Comments on: "Symantec Auto-Protect is Disabled" -- But It Isn't. So, Huh?

Question: "Symantec Auto-Protect is Disabled" -- But It Isn't. So, Huh?

kickingtheground — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 10:37:22 -0800

My parents were getting tired of the clutter on their computer, so I reformatted the hard drive for them and installed Windows XP and (among other things) Symantec AntiVirus 9. Seemingly randomly, and fairly often, they now get a yellow pop-up warning that "Symantec auto-protect is disabled" - even though auto-protect is enabled in preferences and shows up in the system tray. I have a laptop with SAV9 on WinXP, and it doesn't do this. What's going on?

A screenshot.

By: quiet

quiet — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 11:29:16 -0800

Have you tried this?
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/docid/2002101608291506

By: kickingtheground

kickingtheground — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 12:17:13 -0800

Have you tried this?

No, doesn't seem to be any of those (well, except for the uninstall/reinstall suggestion, which I'd rather avoid).

From the linked page: A red X is superimposed over the Norton AntiVirus Auto-Protect icon in the system tray.
This happens if I manually disable autoprotect, but otherwise does not happen, even when I get the warnings.

By: ALongDecember

ALongDecember — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 20:47:31 -0800

Hate to scare you, but the way that message is written almost looks fake. The generic windows text just looks fishy. Not saying you faked it, but maybe a third party program is creating it? Just a thought, make sure you run Ad-aware if you already don't.

By: bob sarabia

bob sarabia — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 21:23:40 -0800

hmmm, nah i'm not thinking spyware. he said it was a clean install so i dont see any room for fakery. Actually, I just had a similar problem tonight with norton system works....actually, the exact same problem. Not withstanding the fact that it's a different program, you need to go for the install/reinstall, as it did the trick for me.

By: bingo

bingo — Sat, 19 Jun 2004 11:48:09 -0800

I'm not trying to troll, but seriously, it's weird to me that your solution to a cluttered hard drive was installing windows XP and symantec. Those two items are the reason for clutter in many cases.

By: bob sarabia

bob sarabia — Sat, 19 Jun 2004 11:56:19 -0800

I believe he meant "clutter" in the sense of too many apps and files all over the place, not the actual fragmentation of info. I doubt his parents would be getting tired of the data arrangement of their computer.

By: Blue Stone

Blue Stone — Sat, 19 Jun 2004 12:06:52 -0800

The only time I had an issue like this was a few months after I installed a piece of software of 'good repute but dubious origin' ... ok ... warez. After that the antivirus auto-protect would refuse to work as the pernicious software sought a way to report back to it's evil creator.

If everything you're using is of high integrity, I have no idea.

By: kickingtheground

kickingtheground — Sat, 19 Jun 2004 14:08:51 -0800

I'm not trying to troll, but seriously, it's weird to me that your solution to a cluttered hard drive was installing windows XP and symantec.

There were lots of old useless application files scattered all over the place, a hard drive so fragmented that running windows defragmenter had little/no effect, all sorts of nasty spyware my little sister had accidently installed that was difficult to fully clean off, and (worst of all) the dreaded Win2k/services.exe bug was often badly slowing things down.

Not withstanding the fact that it's a different program, you need to go for the install/reinstall, as it did the trick for me.

Tried that yesterday, I've gotten the message at least once since then.