Blank Bootguard Screen when using PGP Whole Disk Encryption with Computrace

Products

• Symantec Products

Issue/Introduction

This article contains a tool to help customers experiencing a "blank bootguard" screen resulting from the following:

On December 17th 2007, a Computrace maintenance patch was released by Absolute Software which caused an unexpected conflict between Absolute's Computrace Agent and certain encryption products (such as PGPs Whole Disk Encryption) who share space in the master boot record (MBR). The maintenance patch was rolled-back by Absolute as soon as the problem was recognized.

It is still possible for computers which have not been re-booted since approximately December 17th, and which run both Absolute's Computrace and PGP's Whole Disk Encryption, to be affected with this problem. Symptoms of an affected computer are that they experience the "blank bootguard" screen when booting.

 

Resolution

This is for customers who are currently affected with the "blank bootguard" screen who are running both Absolute Software's Computrace and PGP's Whole Disk Encryption.

If you are currently experiencing the following behavior, this tool will help to resolve your situation.

 

• You are running PGP Whole Disk Encryption.
• You are running Absolute Software's Computrace (non-BIOS Persistence).
• When you reboot your computer, the standard PGP Bootguard screen appears.
• You are able to successfully authenticate past the PGP Bootguard screen.
• However, you are brought to a blank screen with "Bootguard" on the top right hand corner of the display.

 

Caution: Using the Microsoft FIXMBR utility will damage the MBR and you will be forced to completely decrypt the Hard Disk to recover your data.

To resolve this issue, please download the pgp fixmbr zip file below. 

 

• After you download the zip file, open it and extract pgp_fixmbr.zip.
• Put it onto a bootable disk (ie, BartPE, WinPE, etc.).
• Boot your PC from this bootdisk.
• Run the pgp_fixmbr.exe program.
• This will then repair the MBR on you machine.
• Remove the bootdisk and reboot your computer.
• You should now be able to properly authenticate and load the OS on your machine.