| I thought by now AMD systems would be fully compatible; evidently I was wrong.
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AMD is fine, pitch Norton. Norton sucks bigtime.
I suspect the problem is with Symantec, not AMD. I bought Ghost just last week, and when I tried to install it, nothing happened. It turned out Symantec shipped a lot of them with bad serial numbers, and they wouldn't activate.
I had System Works 2004 on my old computer, and on multiple occassions, I had to reinstall it due to software errors.
I've started using PCcillin, and it's been fine so far.
I know it's no help to you, but my experience with four AMD systems over several years is that I've never had software not work and the systems have all been very dependable and stable.
I second BullDog108's comments: Keep AMD and ditch Norton SystemWorks (NSW). That is, unless you know how to disable everything in NSW except Norton AntiVirus. Why? Mainly because NSW is a complete system resource hog, and it'll slow your entire machine down.
What version of NSW are you trying to install? I have the 2004 version on my AMD system. AMD Athlon XP 1900+, MSW XP Pro SP 2, 512 MB RAM, ASUS A266E (I think) it's an older motherboard for Socket A CPU's. You may have some issue with XP's Service Pack 2. It has never caused any problems for me, but others have had problems. Try Windows update to update your Windows installation, check for running Anti-Virus programs--maybe other brands
It's not the processor, it's the software.
I was instructed by the dealer of my AMD to use AVG Free Edition, Lavasoft Ad-aware SE Personal, and the Google Toolbar. All free and all are working fine.
It's free, works great and has a new virus definition update file every week.
Use AVG Antivirus, Sygate Personal Firewall, but if you want an all-in-one product, buy V-Com System Suite, and you'll be covered. I have System Suite, but I disabled the anti-virus tool, since I already use AVG.
Skip the system works and only install the AV program.
I have the AMD 64 3200+ cpu on an Nvidia 3 chipset mb and run Win XP Pro 32 bit OS.
My Norton SW 2003 works and I've pared it down to just running Ghost and Norton AV 2004. The rest of SW is junk. Ghost is a great backup and I back up my C: drive to a separate hard drive. I've restored my C: drive several times with Ghost and it has saved my bacon each time.
| I thought by now AMD systems would be fully compatible; evidently I was wrong.
|
McAfee recommended that I manually uninstall it. That would have been great, if I were a computer geek with a lot of extra time on my hands. So instead, I simply uninstalled McAfee, and installed Norton.
At first, Norton seemed better, but now I'm having the same problems with it. The only upside is that I can generally uninstall it cleanly, and reinstall. After about 4 or 5 installations, I get one that works--or at least seems to.
One of the tricks to getting a good installation of Norton is to install only what you need. You don't need Ghost. I generally install the virus protection and the firewall. Sometimes, I use Norton Utilities (WinDoctor only), but I jettison that if I have problems. The rest of the frills just make the system less stable. Norton Utilities can be run from the CD anyway, provided that you don't care about saving the restoration files.
I don’t know if this will help you, but I had problems installing McAfee on a couple of machines. The problem was a worm that disabled the anti-virus software.
Take a look at what processes are running and make sure one isn’t a virus (you can do a search on each name).
Keep AMD. Get Trend Micro for your AV. When you get rid of Norton make sure you regedit to clean out all the remainders. This is a problem. I've been through this on 6 machines. (All AMD) We dumped Norton. You'll find that the PC journals feel similarly. www.pcmag.com www.pcworld.com www.cnet.com
Trend updates itself automatically, which Norton never quite seemed to be able to do, despite their claims.
But as it is with anything in this world, there are a few who have had problems with it. No matter what you do however, I would drop Norton. Making sure that you thoroughly remove all instances of it from your computer, including but not limited to, Live Update.
NSW = bloatwear
If you're wanting to use Password Manager, an alternative is to use Mozilla Firefox for your Browser. A Password Manager is built in.
Also, I use Zone Alarm Pro (US$39) for a firewall. It has more flexibility than the free Zone Alarm.
I also use Microsoft's FREE Anti-Spyware app, which is Giant Anti-Spyware. MS bought the company.
Microsoft lists of uncompatable programs with XP sp2
System works is on the list
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=884130&product=windowsxpsp2
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=842242
Upper end AMD chips are great, low end is like Intel's low end, dont trust unless you can lose the data and put up with the pagefaults, etc..
Evidently you have mis-diagnosed your problem. I have Systemworks 2005 running right now. There are no problems with it. Whatever is preventing your install, it isn't the processor.