Whats Wrong with my computer!?

Question

Sigh...

Having to fix my parents computer..

Norton systemworks is installed on this pc, i turn it on, log in and i get several messages about norton files being corrupted or missing. I am unable to uninstall it. When bringing up the add/remove page, it wont ever list all the programs for uninstall/etc. The computer will freeze if i click on the start menu tab. Ive been running new tasks using task manager though. Ive disabled norton from popping up with its error msgs. Ive ran ad-Aware, ewido, Kaspersky to search for virus/spyware. It will stop scanning after a certain time and remain stuck at that point.

In event viewer for system "the hard drive has a bad block" theres a event with this every second lol

Ive used disk defrager, disk cleanup,

Scandisk/chckdisk indicates nothing wrong, neither does Hard drive inspector (one of my tools)

Not sure where to proceed from here...

Answer 1

Well, Norton is notarious for creating havoc on machines, slowing them down, corrupted files. They used to be the best - and they've gotton too invasive with system files. This is what I would do:
1) uninstall norton
2) clean disk & defrag
3) go to ms config in Start/Run and go to Start-up tab and stop Norton from running (now test your computer)
4) Bad block can mean real hard drive problem. Scandisk doesn't find them all. I went to my mfg site and downloaded their hard drive tester (on a floppy but I'm sure you could put on boot CD) and booted with it. It had 5 levels of test.....on the 3rd level, it found the problem and the message said "error found - is fixable - would you like to fix it?". I said yes and had no problems after that. Wouldn't hurt to do that anyway.

Answer 2

Quite tough situation
pm [e-mail] 4 more info

Two possibilities:
1. Your system has crashed. Norton installed a wide set of DLLs and Tools which will stop system from respondin on crash. The only thing u can do if u r not familiar with RC (Recovery Console) is to re-install Windows (from boot)

2. You HDD may have Bad Sectors. It is caused by time (about 4 years) or by physical harm. This is much worse, I recommend to replace ur HDD in this case.

Bad Sectors can be blocked by Scandisk's through search and Norton Disk Doctor (NDD). By blocking them, u may speed up ur system. When u reach bad sectors, ur system stops responding for a few minutes, and HDD sounds special.

Don't 4get best answers;)

Answer 3

This question ain't stupid it happens often that latest threats or trojans comes with many facilities and destructive ability some of them are undetectable and has a built in Function to disable antivirus and byepass Firewall so this infection must be with your Pc, Try Scanning your Pc with norton and Ewido in Safe Mode

or Download and Install Deep Freeze if you were having malware problem then this will surely remove threat.
(you may search for downloading in google, it's free or you can download it from here to - http://www.plundered.org

Answer 4

try reinstalling nortons that may help or see if you can run the nortons disk doctor and defrag that may work otherwise it seems you may have to format the harddrive to get rid of nortons.

Answer 5

Reinstall Nortons. Reboot, then run add/remove on the app.

Answer 6

You may have to resort to formatting the hard drive and reinstalling the OS.

Good Luck

Answer 7

wow---

you need to fix the registry(that's were record of all installed or not installed programs files types is stored)
The best tool for that is RegistryMechanic

Answer 8

This is probably a silly question but have you tried doing all that in Safe Mode?

Answer 9

Take it back to the computer store.Call first.

Answer 10

try ccleaner... its avalable @ www.download.com. it helps. good luck!