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indinfer
Former Member
Message 1 of 10

Windows 8 Freezes, McAfee Vulnerability Scan Suspected

The problem is that from time to time Windows 8 freezes in stages:

  1. Computer becomes slow to respond to key strokes and mouse moves.
  2. The keyboard becomes unresponsive. Some keys may still work, such as caps lock and number lock. But other keys will cease being responsive, such as the Windows key and Alt-Tab combination.
  3. The mouse moves become jerkey.
  4. Then the mouse freezes.
  5. Then the rest of the keyboard freezes. No key is responsive.

When this happens, the Ctrl-Alt-Del combination also does not work. The only button that works is holding the power key until the computer does a forced shutdown.

This is a problem that seems to frequently occur during an automatic Vulnerability Scan. However, today it happened. The Vulnerability Scan was scheduled for 8:00 PM last night. It is scheduled to run weekly.

The Winows 8 freezes used to happen on almost every Sunday. Then I changed the schedule to Tuesdays at 8:00 PM and the freezes changed to Tuesday nights. Sometimes the scan runs without freezing Windows 8. And when I manually run the scan, the freeze doesn't happen, or at least does not happen frequently. The freeze does not occur at the beginning of the scan.

I suspect the Vulnerability Scan, but it could be another of the McAfee Scans that I have scheduled. And it could even be something else that does not have anything to do with McAfee.

This has been going on, I think, since around April, and now it is August. I have three computers all experiencing these freezes. All three run McAfee on 64-bit Windows 8 Professional. My wife uses one of the computers. Therefore, I am not as aware of what is going on with that computer, other than it sometimes freezes. The other two have a freeze almost every week. One of the computers that I use hosts a website. I have tried leaving the computer frozen for hours. It never unfreezes.

I hope that the McAfee program has some kind of event logs. And by examining the Windows logs and Mcafee logs, we can isolate the problem. I do not hove the knowledge find, access, and understand the logs.

The bottom line is that I need to have the McAfee protections running frequently. But I need to get rid of the freezes.

Therefore, I hope I can get some assistance.

9 Replies
exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 2 of 10

Re: Windows 8 Freezes, McAfee Vulnerability Scan Suspected

We Moderators aren't able to analyse those logs either.  Without being able to link up with your machine and check resources it's just a guess, but it sounds to me like a scan proves too much for your available memory and/or CPU.   What type of machine is this installed on, how much RAM and what kind of CPU is installed?

Technical Support would probably be your best bet in this sort of situation because they have the tools to directly troubleshoot problems.

It's free of charge by phone or online chat and linked under Useful Links at the top of this page.

Meanwhile I would only do manual scans from now on, when you know you have resources available.  The schedule can be turned off in Scheduled Scan Settings.

indinfer
Former Member
Message 3 of 10

Re: Windows 8 Freezes, McAfee Vulnerability Scan Suspected

One computer is HP Pavilion dml, 8 GB memory, AMD El-1200 APU processor at 1.4 GHz.

The other computer is HP Envy dv7, 16 GB memory, Intel Core i7-3820QM processor at 2.70 GHz.

I also suspect HP's Support Assistant application. It also does updates. Sometimes it keeps trying to do an update and failes. I write down the software pack (or whatever) number and search the Internet. I download directly from the software manufacturer, and run the installation. That installation succeeds. Then the HP Support Assistant stops indicating that I need an update.

In any case, I think you pointed me in the best direction, to use the McAfee Technical Support linked under Useful Links at the top of this page, as you said.

exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 4 of 10

Re: Windows 8 Freezes, McAfee Vulnerability Scan Suspected

That 1.4ghz processor is just enough for the minimum requirements and could possibly be a bottleneck.   If you have those proprietary support assistants installed then you are probably right in suspecting them as they are constantly scanning.

I have a Dell Netbook using an Atom CPU which I keep for emergencies only.  Not swift at the best of times but much faster since I cleaned all Dell's bloatware off it.    I can always go to their website to check for new drivers if I need.

Technical Support are probably the best place to consult on this.

Message was edited by: Ex_Brit on 15/08/13 12:25:08 EDT PM
gopin
Former Member
Message 5 of 10

Re: Windows 8 Freezes, McAfee Vulnerability Scan Suspected

Hi,

If you suspect that McAfee is causing this problem kindly check it by uninstalling it from the computer. If the issue still perists then it is a hardware issue where you have to upgrade your system.

I will set a clear expectation here what a vulerability scanner does.

When you scan your computer using it, the updates which are very important for your computer will be displayed there. Install the updates so that you will not be having any issues.

McAfee is not like other AV Engines just to scan your computer. These are features were you can make use of it when it is embedded with McAfee.

Peacekeeper
Message 6 of 10

Re: Windows 8 Freezes, McAfee Vulnerability Scan Suspected

Also open the task manager is ctl+alt+del and watch the cpu and memory use of the various programs that will give you an indication of what is the bottleneck.

Message was edited by: Peacekeeper on 23/08/13 7:09:41 AM
indinfer
Former Member
Message 7 of 10

Re: Windows 8 Freezes, McAfee Vulnerability Scan Suspected

I value McAfee protection. So, uninstalling McAfee for a few weeks to see whether the computer freezes does not work for me. I feel like it is inviting all kinds of viruses and hijacking of my website.

I was going to report the issue as ExBrit recommended. But what I wound up dong was setting McAfee Updates to "Notify me when updates are available" instead of "Download and install updates automatically".

And I have Vulnerability Scanner "Automatically updates after every scan" box unchecked (instead of checked).

So, now I have to remember to check the computer and okay the downloads and updates. So far, one Tuesday passed without a freeze.

Setting to not automatically update is indeed an acceptible solution for me, and I hope it works. And if it works, it shows that the McAfee scans, downloads, and updates do not freeze the computer.

I suspect that this could solve the problem because when the updates happen, I can make sure nothing else is going on in the computer that might cause a freeze (by itself or in combination with McAfee).

If keeping the alerts and removing the automatic part does not fix the problem, at least I will be more aware of what is going on just before the freeze.

It could be that manual approval of updates will stop the freezes. We will see if another Tuesday goes by without a freeze.

artcomm
Former Member
Message 8 of 10

Re: Windows 8 Freezes, McAfee Vulnerability Scan Suspected

Well, things have been slightly different for me.

My computer becomes slow, unresponsive, difficult to continue working with it.

Then I call the Task Administrator and voilá! The problem goes away.

Unless I call the Task Administrator, whatever is stopping my computer will not allow me to continue. However, just as the Task Administrator loads (and it takes a long time for it to happen) then I regain control of my PC.

Y have McAfee AntiVirus Plus installed and in general, I like the way it works; but I must suspect that there is a hidden cat in this! The moment this hidden cat “senses“ that I am about to start a program that might allow me to “discover” who is doing this, it is gone! This way I can't see who is disturbing my PC and perhaps I will fall for buying this thing that costs several tens of dollars yearly to “prevent” such strange from happening.

Next time it happens to you, try the task manager and you will most probably notice an almost immediate improvement.

Peacekeeper
Message 9 of 10

Re: Windows 8 Freezes, McAfee Vulnerability Scan Suspected

Ok this is an old thread but will make a comment or three.

1. Thought about leaving task manager open in a window and see what is causing this?

2. Try running

McAfee Virtual Technician

3. Could be McAfee updater running during a Vulnerability scan

4 Low PC resources etc?

catdaddy
MVP
MVP
Message 10 of 10

Re: Windows 8 Freezes, McAfee Vulnerability Scan Suspected

Marking this discussion as 'Assumed Answered'  and Locking it.As it is over 2 years old.

Cliff
McAfee Volunteer
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