I posted this under my previous post and thought it would be better as a new
post.

Now I have a new problem. I have an icon in the taskbar with an exclamation
mark. When I click on it the message tells me I haven't scanned in 3 days.
When I click on scan now I get the following error message:
Windows Defender encountered an error: 0x80004003. Invalid Pointer.
I tried searching Microsoft for this and also Google, to no avail. Anyone
know what the problem is?

>I posted this under my previous post and thought it would be better as a
>new
> post.
>
> Now I have a new problem. I have an icon in the taskbar with an
> exclamation
> mark. When I click on it the message tells me I haven't scanned in 3
> days.
> When I click on scan now I get the following error message:
> Windows Defender encountered an error: 0x80004003. Invalid Pointer.
> I tried searching Microsoft for this and also Google, to no avail. Anyone
> know what the problem is?

Hi,

I had the same situation. Just go to Scan menu, select Custom scan, select
some folders and do scanning on them. The error should disappear (also the
WD icon from the tray) for three next days, I suppose, or until you enable
automatic scans (in Tools, General settings).

--
Pozdrawiam serdecznie / Kind regards
Mikolaj Kaminski
MS-MVP, Poland

I decided to uninstall and reinstall the program. After I did, I couldn't get
the check for updates to work. I came back to this site and found the answer
in a post directing to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/915105. I did that and
now it seems to be working again. Thank you all for your advice; I'll try
more if it starts acting up again!!!

"lou g" wrote:

> I posted this under my previous post and thought it would be better as a new
> post.
>
> Now I have a new problem. I have an icon in the taskbar with an exclamation
> mark. When I click on it the message tells me I haven't scanned in 3 days.
> When I click on scan now I get the following error message:
> Windows Defender encountered an error: 0x80004003. Invalid Pointer.
> I tried searching Microsoft for this and also Google, to no avail. Anyone
> know what the problem is?
>

Thanks for the post, this fixed my issue. Just an FYI for Microsoft. I am
on a 64-bit machine and just recently updated my definitions through the
microsoft update service.



"Mikolaj" wrote:

> >I posted this under my previous post and thought it would be better as a
> >new
> > post.
> >
> > Now I have a new problem. I have an icon in the taskbar with an
> > exclamation
> > mark. When I click on it the message tells me I haven't scanned in 3
> > days.
> > When I click on scan now I get the following error message:
> > Windows Defender encountered an error: 0x80004003. Invalid Pointer.
> > I tried searching Microsoft for this and also Google, to no avail. Anyone
> > know what the problem is?
>
> Hi,
>
> I had the same situation. Just go to Scan menu, select Custom scan, select
> some folders and do scanning on them. The error should disappear (also the
> WD icon from the tray) for three next days, I suppose, or until you enable
> automatic scans (in Tools, General settings).
>
> --
> Pozdrawiam serdecznie / Kind regards
> Mikolaj Kaminski
> MS-MVP, Poland
>
>

I had this problem on 2 PCs and this entry led me to finding the answer, so
I'm replying to help anyone else. I had previously set Defender to Custom
Scan, but when I went to Scan/Custom Scan, there were no drives selected. I
selected my C Drive (the others are CD/DVD/Card Readers), it then scanned
without error messages.
Dave

"lou g" wrote:

> I posted this under my previous post and thought it would be better as a new
> post.
>
> Now I have a new problem. I have an icon in the taskbar with an exclamation
> mark. When I click on it the message tells me I haven't scanned in 3 days.
> When I click on scan now I get the following error message:
> Windows Defender encountered an error: 0x80004003. Invalid Pointer.
> I tried searching Microsoft for this and also Google, to no avail. Anyone
> know what the problem is?
>

Is this also 64-bit XP and 64-bit Windows Defender? (I suspect this is
irrelevant--I've seen this issue in purely 32-bit versions as well.)
--

"Bryan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:C440F8DF-9D21-4BC6-9BBB-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thanks for the post, this fixed my issue. Just an FYI for Microsoft. I
> am
> on a 64-bit machine and just recently updated my definitions through the
> microsoft update service.
>
>
>
> "Mikolaj" wrote:
>
>> >I posted this under my previous post and thought it would be better as a
>> >new
>> > post.
>> >
>> > Now I have a new problem. I have an icon in the taskbar with an
>> > exclamation
>> > mark. When I click on it the message tells me I haven't scanned in 3
>> > days.
>> > When I click on scan now I get the following error message:
>> > Windows Defender encountered an error: 0x80004003. Invalid Pointer.
>> > I tried searching Microsoft for this and also Google, to no avail.
>> > Anyone
>> > know what the problem is?
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I had the same situation. Just go to Scan menu, select Custom scan,
>> select
>> some folders and do scanning on them. The error should disappear (also
>> the
>> WD icon from the tray) for three next days, I suppose, or until you
>> enable
>> automatic scans (in Tools, General settings).
>>
>> --
>> Pozdrawiam serdecznie / Kind regards
>> Mikolaj Kaminski
>> MS-MVP, Poland
>>
>>

[peter.manser]

I have the same problem on Windows XP Home 32 bit.