Buffer Overrun possibly caused by Norton Systemworks?

Hello,

This is a first for me, getting a "buffer overrun detected" message.
So, after researching it, it appears it could possibly be a security
issue, but I'm not sure if that's the case as I see online that
Quicktime and IE seem to cause buffer overrun issues in some cases, so
I'm wondering if it could be software related. Couldn't find much in
that regard as far as Nortons goes. I did contact them, but have yet to
hear back.

I have Nortons SystemsWorks Standard 2008 installed (and after reading
some previous posts, I take it a lot of people here don't care for
Nortons, so maybe I need to remove it, not sure.)

Regardless, here's what happened. Nortons was working fine since I
installed it several weeks ago, at least as far as I could tell. The
other day the computer was "sleeping" when One Button Checkup came on,
which apparently "revived" the computer to run, at least as far as I can
tell. Anyway, I saw it was running again and that OBC had stopped with
the following error message:

Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library
Buffer overrun detected!
Program C:\ProgramFiles\NortonsSystemsWorks\OBC.exe

"A buffer overrun has been detected which has corrupted the programs
internal state. The program cannot safely continue execution and must
now be terminated."

I ran full scans with NAV, Defender and the Trend internet security
trial software, that came with the computer. All came up clean.

I tried running Windoctor and got a similar overrun buffer message. I
could run Diskdoctor, which came up with a security descriptor error,
that it apparently can't or won't fix, but I'm not sure entirely what's
going on there. Something about a .bmp file not being correct.

I've used computers since the DOS days, but I'm far from an expert, but
I'll try and explain our set-up as best as I understand it.

I'm running Vista Home Premium, 32 bit. I also have a hardware
firewall via a router, and apparently a software firewall via Nortons.
My husband set up the wireless network, and said it's "encrypted" or
whatever one does to make it not available to others to see.

I also installed Quicktime a couple weeks ago that came with a new
piece of software "Starry Nights." When I first installed "Starry
Nights", it caused a blue screen and the computer to reboot. I went to
the "Starry Nights" website, apparently others have had issues with it
and Vista as well, and did the recommended updates for Quicktime, the
graphics card, hotfixes, Java and then Starry nights seemed to work OK.
I bring this up because of the amount of "buffer overrun" issues I see
online, associated with Quicktime, which may or may not have anything to
do with my problem, of course.

So, as I said, I'm wondering if this is a security problem or a
software problem. I thought of uninstalling SystemWorks, then
reinstalling it. But then I hear it's hard to uninstall Nortons altho I
don't know how much that matters with a reinstall, plus apparently a lot
of folk here seem to say to stay away from Nortons all together. I've
never had problems with it before, but maybe I do need to reconsider
using it and go on to something else.

Thanks much for any info, advice or suggestions!

 

Hi. I'm having a similar issue with Norton Systemworks Basic 2008 and
Vista 32 bit Home Premium when I run the One Button Checkup.

Interestingly, I also have an association with Quick Time. My Quick
Time recently updated to a new version, and this is the first time I
have tried the One Button Check Up since then.

I get the same error message that says there is a Buffer Overrun which
has destabilized the program integrity and that it must shut down.

I am thinking two things?

A) is it a hacking/worm issue such as the Buffer Overrun vulnerability
that pre-Vista software has also experienced? Could malware be
attending to my Norton program and shutting down the software when it is
attempting to change some aspect of the malware program?

B) Or is there some association with the most recent install of
Quicktime?

Thanks,

Evan

 

The way to verify this is to uninstall Quicktime. I recommend that you
inquire about this with Norton and run LiveUpdate frequently in case they
address this problem with a patch.

 

Here's what I ended up doing, which may or may not be of much help.
After numerous back and forth emailing with Nortons, I was told at firs
this problem could be caused by corrupted Norton files and to uninstal
Nortons via the control panel, then download and use the Norton'
uninstall tool, then to reinstall SystemWorks, which incidentally cam
from a link provided by Nortons, and not using my disks. I don't kno
if it was a different version or not, I had the 2008 SystemsWorks
purchased on disk, but the downloaded version took a LONG time t
install, for whatever reason, much longer than from disk. I was als
told to do the install after a "clean boot", which I did, but after al
that I still had the problem. I contacted Nortons again and they sai
to boot up with just Windows and Nortons running, gave a link on how t
do that, but the link to Vista wasn't working at the time, while th
links for other OSs were. I did complain about that and I've notice
since then instructions for Vista finally were available.

But before then, I got tired of dealing with it, having spent a bette
part of a day on it, and decided to completely uninstall Nortons agai
and go with a different antivirus software, I'm currently trying a tria
version of NOD32, and so far no issues whatsoever, that I can tell, an
plan to rely on the Windows defragger etc. for those sort of tasks.
Everything seems to be running smoothly. So smoothly, I'm reluctant t
install SP 1 right now, LOL, figuring, if nothing seems broke, why fi
it? But that's a whole 'nother topic of course. (BTW, if there's
thread about that topic, that anyone is aware of, I'd really appreciat
being directed to it.)

Your post is interesting in that I wonder if it does indeed hav
anything to do with installing Quicktime? Of course, my "solution" suc
as it is, wouldn't tell you one way or another on that, but it i
interesting that the error message started soon after installin
Quicktime. Before then Nortons wasn't causing any issues that I coul
tell and I had it on the Vista machine for at least a month or more.
I'm still running it on an XP machine, where it's not causing an
problems. I don't recall if I have Quicktime on there or not. At th
least probably not the latest version that I had to install in order t
run Starry Nights. Hmmm...perhaps Starry Nights has something to d
with it all?

Well, regardless, things seem fine now, I've done various and numerou
virus and spyware scans since and everything seems secure, so i
probably was some kind of conflict with Nortons, I'm guessing.

Patt

 

Norton is known to cause many problems which don’t always appear
immediately.
I would only install Norton on Granny's computer if she was going to
disinherit me.
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Hi Evan, have you tried to uninstall the Quick Time and checked for
the issue with the OBC ?? If the issue still persist, uninstall the
Ouick Time and then the Norton System Works using the Norton removal
tool from the web link http://www.symantec.com/nrt and then reinstall
the Norton and check for the issue and let me know..

Awaiting for your response..

Thanks,

Mohamed.

 

Norton is likely causing your problem.
Replace Norton with the free AVG http://free.grisoft.com/ or Avast
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html, and Windows Firewall and Windows
Defender. Disabling Norton is not enough. You need to completely uninstall
it. If it doesn't solve the problem, get rid of Norton anyway. Norton is
known to cause many problems which don't always appear immediately.
Download and run the Norton Removal Tool.
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039

It's called "360" because Symantec's goal is complete ownership of your
computer, and with even less communication about what it's trying to do or
ways to configure it than ever before (which would only interfere with its
goal.) That, along with Symantec's famous technical support, makes Norton
360 a disaster that I would only install on Granny's computer if she was
going to disinherit me.
-------
*Report back, please*
[When responding to posts, please include the post(s) you are replying to so
that others may learn and benefit from the issue]

[How to ask a question]
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375