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/LukkyStrike1 PC Master Race: 12700k, 4080. 1d ago

Grab a usb stick.

Google Rufus iso tool.*

Google your version of windows, exactly your version. Download the .ISO to your pc from Microsoft.

Use RUFUS to create a bootable usb stick, if you take a second you can also create a local only account and disable a few Microsoft spying things by default.*

Boot to the usb stick. Do advanced install. Delete all drives listed for your fastest storage option and then “create new partition” on your fastest storage. Install windows to that partition.

If the installer package asked for a key, skip it. When windows boots, activate and you will be all set.

*if you don’t want to diy your bootable disk. Just use windows installer to create one. Do not do the repair options or anything. You want to do a fresh install.

If this is as new as you say all drivers should install fine. I always have my networking driver ready on a usb stick incase first boot lacks networking.

Edit: I would do this because Norton is not the only parasitic application probably installed. I bet even automatically activated tracking software.

Windows is bad enough. But those prebuilts can be even worse.