Norton AV and Windows Firewall won't turn on and stay on

[Tex Arcana]

Win8.1 new upgrade, Samsung 780Z laptop (fairly new). It's my granddaughter's, she uses it for Photoshop and photographic work. It had stopped connecting to the internet, which is why she asked me to look at it. I cleaned out a bunch of junk via Ccleaner, Spybot:S&D, and NortonAV, but there is something left that's preventing Windows Firewall and Norton from starting; and I cannot get them to start manually.

I'm not real familiar with Win8.x (I'm on the bottom of the learning curve), the last time I had a similar issue was with XP, and I've never had the issue with 7. I remember something about a removal tool, but that's it.

Any help will be most appreciated. TIA.

 

[satrow]

Hi, Tex and welcome!

The fact that Norton isn't starting might be indicative of malware involvement, I'd suggest that you carefully read and follow the instructions here: https://www.sysnative.com/forums/security-arena/2507-malware-removal-posting-instructions.html

 

[Tex Arcana]

Problem: DDS cannot run in "Compatibility Mode", exits after posting that message. No clue why it's not running.

Edit: SecurityCheck is hung hard, cannot terminate the process, and it's doing nothing, no dialog box, nothing. just sitting there in Task Manager occupying almost no space, using no cpu. :wtf:

I'm getting very frustrated with this Windows 8.1 shenanigans. This laptop has just about as much power as my 2009 desktop (i7-2.93), and it should be snappy as all get-out; instead, it's sluggish and slow, and responds like an XP box riddled with infections.

 

[bassfisher6522]

Suggestion: I'd get rid of Norton and use windows built in "Defender" and see how your system acts.

https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/kb20080710133834EN_EndUserProfile_en_us