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Symantec, makers of the Norton Anti-virus software created a massive SNAFU for Chinese users when an update mistakenly identified two critical system files in the Simplified Chinese edition of Windows XP Service Pack 2 as Trojan horses.
The two files, netapi32.dll and lsasrv.dll, were erroneously quarantined by the anti-virus software leaving users with a crippled installation of Windows. Rebooting the affected PCs caused Windows to fail on start-up and display the dreaded [blue screen of death][1].
Symantec uploaded a revised update some 13 and a half hours later, but by then it was too late for users who had already updated and restarted.
By quarantining critical system files Symantec effectively rendered perhaps as many as a million, if China's state-sponsored Xinhau News Agency is to be believed (other reports range from 7,000 to several hundred thousand), Windows installations completely useless.
Affected users will need to install new copies of the two .dll files.
To compound matters, Symantec, in addition to their slow-as-molasses response, has yet to post any real notice of the problem on its site.
Symantec did post a support document on its Chinese-language site that outlines how to use the Windows XP installation CD to re-install the files, but that document is buried deep in the site and Symantec homepage has no information on the issue at all.
[via [Computer World][2]]
[2]: http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9020058&intsrc=hm_list "Chinese PC users still contending with Symantec signature foul-up"
[1]: http://blog.wired.com/wiredphotos30/ "BSOD Through the Ages"
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