Can someone please help me? I have a compaq presario 2500 laptop with XP and norton antivirus. the problems are: it wont scan for viruses it wont allow access to any webpage with SYMANTIC in the title it will not run live update. i have de-ins. and re-ins. Norton and its still the same. The only problem i have is that i have more than 300hours of my own music stored in the windows media player which i cannot afford to lose. Is flattening my system the only option? Can someone please help me? Thank you, Rory

If You are certain it's a virus, but You are still able to go online, then visit Trend Micro, and do an online scan, it's free. the link: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

try booting into safemode. run a scan there. Starting Windows XP In SafeMode also try an online scan at housecall.trendmicro.com

hi try online scan from panda http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm maybe try booting into safemode and try scanning with nortons. if you have system restore on, turn it off,as viruses will hide in there. keltik

the reason you can't update is because you have to check your hosts files, do a search on 'hosts' and check all of them with notepad, if you see one that has a whole bunch of 127.0.0.1 and symantec.com next to it, and 127.0.0.1 with liveupdate.symantec.com ect. ect. (the ip doesn't have to 127.0.0.1 it could be whatever the virus/adware/spyware put in) remove the ips and websites...basically if you see the 127 when you try to do a live update you are checking yourself at that point you can update and THEN boot into safe mode to do a full system scan, because now that you reloaded you probably have virus definitions from 2002-2003 and there have been many new viruses since then

GUYS, First of all let me thank you for taking the time to try to help me. I have tried the following: housecall scan,the trendmicro site will not allow me to do a scan. i download the files it tells me to and when i try to install them it wont let me. The panda site also gives me an error msg when i try to complete a scan. I have rebooted the comp. in safe mode and run trojan hunter, which found and cleaned 2 trojans, however will not let me access the internet in safe mode to get updates. Is this normal?? norton is still only scanning for a minute or so then coming up with system error. even in safemode. i also dont know how to turn system restore off. I know there is a lot of problems here, but any further help is greatly appreciated, Rory

Rory, Okay, here's what you can do: 1. Download Spyware Blaster, Spybot Search and Adware. Go to Download.com and download those utilities. Install them. 2. Boot to Safe Mode with Networking. If you use LAN or wireless, it will work in Safe Mode. If you're running 56K, look at 2B: 2B: If you're using dial up, and it won't dial up on Safe Mode, install and UPDATE each program I've asked you to download. 3. Run ALL THREE programs in Safe Mode. Let Adware and Spybot repair all problems it finds. 4. Enable a firewall. Click on your connection's properties, then Advanced tab, then "Enable Internet Firewall." If you're running XP SP2, make sure the firewall is enabled. 5. Restart your computer. 6. Uninstall Norton AntiVirus and restart again. 7. Reinstall Norton AntiVirus. 8. Run a virus scan, with the LATEST product updates. (Run LiveUpdate.) 9. If Norton AntiVirus fails, try doing Trend's "housecall" again, or the Panada one. 10. IF those still fail, do a Windows XP repair. To achieve this, boot off the XP CD (if your BIOS supports it, otherwise download a boot disk from www.bootdisk.com) and wait while Setup loads files. When the FIRST screen appears, press ENTER. DO NOT pick "Repair" at this time - this will take you to the Recovery Console. Instead, press ENTER and let Windows Setup detect your Windows configuration. Press R when prompted. NOTE: You will lose all updates. Make sure you have the firewall enabled BEFORE going on the Internet. 11. If this still fails, there might be a serious problem or a rescurrent virus. If this is the case, I guess it's time you backed up all your data to a safe source and do a reformat and reinstall. IF Norton AntiVirus successfully works after reinstallation, and it detects a virus(es), DELETE all System Restore points. To achieve this, on your Desktop, right-click "My Computer", and click on the "System Restore" tab. Check "Turn off System Restore on this (or all) drives." Click "Apply" and it will clean up all restore points. Then uncheck that option and you're set. Please post back telling us how you achieved my suggestions. Hope it works. If any more questions - don't hesistate to ask. :) anDrew