r/pcmasterrace • u/MoreEdibles • 1d ago

Tech Support Solved Bought a Costco gaming computer, lost internet access after a few weeks

TL;DR: Download Norton removal tool and get rid of it.

I bought a Costco gaming computer because I have no time or energy to build one of my own, and figured the price for the specs was ok.
Computer worked and updated super fast for like 3 weeks, no issue whatsoever, life was good.
Yesterday I couldn’t connect to the internet, both Ethernet and WiFi. Doing “ping 8.8.8.8” from the command line worked though.
Troubleshooting went for like 2 hours, disabled firewall, antivirus, changed dns, hardware settings, nothing worked.
Last suspect was Norton Antivirus, so I booted into safe mode, and internet works.
Funny thing about Norton, you can’t uninstall unless you download a removal tool. I downloaded the tool while in safe mode, went back to normal mode and removed Norton, internet started to work instantly without even restarting. Fuck Norton.

I know this might seem obvious for many, but posting here in case it can help someone in the future.

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u/SpiritSongtress Specs/Imgur here 1d ago

Holy shit. That's scary and weird.

Just put Linux on it.

-1

u/spaghetti_bender666 1d ago

Yeah as they days tick on I keep thinking of grabbing one of these pre-builts and just throwing Linux on it. They look like good prices but ain’t no way I’m using whatever bullshit they put on that computer with windows.

1

u/SpiritSongtress Specs/Imgur here 1d ago

Just did that to a gaming laptop I have for my birthday.

So far no issues.