Win98 startup problem - cannot find (Symantec) Norton Anti Virus config files

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I would also highly recomend for future refernce that you use a different web browser such as

Opera :

http://www.opera.com/download/

Firefox :

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

:) Best of luck with it and post back if you need any more help !

Here is a site to show you how to get into safe mode, if you have any problems with regards to that :

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm

ASKER

Thanks, Shane. I will try those suggestions, and look into Opera/Firefox as well.

Regards,

Patrick

ASKER

Shane,

I started up in safe mode, but once that was finished I was informed that Explorer had done an illegal operation and had to be
shut down. Once I click OK on the dialog, I cannot interact with the system: the desktop is blank, and pressing the Windows
start button gets no reponse. The three-fingered salute (Ctrl-Alt-Delete) does bring up the Task Manager, but that's it.

(I tried restarting in safe mode several times, each time with the same result.)

Any further advice would be greatly appreciated,

Patrick

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

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Patrick,

First line should read:

Tap F8 ... at startup ... and select step by step confirmation startup.

Sorry.

Good luck,

Zee

Sorry I havent replied with regards to helping you out patrick, however I would do what blue zee suggested and see if that helps, if not I would be very tempted just to back up any data that you want, re format and re install 98 and then re install all the latest and most stablest drivers for the hardware on that machine and start over, minus norton anti virus, I would highly suggest that you go with AVG as it takes up a lot less resources and is better all around :) and just forget about symantec / nortons anti virus altogether !

I am having my own computer problems :)

Trying to get a wireless network card to work with my desktop but it is not working, I think the PCI slots are wrong for the type of card ie 16 bit PCI slot and the card is 32 bit. So it wont do nothing except make the monitor LED flash :) So I am trying to get that sorted out atm :)

>> and just forget about symantec / nortons anti virus altogether ! <<

Ditto!

On freebies that work, see this:

http://msmvps.com/donna/archive/2004/12/06/22450.aspx

Zee

ASKER

Shane and Zee,

Thanks a bunch for your help so far.

The step-by-step seems to be working so far. I said 'no' to anything that looked like Norton/Symantec. After the various Y/N
items, Win98 ran a short setup routine, culminating in entering my product key (which I still had, fortunately).

After doing that, SpyBot came up and is currently running.

Will report back later with status,

Patrick

Patrick,

That's a good start!

Zee
(keeping fingers crossed)

Thats good to hear patrick, and phew at the still had the product key part :) With regards to another anti virus software take a look at www.sophos.com ;)

btw blue zee, have you ever used or come across sohpos ? If so what do you think to it just out of curiousty ?

I have not had a look at your link yet with regards to free anti virus software and I will do that right now :)

>> have you ever used or come across sohpos ? <<

Never used it, and I have no opinion on it.

I was using AVG, but had serious problems when they updated to version 7.0.

I tried Avast Home Edition and loved it since the first install.

Very low resources used, non-obstructive auto-update, frequent virus definition updates, good email scanner...

No problems at all.

On Norton... I was a real fan up to the 2003 release, after that... what a mess.

Cheers,

Zee

If you ever try sophos out or get an opinion on it please let me know, email addy is in my profile as I am sure you are aware :)

Thanks and kind regards

Gecko

ASKER

Shane and Zee,

SpyBot did its thing successfully, but then I got the Explorer error again, with the same result (and thus I could not uninstall
NAV).

I have just rebooted with 'command prompt only', and did a registry restoration as Zee suggested. Apparently that was a
success; on reboot the system went into ScanDisk, which is running right now.

Assuming this works, I am going to uninstall NAV, and hopefully things will get back to normal.

I had been thinking about replacing that computer anyway--this might be the last straw...

Patrick

Just out of curiousty patrick, what are the specs of this machine ? Good to hear that it seems to working now more or less as you said you are running the scan disk now.

With regards to the scanreg /restore command that points out a good thing to do with always make sure you backup your registry before messing around with the registry as well as making sure that you back it up frequently in case things do go wrong :)

ASKER

Shane,

Amen, brother, on "always back up before you..."

AMD K6 processor with 512MB RAM, about six years old. OS is Win98.

Over the years I've done some updates, such as adding RAM and a FireWire PCI (thought I'd do some very light video
editing, but never got past popping in the card).

Patrick

That explorer error may be caused by some piece of malware that got cleaned up, but left some tracks.

Hopefully you'll get it running again, but you may need a new cleanup.

This time do it in Safe Mode, usually much more effective than on Normal Mode.

I'll post below my standard adware/malware text.

Forgive me if I post any links already mentioned.

Cheers,

Zee

Here it is:

First of all, download NOW this Winsock fix (FREE):
http://downloads.subratam.org/WinsockFix.zip
If you lose internet access after the cleanup, run this tool.

After that, download the fully functional trial version of Spy Sweeper:
http://www.webroot.com/downloads/?WRSID=595f27d74dd2795a56af83b763c321e1
Install, UPDATE and run.
You may need to reboot and run again to clean all the nasties that cannot be deleted at once ('in use').

Download Ad-Aware (FREE) from here:
http://lavasoft.element5.com/support/download/
Install, UPDATE and run.
You may need to reboot and run again to clean all the nasties that cannot be deleted at once ('in use').

Also excellent is SpyBot Search & Destroy (FREE) available here:
http://www.spychecker.com/download/download_spybot.html
Install, UPDATE and run.
You may need to reboot and run again to clean all the nasties that cannot be deleted at once ('in use').
You should also apply the 'immunize' function, since it blocks roughly 1900 known 'bad' runs/apis/apps.

Even if Ad-Aware and SpyBot S&D are similar, they do clean different things. You should have both of them and use REGULARLY.

You can also install 'preventive' software that will help you control these nasties:

SpywareBlaster (FREE):
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
Prevents the installation of Active-X based spyware, malware, dialers, etc
Currently protects you against 3500+ nasties.
Advantage: no system resources used!!!
Just download, install and UPDATE.

All of them extremely useful but you must keep them UPDATED.

Suggestion: Make sure you can see all files and folders and run Ad-aware and Spybot S&D in Safe Mode.

Zee

lol @ Amen brother, that reminds with with regards to your serial key / product key or w/e you wanna call it :) Might be an idea to make sure you back that up or get magic jelly bean key finder and save it to a text file on a floppy or cd or on a different / seperate partition just in case you do lost it then that way you at least know you have it in a text file somewhere safe just for future reference :) As those product key stickers do wear and fade over time and with the luck I have had its always a good idea to have another copy of it stored somewhere, whether you write it down or have it in a text file is up to you :)

good luck with fixing your win 98 computer :D

Thanks for the points and grade patrick ! :) If you have any other problems with regards to this, please post back.

ASKER

Shane and Zee,

You both gave me terrific help today, and I appreciate it very much. I will implement your recommendations re:
anti-malware apps and practices.

My system is booting normally again now, albeit without NAV. I just finished backing up all of our 'data' files to CD,
so if anything catastrophically bad happens to that computer in the ongoing struggle against the malware nasties,
we'll still recover.

Wish I had more points to give on this question,

Patrick

Don't worry about the points patrick ! The appriecation is more then enough besides the fact we get a nice warm and fuzzy feeling from helping other experts ( users ) on this site :) Don't we blue zee ? LOL

>> we get a nice warm and fuzzy feeling from helping other experts ( users ) on this site :) Don't we blue zee ? <<

Jeez... you're twice right on this question alone!
;-))

Thanks Patrick. Really happy we were able to help you.

Zee