Curing Norton System Doctor Corruption

Why am I here?

You're here, because someone pointed out that the symptoms you're experiencing on your PC are similar to these:-

When you attempt to install new hardware, the 'Updating Hardware Installation Information' popup freezes, and you may have to use CTRL+ALT+DEL to exit the install, and regain control of your PC
When you attempt to install Windows Updates, the download proceeds OK, and the installation starts - but then freezes, and may take (literally) hours to complete - if it does. Again, you may have to use CTRL+ALT+DEL to get control back.
You're getting a message from an installation program, that it is unable to write to the C:\Windows\INF folder

Yes - OK - that looks like my problem - what next?

Let's just check first that the person diagnosing the problem has got it right -

You are running Norton System Quack (er- sorry - Doctor) - or have run it in the past?

Click on Start | Search | For files or folders...

Change the Folder Options (Tools | Folder Options) so that you can 'Show Hidden Files and Folders'

Enter "OEM*.INF" (without the quote marks) into the 'Search for files or folders named' box, and change the 'Look in' box to check the C: drive only

Put a checkmark in the Size option, and enter 'at most' and 1KB in the dropdown boxes.

Click on Search Now - and wait for the search to finish

If there are more than a couple of files (and there are frequently over 32,000 files!!) at the end, you have 'Quack Syndrome'

Leave the search window open , and read on

I have Quack Syndrome - what next?

TURN OFF NORTON SYSTEM DOCTOR!!!! - it *may be* a very good tool in its place - but its place is not running in the background in ME except when troubleshooting (more on this later - and a patch to prevent recurrence)

What we have to do now is delete all the 0KB files from C:\Windows\INF - but leave the others behind.

This is not quite as easy as it sounds - because not all the OEM.....inf files are 0KB, unfortunately, and the folder itself is marked as read-only!

First - order the OEM*.INF files that you found above in Size order - click on the Size column header.

Right-click on the first file in the list, and select properties - it should say 0 bytes for the size. Close the popup, and go to the other end of the list (use the END key) - repeat there.

If the first and last say 0bytes, then, since we've ordered them in size order, they must all be 0bytes - with me?

So - hit CTRL+A to highlight them all, and hit SHIFT+DEL to delete them without putting them in the recycle bin - and wait

All the OEM*.INF files are gone - now what?

Now you go to Microsoft's website at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=301540, and read there about the way to get a hotfix from Microsoft for this problem.

When you phone MS, providing that you simply ask for the hotfix, quote the KB article number, and ask no further questions, you should not be charged by MS for the call (normal phone charges will apply), and you will be given a one-use password and a URL to download the patch from

Once you've done that, you can carry on with whatever you were doing before - you can even carry on before getting the hotfix if you SWITCH OFF NORTON SYSTEM DOCTOR!!!

.....And that's all there is to it - but please, don't run troubleshooting software in the background, unless you're actively troubleshooting a problem!

This page was last updated 15/03/2009