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xtendedforecast
Former Member
Message 1 of 12

McAfee keeps telling me my computer is at risk!

Hey all,

I got a Dell laptop some time ago that had a pre-installed one year subscription of McAfee Security Center installed. When that year was up, I went to the McAfee website to renew and noticed that my renewal price for the Dell subscription was something like $90 bucks (can't remember if that was for a year or two.) Or I could buy the Total Protection product with an anti-virus subscription for $50. Since Total Protection is supposedly "top of the line" I of course went and upgraded to total protection (it also allowed me to install McAfee on the other laptop I use at home whereas the product that came with Dell didn't.)

Now...every time I boot, and at random intervals in between, McAfee tells me "My Computer is at Risk!" and its been x amount of days since my anti-virus expiration - referring to the Dell pre installed product that has expired. Its ungodly annoying. I can click on the button to update the virus definitions and often it will go away and tell me my computer is up to date. I've signed into my online account and tried to find someway to delete or hide expired products but I can't find any way to do that. Can someone help?

I must say I'm really disappointed with Total Protection. The defaults are all wrong - every scrap of McAfee's program is on by default. It runs so many processes that I feel like I have to upgrade my CPU just to run the things I want to run.  I had to disable the "site advisor" browsing plugins that don't play nice with Chrome. Now it keeps telling me I have to set up my vault and backup, although 2 Gigs isn't a lot of space to back up anything (and I run my own cloud and physical backup in my house.) It just feels like total bloat ware. The constant notifications, the bugs - now I'm having the problem where the desktop icon won't go away. I probably should have paid the $50 extra to renew the other subscription just to not be bothered with this junk.

The reality is, I have to use Windows some of the time (my box is a dual boot and I run Linux most of the time which I highly reccommend) so I do need anti virus software. But this is rediculous. What's up McAfee?

Message was edited by: xtendedforecast on 1/4/12 12:23:24 PM CST
11 Replies
Dinz
Former Member
Message 2 of 12

Re: McAfee keeps telling me my computer is at risk!

Hi  ,

This normally occurs if your previous subscriptions are nt syncing up with the newer ones (Which rarely occurs). If you security center had already expired, we would recommend you to run the subscription repair tool from here that should help you to get the current uptodate subscriptions on your PC up and running .

http://service.mcafee.com/faqdocument.aspx?id=TS100966

Regards,

tripodzid
Former Member
Message 3 of 12

Re: McAfee keeps telling me my computer is at risk!

I remember having this similar case. I only did is I reformatted my desktop and reinstall McAfee afterwards. Everything has a fresh start and it works well.

Dinz
Former Member
Message 4 of 12

Re: McAfee keeps telling me my computer is at risk!

tripodzid,

A format isn’t something required for these sort of issues,  McAfee subscription repair tool has been designed to fix all type of subscription related problems with your McAfee software .

Thanks,

ericghanson
Former Member
Message 5 of 12

Re: McAfee keeps telling me my computer is at risk!

Why does an error occur everytime I click on the http://service.mcafee.com/faqdocument.aspx?id=TS100966 link which presumably fixes the INVALID subscription deactivation problem which now has happened 10 times in the last 6 months for valid subscriptions on 3 computers? I have now reported this problem to the FTC and the BBB since McAfee has done nothing to address this problem that I and others have reported many times. I have also recommend to Dell that they no longer use McAfee because of this problem. I will not use McAfee after the valid subscription expires on 8/4/2012

Dinz
Former Member
Message 6 of 12

Re: McAfee keeps telling me my computer is at risk!

Hi Eric,

Sorry for the trouble caused with McAfee subscriptions & I understand that you have spent a lot of time and effort due to this regards.  Please let us know if you are interested in a call back from our senior support engineers so that we may help you fix this up.

And regarding the FAQ ,  , just checked it again and its working for me. Please check your mail box [the one registered here] for an email from us , kindly reply back so that we would proceed with this

Regards,

litho-magnate
Former Member
Message 7 of 12

Re: McAfee keeps telling me my computer is at risk!

I had Mcafee Total protection last year and experienced no problems, and purchased it again for 2012. I keep getting these danged messages stating that my computer is at risk. I removed and reinstalled the program once. It was activated and still takes the updates.

Following your link (above ...http://service.mcafee.com/faqdocument.aspx?id=TS100966) to verify as suggested, it takes me right to an ad to purchase.

Now I not only have to worry about this annoyance for this year, but also I wonder if my new subscription has stopped working. Thirdly I wonder if it will keep happening after I purchase some other company's product next year.

Peacekeeper
Message 8 of 12

Re: McAfee keeps telling me my computer is at risk!

Best to retry a reinstall. When you uninstalled did you follow

http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?lc=1033&id=TS101331

reboot and run

http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/Mcpreinstall.exe

log into your account and install it.

If you still have an issue contact tech support their link is in the useful links tab above.

All this said what was the reason your Pc was at risk that it said? I assume it needed activation.

litho-magnate
Former Member
Message 9 of 12

Re: McAfee keeps telling me my computer is at risk!

"what was the reason your Pc was at risk that it said? I assume it needed activation."

Exactly. It says I need to activate. But actually that is not the problem.

It was activated the first time (after installing 2012) , and clicking on the option to "activate" took me nowhere!

I uninstalled and reinstalled and activated again. I was hoping the problem was resolved, and for three or four weeks I didn't see anything. After about a month the danged messages started again. Now I click on the option offered (to 'renew') and it takes me to a web page to buy the 2012 product which I already own.

I think it might actually be (I don't know, just speculating) a piece of the 2011 version left over from the uninstall which is unaware that the 2012 version is in place.

I know the product is activated, I know it is installed. The 2012 product did scans for me just fine and downloaded updates regularly. Everything appeared to be working, but McAfee is telling me I now have no virus protection.

Update: When I clicked on the shield icon on my desktop just now today it told me "renew your subscription" It will not scan for me on command anymore. It seems like it shut off.

I can't tolerate this much longer. If it has stopped working on it's own it is a failed product. I will reinstall one more time. If I go through this again I will delete all the software and buy something else. I am extremely disappointed.

ericghanson
Former Member
Message 10 of 12

Re: McAfee keeps telling me my computer is at risk!

I suffered the same problems described here on 3 Dell computers with McAfee Total Protection 2012 installed after the preinstalled McAfee expired.  In one case I never activated the 90 day preinstalled McAfee, just installed the 1 year McAfee Total Protection and I still had expired subscription problems.  I downloaded and reinstalled McAfee from the Web Account at least a dozen different times and still had expiration problems.  I finally removed McAfee from ALL computers and went with something else that runs faster, does not have any subscription problems and uses less resources.  You should all contact Dell and request that they stop using McAfee.  I found that switching from McAfee was my only solution to fixing the problem.

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