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View Full Version : NAV Keeps Getting Corrupted...Help!



Clocker
11-30-2002, 08:38 AM
I am ready to rip my hair out (what is left of it at least)!!

I get my cousin-in-law's computer yesterday. It's a ComCrap but it is actually pretty nice. A full featured VIA 693x mobo (lots of PCI slots + an ISA) with front USB & Firewire. P3 550 Mhz with 128MB RAM running Windows 98. Video is provided by a Savage4 AGP video card but it seems to work OK. Sound is from an Aureal unit. It's a Presario 5736.

To start off, the 6X DVD drive died. That was easy to replace.

But, the MAIN problem is/was that the machine was TOTALLY invested with viruses. It was pretty funny, you could not click on any of the Desktop icons because, as you moved toward them, they would run away from the mouse pointer! Needless to say, the owner is NOT a savvy user at all, is connected to the internet, and has never used ANY virus protection. I'm sure he would have just kept chugging along except he could not click on his icons anymore.

I've run the latest F-Prot, Panda, and McAfee scanners on the machine. I stopped counting the number of 'infected' files at around 350. There were at least 15 different viruses found throughout my scans. Many were 'backdoor' Trojans, some were worms, others were plug-ins.

Anyway, I'm trying to install NAV so he has something easy to use and that can update itself automatically. But, when I install NAV and then reboot, a NAV window pops up telling me that some 'unauthorized program' has changed the Synamtec settings and that my machine will be rebooted to ensure I am safe. This viscous cycle will continue until I uninstall NAV.

My guess is that there is some virus lingering that is attacking NAV. I've run the Bugbear and Klex 'removers' available from Symantec. Is there something else I need to do?

Also, I have tried running the various real-time scanners (F-Prot, Panda, Mcafee) in addition to running none of them in the background while installing NAV thinking they might catch the NAV corruptor in action...but no success there, either.

I'd really appreciate any help you guys could provide. I want to give this computer back to my wife's cousin with a clean bill of health

Fushigi
11-30-2002, 09:25 AM
The corruption may be happening on shutdown or startup. Try using msconfig to strip out everything possible from the startup sequence.

The mbr might even be infected. I don't recall anymore .. doesn't fdisk/mbr rebuild the mbr without destroying the data?

If possible, I'd wipe & re-install from a bootable CD. That's the only guaranteed way of ridding the system of viruses.

- Fushigi

Clocker
11-30-2002, 09:56 AM
Thanks for your reply.

It turns out that NAV was not completly uninstalling correctly and I needed to run the programs mentioned here first (SymClean & RNAV):

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nsw.nsf/0533647e100ff708852567d30045246e/f59c599bf952610988256b600082d6df?OpenDocument

Now NAV is working OK.

If you want a good laugh...take a look at the inside of my wife's cousin's system. THe dirtiest thng I have ever seen. I'm amazed it work perfectly....

Dirty (http://www.wideopenwest.com/~kharper/s1.jpg)

Dirty Dirty (http://www.wideopenwest.com/~kharper/s2.jpg)

Dirty Dirty Dirty (http://www.wideopenwest.com/~kharper/s3.jpg)

SteveC
11-30-2002, 12:24 PM
Dirty (http://www.wideopenwest.com/~kharper/s1.jpg)

Dirty Dirty (http://www.wideopenwest.com/~kharper/s2.jpg)

Dirty Dirty Dirty (http://www.wideopenwest.com/~kharper/s3.jpg)
Yep, that is dirty! I've seen a couple of machines close to that, but none worse.

Fushigi
11-30-2002, 01:11 PM
At one place I used to work, the PC in the warehouse distribution office would get so caked in dirt & grime that it'd stop working every 6 months or so. I'd open it up and vacuum it out; afterwards it'd be fine for the next 6 months until the accumulation got to be too much again. Basically, about 1/2 inch of dust/soot/grime would coat the mobo & parts of the power supply.

- Fushigi

Handruin
11-30-2002, 05:21 PM
If you want a good laugh...take a look at the inside of my wife's cousin's system. THe dirtiest thng I have ever seen. I'm amazed it work perfectly....

Dirty (http://www.wideopenwest.com/~kharper/s1.jpg)

Dirty Dirty (http://www.wideopenwest.com/~kharper/s2.jpg)

Dirty Dirty Dirty (http://www.wideopenwest.com/~kharper/s3.jpg)

For this exact reason I just vacuumed out my PC last night. It took me about an hour because I had to disassemble my hard drives inside the removable cages. My machine wasn't nearly as bad as that one, but I had quite a bit of dust. I usually take my machines apart once a year to vacuum out the dust.

Pradeep
12-01-2002, 05:18 PM
I have a sorta similar problem. I have a 90 day trial version of NAV 2002. No matter what I do when uninstalling NAV 2002 (including uninstalling LiveReg and LiveUpdate), when I reboot, then reinstall NAV it gives me the same old date for my expired "subscription". Anyone know what key in the registry it is using? I tried ripping out everything there but to no avail.

TIA.

Mercutio
12-01-2002, 07:27 PM
There are very comprehensive directions for removing NAV on symantec's web site. I've had to do it by hand many, many times. I believe there are 8 or 10 branches of the registry to prune as well as some directories and files. There's also an automated tool for getting rid of it, but it does not work very well.

I don't understand why symantec can't write an (un)installer that works.