Norton AV has put a red X over its systray icon

[wumply]

It was not there yesterday; it was there after boot this morning. I clicked on it and learned that Auto Protect, Email Scanning and Script Blocking are all ON. Full Virus Scan reads: Not Completed--but this is because 2 days ago I did a full virus scan and no viruses were found. (Here I uninstalled and reinstalled NAV because the red X was sometimes there and then gone. This got rid of the red X--briefly.)

OK. Back to this morning. I clicked on the systray red X a 2nd. time and again Auto Protect, Email Scanning and Script Blocking were all on. Same message re full scan. So was I protected or not? I rebooted but the red X was still there and Auto Protect was ON. In all other respects, other programs and my computer were working normally. How does one know with any certainty if I'm protected in these situations? Or can one know?

So I tried to go to Symantec's Knowledge Base for help but no good answer did I find. They had a test for viruses but that page was not accessible I was told. So I clicked the red X once again. This time I was told Auto Protect was OFF. I clicked "OFF" and it immediately changed to ON--AND THE RED X OVER THE SYSTRAY ICON WAS GONE.

So what does one do in situations like this? Assume you are protected red X or not? Uninstall/reinstall and redownload/reinstall all those updates? Get another AV program and accept that you've just wasted $15-16 (half-a-year's subscription)?

[Big Booger]

Honestly wumply this is one reason why I dumped NAV and went with NOD32.. and McAfee on another system.. I was tired of that red X showing up for literally no reason...

What you can do is try to reinstall, redownload and all that. Then give it a try.. or you can try a system restore. It might be an incompatibility with another software program. You could reinstall your OS, but who wants to go through that trouble.

Another thing is to contact symantec support directly about this:

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/d4578f66d8f00a0188256d4e006aaa94/fe06b1d338639aa688256da4005ec156?OpenDocument&prod=Norton%20AntiVirus&ver=2004%20for%20Windows%202000/Me/98/XP&src=sg&pcode=nav&svy=&csm=no

OR

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/d4578f66d8f00a0188256d4e006aaa94/7c6440c011e05f5088256dc1008096fb?OpenDocument&prod=Norton%20AntiVirus&ver=2004%20for%20Windows%202000/Me/98/XP&src=sg&pcode=nav&svy=&csm=no

One question, is live update ok? No issues there?

[wumply]

Got your post, BB. Thanks. Clicked your links. Firefox announced that "NAV 2003 is disabled on startup" and the NAV icon was not in the systray. I accessed one link of yours, took a chance, tried to run the online scan for common viruses. But I got told "they could not look for common viruses on my system." Tried the other link but could not link to the tests there either. At this point I happened to notice that the systray icon WAS in the systray without a red X...and "Auto Protect was enabled." Re uninstall/reinstall I have done that--twice--about 3 days ago--2nd. time it got rid of red x but clearly only temporarily.

No, no issues with Live Update.

Tried Automated Support System again here: same message "We can't check for viruses on your system" I did access their detailed instructions for doing everything under the sun re this problem--pages and pages on how to do 6 different things. I am likely to give up on NAV even as you - thinking of going with free Avast. Seems less hassle than the task of trying to find out what's wrong with NAV.

What's your experience with NOD 32? (I got mad at McAfee because of problems 2 years ago.)