norton uninstall nightmare...

[Guest]

i tried to uninstall notron systemworks 2006...it was going well and i got as
far as restarting the computer. when it came back on it got to 20% (or so)
complete then froze. after a little while i used ctrl/alt/del to try and get
out of it, which initially worked (now it looks like a horrible mistake...),
but now windows will not start. safe mode, safe mode with networking and
safe mode with command prompt all do nothing before the computer shuts off
and starts over. if you pick last known good config or windows normal at
least you get to the inital windows loading screen before you get a blue
screen and an error "autochk not found - skipping autocheck" to which it then
powers off and restarts like the other three options...i though i hated
norton before...

norton couldn't help and referred me to the manufacturer. i don't have the
funds to do this as the laptop is out of warranty (i think norton should pay
whatever it takes to restore my laptop) so i'm throwing myself at the feet of
you experts begging for some good will...and hey, if you ever need guitar
repair let me know.

thanks for any and all help in advance! scott

 

[Frankster]

Wow... tough case. I wish you came here before you got to where you are.
Symantec has an "uninstall" utility on their website that can normally
uninstall when the Windows uninstall fails.

Anyway...

At this point, the next step is probably to attempt a new installation or a
repair installation.

1) Boot from your original CD (or recovery set that may have been provided
by the vendor) and try that. See what options it has. Avoid any option that
speaks of formatting or losing data, but try to choose an option that
preserves data.

2) Boot from your original CD and attempt a "parallel install". Just do a
normal install but choose to install into a different directory (not
WINDOWS, maybe WINDOWSXP), and install normally. Then you can reach your
data after the new installation is up and going.

Perhaps you can provide detail on the type of PC and what if any Windows
Operating System and/or Recovery disks you have available.

-Frank

 

[Guest]

thanks frank.

of course at this point the original discs have seemed to have grown
legs...i'll find them and break those legs .

i have uninstalled norton on three of my other computers successfully until
this one...should i go back to the others and use the uninstall tool, or is
it too late? i've read on here that there are probably still remnants of
this nonsense on my other computers...how do you get rid of all the nonsense?


i thought that might be the thing to do, reinstall windows without
reformatting. i tried to do that from the norton disc, but it told me that i
had to uninstall goback first then retry it...thanks...if i could go in and
uninstall goback, i wouldn't be in this spot now would i?...dolts.

the computer is an averatec 3250 with XP home on it.

as soon as i can find the disc and give it a go, i'll let you guys know.
thanks again!

 

[Frankster]

The Norton uninstall utility provided on the Symantec website is only
supposed to be used if the built-in uninstall fails. Personally, I wouldn't
worry about cleanup if the uninstall succeeded. What's a few empty
directories here and there anyway? But, you could if you want to.

BTW, the reason Norton uninstall takes so long (or GoBack uninstall alone,
if you run that separately) is because it is deleting all those past restore
points. I had to do that just recently on a client's computer and it took
about 40 minutes or so just to remove GoBack! (that's all I asked it to do
that time) Anyway, after that, the actual uninstall also failed, so I used
the utility. The utility works pretty good.

Good luck.

-Frank

 

[Noncompliant]

Found that the downloaded file from Symantec website for XP,
Norton_Removal_Tool.exe, caused a problem with the msxml 4.0 SP2 update
installation. Occurred when removing remnants of NAV 2003, previously
uninstalled via add/remove programs.

Also, after cleaning up that mess, ran into a problem after installing NAV
2007. One of the updates failed to install properly and returned LU####. A
weblink for the same LU error for that on the page of Liveupdate said to use
the same removal tool. Basically remove the product with the removal tool,
and reinstall the product. In retrospect of my previous problem with that
tool, I simply used the add/remove program removal method. All worked out
fine. NAV 2007 is working fine with its updates installed.

 

[Guest]

40 minutes, eh? maybe my installation didn't freeze and i unintentionally
aborted it. it would figure...my fault again. that makes more sense.

i've been looking for that installation cd i got from averatec. if i can't
find one, can i burn one from another computer that had XP on it? i have a
compaq with XP, but don't want to screw up the avertec. averatec offers one
for $12, but like the rest of the country i want instant gratification...

to answer the following post, i don't intend to reinstall any other norton
products. ever. the webroot stuff works really well and doesn't take up so
much resources (at least doesn't seem to...) it even works with vista that's
on my wife's new dell.

thanks all.

scott