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zymichaelyz
Former Member
Message 1 of 10

McAfee Slows Down My Laptop

I had recently purchased McAfee to replace my Bitdefender after the subscription for the latter expired. I decided to try McAfee, and the price for the McAfee product was right. Ever since I had my McAfee product installed, my laptop has slowed to a crawl. It dramatically slowed down all of my social media, it slowed down my graphics software. It was so bad whenever I was in my social media, I would type something and I would be forced to wait for the type to show up. I have typed entire paragraphs without seeing the type come up until almost a minute or two later. Then, I would press ENTER for the post to be sent, only to see it take forever to do so. The software even disconnected my laptop from the internet time and time again. I was forced to keep re-connecting. With my knowledge of computers, I was certain McAfee was the culprit, so this evening I decided to uninstall the product. After I completely uninstalled the McAfee product, my computer is now blazing fast. I have yet to experience any slowdown. My social media is blazing fast, as is my use of graphics applications. McAfee is a staggering resource-hog. I should like to be able to do my banking, etc. I will not do so without any form of protection. Certainly not with Windows Defender. Seriously? Not a chance. I should like to find a way to tweak McAfee such that it does not turn my computer into a useless slow-poke. Other than the hogging of my laptop's resources, it is rather a good piece of protection. Any suggestions? Otherwise, I am dumping my McAfee software. I should like to prevent the need to do so as I paid money for the software. I know I would never get my money back.

9 Replies
zymichaelyz
Former Member
Message 2 of 10

Re: McAfee Slows Down My Laptop

In fact, after having removed the McAfee software, I notice any image searches now display ALL results. Pre-removal, only half of images would be displayed, with the rest being nothing more than blanks. I would have to keep refreshing before with McAfee installed. I no longer experience any such difficulties without the software.

Peacekeeper
Message 3 of 10

Re: McAfee Slows Down My Laptop

Did you uninstall bitdefender using its own removal tool Mcafee might be clashing with part of it. The version 16.0+ is normally ok bar some users seeing cpu/ram issues with the mmsshost.exe program which is being looked into.

zymichaelyz
Former Member
Message 4 of 10

Re: McAfee Slows Down My Laptop

Not one single bit of Defender remains on my computer. When I remove software, I always use their own uninstaller AND I remove their remnants from the registry. So no, Bitdefender has nothing to do with it.

Peacekeeper
Message 5 of 10

Re: McAfee Slows Down My Laptop

Oh well there goes my great thought better to call support and if they have no useful suggestion ask for an escalation call back.

Support

Hmm when you uninstalled did you also use the removal tool MCPR?

Uninstall Mcafee

I wonder if you reinstall it would work ie the original install got corrupted? So have you reinstalled if not try it preparing for the reinstall as per

Preparing your PC for a Mcafee install

zymichaelyz
Former Member
Message 6 of 10

Re: McAfee Slows Down My Laptop

Well, I had uninstalled my copy of McAffee Internet Security. Once I removed every instance of it, via the supplied uninstaller and going through the Windows Registry to remove the same, my laptop was blazing fast. No slowdowns at all. I decided to reinstall the software again to see what would happen. Of course I was forced to install a copy with a different serial number (WTF is up with that?) as my own copy was not accepted due to 'this serial number is already being used', yes by me. It was MY copy, but McAfee rendered it useless, even though I paid for it. Alas, they supplied me with another copy of the same software. Upon completion of installation, it worked great. Slowed my laptop down just a tiny bit, barely noticeable, but nothing close to what it was like without the software. Now, it has further degraded to where it was last time that caused me to remove it. My computer bogs down. The software drops my internet connection again and again. If one does an image search in the browser, half of the images do not show up, and those that do, nothing can be done with them This was not the case when I had the software removed. Everything worked perfectly. Hence, the problem is entirely the software. In short, this McAfee Internet Security is absolute garbage. I may get rid of it for good and purchase another. I should like to thank McAfee for costing me this much money for useless software that actually destroys my laptop's performance. I will now go about looking for a replacement software. But of course I will have to remind others not to purchase this software if they wish their laptops to work fine. The software does a fine job security-wise, but the staggering performance drop is simply not worth the effort.

zymichaelyz
Former Member
Message 7 of 10

Re: McAfee Slows Down My Laptop

I know how to uninstall software. I am expert at it by now. It is entirely McAfee's software that is the cause. My previous copy of Bitdefender blew away this copy of McAfee. Not even close competition. The only reason I chose the McAfee is due to the fact I got a good deal on it. In hindsight, I realise the price savings was really not worth the stunning performance drop. I'll be looking for another company for a new Internet Security software. Possibly Bitdefender again. I have come to the conclusion that McAfee Internet Security is junk. Simply not worth the pain.

zymichaelyz
Former Member
Message 8 of 10

Re: McAfee Slows Down My Laptop

It just took 3 minutes for my last reply to you to post on this very site. It would take seconds without the McAfee software. I just went to visit my email page. Takes forever to load it. All I see is the stupid swirly thingy telling me it is processing... processing... processing. I KNOW this is entire McAfee because without it, the access to my email page was instantaneous. This is a joke. Minutes to access a freaking email page, which should be instant? Yes, McAfee has to go.

Peacekeeper
Message 9 of 10

Re: McAfee Slows Down My Laptop

There is an issue with some users where mmsshost.exe is using all or most of the cpu maybe this the issue.

Check the details tab of the task manager. if ok you need support and if they no help ask for an escalation call back.

Re reinstalling the second install is done from your account that is created when you first install.

e0003727
Contributor
Message 10 of 10

Re: McAfee Slows Down My Laptop

Hello,

 

I'm having the same problem but I realized that my CPU ramps up periodically, and this is when everything gets quite slow.

 

How do you suggest I can solve this?

 

Best,

 

JC

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