problem to one update, Symantec Trusted Applications List download. Everything looked ok, indicator showed completion, and then, boom, blue screen. I went through describing this in online chat with Symantec seven times, and finally got the classic response. Do not update that. So I won’t.
Yes, caused my system to crash 1 day after I uninstalled it and installed another anti virus program.
Installed 360, and I got the Blue screen death. Can’t even startup in Safe Mode to delete it nor do msconfig!! Stay away from Norton 360!!
After installing Norton 360 I get the blue screen of death daily, generally game UT and run so so, randomly shuts down IE without warning or not explaination, I guess Norton thinks I been online enough. On the blue screen all I every see is:
Stop: 0×000008E ( blah blah blah blah……..)
Win32K.sys address BF837895 base at BF800000 Datestamp 45F013F6
memory dump
blah blah blah blah
Anyone speak this lanuage? I guess I should have stayed awake in class. Wonder which class that was?