Work comp not booting up

[GreenLantern]

So I go to get on my work comp today and it loads to the Windows XP screen then it just goes blank. No blue screen of death, just nothing.

I tried safe mode, wouldn't load.. so I was finally able to get it to start up using the ThinkVantage security back up that it had (which up until now I thought was useless) which didn't make me lose any files that I can tell so far, but took me back about a year in time..

Anyway as it loaded up I got a few error message one was:

Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime
Runtime Error!
C/Program Files/Common Files/Symantec Shared/ccSVCHst.exe

So I google this and ok it is telling me that my anti virus is messed up, but I have never even used Norton before on this comp.. keep in mind I got this as a hand me down from a former colleague.. so does this mean that the revert started a deleted program back up? Or could this have been the root of my problem from the start?

I have heard before of Anti virus doing ninja upgrades then preventing you from starting up as a sort of "protect you from yourself" situation.

[FanIn80]

Do you run any other utilities from Norton? Like does your IT Dept use Norton Ghost to image your drive, etc?

I would boot with that IBM tool and see if you can get into your Add/Remove programs and look for anything from Norton or Symantec. Then burn that crap from your system (or just uninstall it without using torches and flamethrowers... whichever is more convenient).

Edit: Hmmm I just reread your post, and now I get that using the IBM tool set you back a year. It may be that the error message you're seeing has nothing to do with the original error. There may have been a recent update to a hidden Norton partition that your year-ago system state wouldn't understand.

[BlackEleven]

The problem was with McAfee, not Norton. It was big news a couple of days ago:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20003074-83.html

Are you running McAfee anti-virus?

Try this if so (note I haven't tried it myself, I don't use McAfee):
http://brianseekford.com/index.php/2...nition-update/

[GreenLantern]

Yup thats it, Mcaffee blew up my comp.. going to research this, thank you very much.

Right now I am on it and it is working fine, just completing an updated back up in case things go south again. Only had to do minor tweaks.. I am on an outside contract so I don't have access to this company's network, my internet is the public internet so they have no access to my files either.

So if I lost this stuff, it was lights out for me... so I am also in the process of backing up important files on the external hard drive after I moved some data around.

It could have been a disaster.

[Hack&Lube]

Mcaffee got hit with a few class action lawsuits, they are offering to pay for repair costs within reason. Maybe you can squeeze a few bucks out of them if you own your work computers.