OKay guys, I'm about at my wits end and just don't know what else to do.
My new rig worked perfectly (see description below), I came home Friday, turned it on, was looking at my email, and then I got norton pops up and says I need to activate it. I had already done this but proceeded to go with the flow. I attempted to activate it using the online method, got an A8N error, and Norton promptly informed me it would not work until activated. So, I checked out Symantecs website and lo and behold there is a patch for just such an occasion. I d/l it and install. Reboot as per the program request and then the damn thing still won't activate. I call their toll-free support and get a guy whose Indian accent is so strong I have trouble understanding him and he tells me to try activating it via phone and gives me an activation code. No prob. I do this. Norton still fails to activate. He gives me a different activation code and now when I try to activate it I am only allowed to use the "EADFB" keys on my keyboard. I get a beep from the system speaker when I try to do anything else. Then I try to activate via the webpage, which promptly opens up the webpage in IE and tells me that my product is already activated. SO, after that long rant, does anybody know if the pay per incident tech support is ACTUALLY IN THE USA? If I have to talk to another guy I can barely understand I might fly over there just to yell at him personally.
Steps I have taken since this massive FUBAR:
1)Since I had really didn't have much on my new rig at the time other than some diagnostic programs and the drivers and support programs for all my devices I thought I would run a memtest and see if there were any strange anomolies there. Ran it to 1500% and no probs. Then I ran a Prime95 stress test for 10 hours. No errors or warnings. So, thinking that my hardware had not suddenly taken a dive, I decided I could spare the 3 hours to to format my system and do a clean install of everything. 3 hours later I try to activate Norton and the same prob occurs. I do one more format, install XP from the CD, don't do the updates I had been doing, don't even connect it to the net, and try to activate norton and I get the same problem as before with the keyboard flaking out.
2)I open up the case, remove all my peripherals (an old modem I wasn't using but had thrown in there anyway) and a USB breakout that connected to one of the 3 USB pin headers on my MB. Try the same start from scratch procedure again and still no luck.
3) This time I decide to see what happens if I just leave it unactivated for my 15 days and deal with then, since by now I am getting quite upset at my rig. I decide to install my printer (Canon F80) and I get a failure to write to memory address error from kernel32, and Norton tells me it is not activated and won't work. I go into safe mode uninstall the printer software, reboot into safemode and run memtest to 1500% and still no error.
4)Right now I have no printer installed and am writing this attrociously long post on the very system that is giving me fits. I did try to d/l netscape so I didn't have to put up with IE, but everytime Netscape opens its install program and trys to connect to its server it stops responding and the system freezes.
My main massive confusion is that this rig worked, was tested, broken in, and existed happily with all the software it had on it and then just decided to give me issues.
Can anyone think of a hardware problem I might hae that causes Norton to become a problem. I think it might be a hardware issue due to the memory error and the fact that I got the same errors from Norton on the clean stand alone XP install.
Thanks for sticking with me if you made it this far and any help would be appreciated.
System:
FX-55
MSI Neo4 SLI Platinum
1GB Corsair TwinX 3200XLPro
Zalman 7000b-Cu LED
BFG 6800 Ultra OC
PCP&C 510 SLI
Lian Li V1000B
WD Raptor 74Gb x2
TDK DVDRW 840g
FDD
My new rig worked perfectly (see description below), I came home Friday, turned it on, was looking at my email, and then I got norton pops up and says I need to activate it. I had already done this but proceeded to go with the flow. I attempted to activate it using the online method, got an A8N error, and Norton promptly informed me it would not work until activated. So, I checked out Symantecs website and lo and behold there is a patch for just such an occasion. I d/l it and install. Reboot as per the program request and then the damn thing still won't activate. I call their toll-free support and get a guy whose Indian accent is so strong I have trouble understanding him and he tells me to try activating it via phone and gives me an activation code. No prob. I do this. Norton still fails to activate. He gives me a different activation code and now when I try to activate it I am only allowed to use the "EADFB" keys on my keyboard. I get a beep from the system speaker when I try to do anything else. Then I try to activate via the webpage, which promptly opens up the webpage in IE and tells me that my product is already activated. SO, after that long rant, does anybody know if the pay per incident tech support is ACTUALLY IN THE USA? If I have to talk to another guy I can barely understand I might fly over there just to yell at him personally.
Steps I have taken since this massive FUBAR:
1)Since I had really didn't have much on my new rig at the time other than some diagnostic programs and the drivers and support programs for all my devices I thought I would run a memtest and see if there were any strange anomolies there. Ran it to 1500% and no probs. Then I ran a Prime95 stress test for 10 hours. No errors or warnings. So, thinking that my hardware had not suddenly taken a dive, I decided I could spare the 3 hours to to format my system and do a clean install of everything. 3 hours later I try to activate Norton and the same prob occurs. I do one more format, install XP from the CD, don't do the updates I had been doing, don't even connect it to the net, and try to activate norton and I get the same problem as before with the keyboard flaking out.
2)I open up the case, remove all my peripherals (an old modem I wasn't using but had thrown in there anyway) and a USB breakout that connected to one of the 3 USB pin headers on my MB. Try the same start from scratch procedure again and still no luck.
3) This time I decide to see what happens if I just leave it unactivated for my 15 days and deal with then, since by now I am getting quite upset at my rig. I decide to install my printer (Canon F80) and I get a failure to write to memory address error from kernel32, and Norton tells me it is not activated and won't work. I go into safe mode uninstall the printer software, reboot into safemode and run memtest to 1500% and still no error.
4)Right now I have no printer installed and am writing this attrociously long post on the very system that is giving me fits. I did try to d/l netscape so I didn't have to put up with IE, but everytime Netscape opens its install program and trys to connect to its server it stops responding and the system freezes.
My main massive confusion is that this rig worked, was tested, broken in, and existed happily with all the software it had on it and then just decided to give me issues.
Can anyone think of a hardware problem I might hae that causes Norton to become a problem. I think it might be a hardware issue due to the memory error and the fact that I got the same errors from Norton on the clean stand alone XP install.
Thanks for sticking with me if you made it this far and any help would be appreciated.
System:
FX-55
MSI Neo4 SLI Platinum
1GB Corsair TwinX 3200XLPro
Zalman 7000b-Cu LED
BFG 6800 Ultra OC
PCP&C 510 SLI
Lian Li V1000B
WD Raptor 74Gb x2
TDK DVDRW 840g
FDD
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