Norton Anti Virus and OS X boot up problem

[McGarvels]

Hi All,

I had a quick question about Norton Anti Virus and whether it can cause a machine (in this case a new MBP) to lock up/freeze when booting into OS X. This is my friends machine (she got it from our work so our IT department always messes with the machines first and install all this antivirus crap when there is no need). Sometimes the machine boots up but it will take about 30 minutes to do so, but most of the time it will not do anything. I am not sure if this is a Norton issue or maybe just the HD. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

P.S. I already tried resetting the PRAM and SMC. I also ran fsck (everything normal).

 

[MacNut]

Try to turn it off and see it thats the issue.

 

[thewhitehart]

Does she have admin priviliges? Can she delete Norton without them knowing? Norton has a habit of installing itself all over the place, and as I'm sure you know, is totally unecessary on OS X. It sounds like a Norton problem. I just cleaned a friend's pc from a buggy norton install.

 

[McGarvels]

Luckily she does have admin rights for the MBP. However, I just don't want to delete it without having concrete evidence that Norton is causing the problems because I don't want the IT guys having a fit and getting us in trouble in somehow, especially since they are all on a power trip. Anyways, I will just say that I've heard norton has caused problems in OS X and get our PI to bitch to the head of the IT dept about how norton is really unnecessary. Thanks for your help everyone.

 

[neonblue2]

AHHH! Norton! The Mac version of Norton is crap. Try ClamXav if an A/V is truly necessary.

 

[simie]

AHHH! Norton! The Mac version of Norton is crap. Try ClamXav if an A/V is truly necessary.

Norton Antivirus is crap no matter which version it is. It can slow the fastest of computers down.

If it gets corrupt, uninstaller on Windows will not remove it or the registry entries and you have either search for that neat little application that destroys Norton's registry entries in one go or manually edit the Windows registry.

A lot of organizations use Sophos.

 

[Sun Baked]

Yep, Norton anything can cause machines to go belly up causing all sorts of problems with operation.

Heck if their drive tools are also loaded, that can actually corrupt the drive.

---

Use a company that shows more respect for OS X.

 

[savanahrose]

I had VPN put on my Gateway computer a few months ago from work, they also put in XP sp2. It slowed down my computer so much that I really hated to get on it. I tried to put Linux on my system but it didn't work and I couldn't get it off. So I brought my computer back in so they could work on it for me, and they did, still worked slow but a little bit faster. The zone alarm and the vpn slowed it down. I took off Zone alarm and it worked so much better.

Is she using it for work related projects? or is it just for personal use? If it is for personal use, she can take it off no problem.

I only have to use the zone alarm for when I use my computer for work (which is about once every month and a half if that). The XP sp2 has a firewall in it so I wasn't worried about taking off the firewall from Zone alarm.

Actually what I am trying to say is that if it is her own computer she should be able to take off the Norton's with out any problem. If the IT dept. has a cow tell them to get a life but that it was messing up her computer.

 

[cantthinkofone]

Better yet delete it from your computer. Its worthless. I work in a IT office at a chemical plant and we don't have any anti-virus stuff on our macs. Only on the windows computers. Go tell your IT guys that norton is slowing down your computer and you would rather take a risk than wait 30 minutes everyday.