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STOP error caused by Norton Spam Toolbar ?

Hi Guys

Background info - we upgraded this customers motherboard, CPU and RAM.. did a full system repair for the new hardware, installed the new drivers and ran dial-a-fix to repair the Windows Update services.

This customer is now getting a BSOD 0xF7 on his computer and it is really frustrating me.. it has some reference to the Norton Anti-Spam toolbar so I told him to uninstall Norton for a couple of hours to test it. He called back an hour later and said it was still bluescreening (but did admit he re-installed Norton!!) I convinced him to uninstall Norton for at least an afternoon and run it to check for stability - without Norton installed it didn't bluescreen once.. He called again today to say that it is really annoying him as it keeps bluescreening and he has done some "research" on google and found that it is a hardware issue "triggered" by Norton (but there is an underlying hardware problem).

My question is this.. is it possible for Norton to cause these BSOD's? and if so, how do I tell him convincingly that Norton is causing his problems?

Hope you can help,
Beef

DartPC

Well this one could be a toughy... did some searching around and found various reasons and possible solutions...
First off he may have to uninstall norton, and make sure it is fully removed, not just a normal uninstall as norton is very sloppy in that matter...
http://forum.osnn.net/showthread.php?p=655144

Most other things I have found point to either overclocking or ram issues... but some have also been a result of spy/adware as seen here...
http://forums.techguy.org/malware-removal-hijackthis-logs/696492-solved-virus-heat-blue-screen.html

My advice would be to run memtest to rule out the ram, making sure your not overclocked, and to try scanning with another av program and the usual roundup of malware scanners...

If its clean then uninstall norton, and be sure to clean up all remnants... install another av and see if it causes problems... if not then try uninstalling that and then try norton again...

If you still find yourself in the same boat, then check to make sure all the drivers are fully up to date (though im assuming you probly did this already), and then maybe try older versions of drivers if possible...

Only thing I can think of beyond that, is just how attached is he to his norton product?

beefstu123

ASKER

Thanks for the reply DartPC

I will run the tests you recommend.. as for the customer and his Norton product, I'm sure that if it had a hole he would #*%$ it !!

I will get back to you..

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

DartPC

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DartPC

I think my second post should be a suitable answer for the question as asked as it clearly describes how norton (or any av) can be falsely identified as the problem when it is in fact a driver issue.

My question is this.. is it possible for Norton to cause these BSOD's?  and if so, how do I tell him convincingly that Norton is causing his problems?

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beefstu123

ASKER

the customer never brought the computer back to us so we re not sure how its goin. thakyou DartPC very much for ur posts and help :)

beefstu123

ASKER

very good information however the client stopped contct so we dont know if the solution was successful