There could be any number of reasons, such as memory leaks, malware, viruses, faulty hardware (e.g., memory: a faulty sector not being reached first time). Somebody mentioned Norton "protection": this a a MAJOR cause of problems. NEVER have Norton stuff running on video computers (especially their 2006 vintage). I wrote the following article for a techie journal recently:
Regular readers will know that I have promoted Norton anti-virus as being a good protection against many kinds of malicious software which can come our way either by browsing the Internet or through e-mail. The version I used was incorporated in Norton System Works 2002, which I bought about two and a half years ago. This particular version has a number of other very useful utilities and I was very satisfied with the results.
Unfortunately, for reasons totally unconnected with the subject matter of this column, I had to re-install Windows XP Pro. When it came to re-install NSW, the installation application informed me that the version was no longer supported, after less than three years, even though I had paid for a year’s updates, only 3½ months previously. This annoyed me, but I bit the bullet. I hunted around on the Symantec website and found NSW 2006, which was available as an upgrade. After a very long download, I installed the version and started to set it up. I was appalled to find that it had practically taken over my computer but, above all, it refused to allow the anti-virus updates to be downloaded. I spent nearly two days going through the Symantec website for help and tried several different methods of resolving the problem, to no avail. As the manufacturer offered no e-mail support, I sent a fax to the nearest offices, in Ireland. I received neither acknowledgement nor answer. At a cost, I tried to phone them, again in Ireland. A voice-mail message informed me that no technical support was offered by telephone but that I could consult their knowledge base on the Internet, as if I had not been doing that for the previous two days! In the meantime, I found that NSW was more than tripling the boot-up time of the computer, which is an indication of how much it had taken over the system. Apart from that, their installation software could not even configure the Norton-protected Recycle Bin correctly, causing an error message on each boot-up.
As an aside, a neighbour, who also had NSW 2002 installed, suffered a similar fate (including 10 months of unexpired updates) except that she followed Norton’s recommendations by upgrading to a package of their Anti-virus 2006 and Internet Security 2006. She asked me whether I could sort out her computer after installing them, as it had become sluggish. On investigation, I found she had three firewalls and three anti-malware utilities operating. I uninstalled the Internet Security and switched off the Windows XP Firewall, leaving her ZoneAlarm firewall operational. The Anti-virus was still sluggish, but the computer behaved more normally.
Fed up with this state of affairs, I decided to cut my losses and abandon Norton products altogether; my policy became “Naught-on” my computer! To give Symantec their due, they refunded what I paid for NSW 2006, very promptly (I even made about three cents profit, because of differences in exchange rates!).
This left me with two problems: I urgently needed a new anti-virus and a new defragmentation tool, the other functions of NSW being less important. My first task was to find a suitable anti-virus and, after some research, I opted for the Grisoft AVG Pro package. In comparison, this installed and automatically updated like a dream. It operated transparently with almost no overheads and the updating is very regular. The only change I did to the default installation was a weekly, instead of daily, complete system scan. For the “defragger”, I chose Diskeeper. It, too, had a default configuration of daily defragmentation of all the partitions, which I changed to manual, because several of my partitions rarely change and this would cause unnecessary drive wear. It is remarkably more effective than the utility supplied with Windows, which I think is actually a very old Intel software.
What about the bottom line? Well, this is very positive, because the AVG and Diskeeper utilities, together, cost about half of what I didn’t pay for NSW 2006. Of course, there are features in NSW that I no longer have, but there are substitutes either within Windows XP Pro or available on-line for nothing.
While on the subject of invasive software for Internet protection, Zone Labs have been telling me for some months that, initially, version 6.0 of their ZoneAlarm Pro firewall, and then 6.1, was available. I succumbed to the temptation of 6.1 recently, to my instant regret. With it installed and set up by default, it seemed that I could hardly breathe before it shouted a warning that I was laying myself open to all sorts of dire consequences. Every software I installed or even uninstalled constituted a hazard. This was mostly because it has over-zealously assumed that it was prone to malware. The crux is that I have a very good, non-intrusive, anti-malware program, Pest Patrol, and I don’t need a second one, least of all one that cries wolf without being able to stop it. Ergo, I have reverted to version 5.5, which does not have this intrusion. In a few months, Zone Labs will be asking for me to renew my update subscription and, guess what, I won’t pay! I’ll continue to use their freeware firewall, which is all I need.
The important feature that can make or break a software house is support. Before Norton was taken over by Symantec, the support was excellent, an e-mail question being answered within a working day. Today, I can qualify it only as execrable; in fact, it is probably the worst that I have come across recently. If you have a problem that is not dealt with in their Internet knowledge base, then you will have to whistle for your answer. They don’t even run a forum, that I could find. So, how do I find the new contenders? I did have a question, while still on the trial version, for Diskeeper and I sent them an e-mail. Helpful and complete answer received about 8 hours later. This is how it should be. I have not had occasion to contact Grisoft, but they do have a Tech Support message form on their web site, so I assume their service is probably reasonable.
The point I’m trying to make is that it would be far better if all these software authoring houses stuck to their speciality and developed it to the maximum, instead of trying to be all things to all men. Adding a few bells and whistles of unrelated products to their core business does not justify extra cost, especially when many other companies have offered better solutions for many years. And if they don’t offer adequate support, then they may as well place their key under the doormat straight away. At the time of writing, Symantec share prices have dropped 21% over the past year, bucking the trend of the Nasdaq index at up about 10% in the same period. Could this be because they are losing market share to companies like Grisoft, which has been enjoying very good press reviews of late? This company, of Czech origin, does not appear to be quoted on the usual stock exchanges, so I can’t see how its value has progressed in comparison with any of the indices, but I have found that Intel bought a majority share in it, last year.
