Lately, I was barraged by a bunch of stuff that I got rid of with my Spybot and Adaware programs. Now all of a sudden my Norton Internet Security, which I had installed back in January and was working fine, will not start up any more. It's always disabled, and the option to turn it on in the control panel for it has vanished! I think I have a virus. I ran checks with Norton Antivirus, which still works to a degree, except that I can't turn auto-protect back on, and it hasn't turned up a thing.

Are there any viruses that are known to do this? Is there anyway I can track down whatever's causing this and flush it out by myself? I can't re-install Norton, because some guys at a University media center put it on as a favor.

Yes, there are viruses that will shut down your onboard antivirus/firewall programs.

Read this:

http://www.rav.ro/scan/howto-scan.php

then run the scan here:

http://www.rav.ro/scan/

or here:

http://www.ravantivirus.com/scan/

(whichever works better for you)

You may want to run other online virus scans also.

I ran the Rav scan, and apparently there was something called Trojan on some files. I deleted all those files myself, I restarted, and Norton still won't activate. What else should I do to fix this?

Did you create Norton rescue disks?

If not, you can always uninstall Norton (reboot) and install AVG, Avast or Antivir. All have free versions (Google), Avast uses a nice chunk of RAM (I've read), but people say it doesn't impact performance and it gets high marks at VB100.

I'll second the motion to tank Norton and go with Avast, AVG free or Pro, but if you must pay for it, go with Nod32.

Secondly, didn't soemone tell you that if you have a trojan in Me or Xp yo MUST disable your system restore files or it'll come back at you from there?

Read and use:

Win Me Sys Rest:

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2001012513122239?Open&src=sec_doc_nam&docid=2001111912274039&nsf=tsgeninfo.nsf&view=docid&dtype=&prod=&ver=&osv=&osv_lvl

It's hiding in your system-restore files which cannot be vaulted or cleansed except by dumping them. Do not re-enable system restore until you are 100% sure you are clean. You should also dump %TEMP% files > double click My Computer, put %TEMP% in address bar, enter, highlight and delete all. To dump TIF click tools > options > delete files, check the box for delete off line content > click ok > click delete cookies. > click ok. Dump recycle bin. Do it all from Safe Mode if you can.
Shut down for two full minutes.

Win Me error message resource center:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=315854

Win Me error messages list:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;winmeerrmsg&product=winme

Win Me support center:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=winme

Download a HiJakc Log here:

http://www.lurkhere.com/~nicefiles/

and post it here(read FAQ) :

http://forums.spywareinfo.com/

and read this on the way out:
http://www.burzurq.com/forum/trevtweak.html

Thresher

Coindicentally I had same error: all of a sudden the Norton Antivirus 2004 button in the taskbar had disappeared. When launching NAV auto-protect was disabled and E-mail scan stopped. Unstalling - re-installing did not solve the problem. What I did is had a complete fresh install (!) of Windows XP (SP1) on a formatted partition. I am always following a very strict pattern of installing the applications. Somewhere halfway I install NAV (into an empty directory), get all the updates from their site, etc.
I installed a number of other applications, nothing special and stuff that I am always using. Somewhere at the end, after a reboot, again NAV had disappeared! Uninstalling and re-installing did not help. I could scan my HD, no viruses.
1. Am using Sygate Firewall (NAV is allowed).
2. Checked Symantec:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/docid/2003091710234206?Open&src=&docid=1997121131456&nsf=nav.nsf&view=pfdocs&dtype=&prod=&ver=&osv=&osv_lvl=
In MSCONFIG: services are running

I may tag auto-protect, but it remains disabled.

Now, THIS is peculiar eh ..?
I am using a 'fixed set' of applications with which NAV has always been working perfectly sofar... i.e. no weird application that might interfere.

Spybot Search&Destroy comes up with nothing, only with DSO Exploit.
http://www.greymagic.com/security/advisories/gm001-ie/

http://forums.net-integration.net/index.php?showtopic=15308

I manually updated the reg.key.

That aside, this all beats me ...

:-(

brgds
-