Oh, the love/hate relationship between me and my computer.

[daemonluna]

So. Last week, Norton Antivirus 2005 decided it was going to have issues, and suggested I uninstall and reinstall. After running into some problems trying to do so, I decided to upgrade to 2006. (It's got a mail-in rebate, and works out to $5 more than just renewing the updates on 2005, in the long run.)

It won't install properly either.

Gah.

I've spent all weekend fighting with it. I have been through pages and pages of support documentation and tried many, many things. I'm giving their online support live chat one more shot.

It's kind of a moot point though, since I'm getting a new tower. $400 from Dell, free delivery. (They've got a sale on until the end of today, if anyone else is looking.) Translation: troutkitty informed me this is what we were doing after I became near-incoherently upset over the whole mess this morning.

Then I just need to figure out how to transfer the DVD burner and RAM (and maybe the hard drive) from my old computer to my new one. Ergh.

ETA: I can't install Norton because I have a virus. I can't remove the virus manually because a) I need to disable system restore, and that option just DOES NOT APPEAR in my settings. (which their tech support cannot help me with because it's a Windows problem, and my computer is second-hand with a not-quite-legit copy of Windows, much to my dismay) b) it involves messing about with the registry which makes me Very Nervous.

I would just back everything up and reinstall Windows, but would run into the same problems involving illegit Windows (not my choice), blah blah blah, no support and updates. ARGH.

Comments

Boot from CD

[starplex.livejournal.com]

Most newer computers (last five years) support booting from the CD drive, and Norton AntiVirus should be able to boot from the Norton CD. You may have to enable booting from CD in your computer's BIOS (often accessed by press F2 or Del or F10 or someother key whose name will be briefly flashed on your screen at boot up), and telling the system to boot first from the CD. But then Norton should be able to clear out the virus, bypassing most of Windows in the process.

Re: Boot from CD

[daemonluna.livejournal.com]

An excellent suggestion, and I did try, but either I'm doing it wrong, or it's not working. It looks like it's scanning the CD itself instead of my hard drive.

The only drive available when I try is the A-drive, which appears to be the CD. (Which is odd, because the drive is actually the E-drive.) Then I'm stuck at the A-prompt until I turn the computer on and off.

I suspect my computer is screwed.

Re: Boot from CD

[drakkenfyre.livejournal.com]

If it's still screwed on Wednesday, I can take a look at it. Ditto if you still want stuff put in your new tower when it arrives.

And your RAM likely won't fit, unless your older computer has DDR . . . Just make sure the notches match. Your new computer should have slots with one raised notch in the slot and your old RAM should have two notches that don't match. But if it fits, it will work.

And your computer can be booted from the tallest window--er, I mean from the DVD drive or the CD drive. When you start your computer, just keep hitting the delete key quickly until that BIOS screen shows up. Dig around until you find the setting for first boot device.