Mcshield.exe High Virtual Memory Usage

[Peacekeeper]

Send https://community.mcafee.com/people/SPyron a PM saying you have it ready and she will tell you her email addy.

I checked my restore points and they are all there maybe as I am on win 7 that affects things will check my test box ( XP ) later on

[Hayton]

I got the MER utility to download by running IE8 with no add-ons, so something was blocking it. I ran it and it created a 2+Mb file which Somer I think has received. Just as an experiment I ran Getsusp and it found only 2 files, both accounted for. I don't have the problem with vanishing Restore Points, unlike other posters, so that's not something affecting all XP SP3 users with this problem. I also don't have the problem with winlogin running at high cpu along with mcshield.

On the other hand mcshield is still running at up to 99% of CPU, so I'm following this closely. The latest episode can be seen below : all that long period of 100% CPU usage was mcshield. I don't think it likes Chrome, which of course creates large numbers of cache files.

Message was edited by: Hayton on 21/07/11 01:06:25 IST

[newjack]

This is not a problem with Chrome Hayton.I had this problem when I was updated to 2010 last year.I don`t remember what they ended up doing,but I did a remote session.But if I remember it still was not fixed until a few days later.Unfortunatly I believe they finally rolled out a fix.Which was months later.But it did fix my problem with Mcshield.

[thecreator]

Hi All, This is a reply to All,

Everyone is talking about McShield.exe and taking over the CPU. This doesn't say anything in my book.

Please state when McShield was taking over the CPU? At Boot-up? At a reboot? Disabling a Ethernet Adapter?

What were you trying to do at the time you notice this spike?

Here is a tip:

taskmgr is located in \Windows\System32 folder. Locate taskmgr. Highlight and right-click. Click Send To and click Desktop (create shortcut).

Move the shortcut to your User ID Startup.

Win 7: C:\Users\thecreator\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

XP:  D:\Documents and Settings\thecreator\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Vista is proably the same as 7.

Windows Task Manager loads at bootup, without having to right-click the Task Bar and click TaskMgr.

During the boot, Taskmgr loads. Click processes and click on the CPU heading until you see all processes running at the time.

The Resource Monitor found in Windows 7 taskmgr on the Performance Tab.

A Resource Monitor can be downloaded for XP.

[djcaucasian]

If anyone bins Mcafee and finds this resolves the problem can you please post back here, thanks. I only want to do it as a last resort.

[Hayton]

@thecreator : good point. I didn't make it clear what caused the spike, although I referred to Chrome : I opened Chrome, and it went to the Google homepage, then I clicked on a bookmark to open another site. That triggered a period of 100% CPU usage.

Since mcshield is the on-access scanner I'm experimenting with reducing the amount of work the scanner has to do by selectively unchecking boxes in the real-time scanning settings. I suspect that heuristic scanning might have something to do with it. I also went into the System settings and changed the priorities so that programs have priority for CPU and memory use. Too early to say whether that's had any effect.

Message was edited by: Hayton : I said firewall settings, I meant real-time scanning - on 21/07/11 14:34:27 IST

[thecreator]

Hi Hayton,

You were correct, when you said Firewall settings, indirectly.

When Users of McAfee first install the new version of McAfee, they do not go through all the settings of the program that are changeable.

When Firewall is installed from scratch it gives all programs only Outgoing Access (Recommended).

I wonder if McShield.exe is looking for Incoming Connections and is not receiving them, thus causing the spikes, if the program has only Outgoing Access that you are using?

Make sense?

[Hayton]

Not in this case, I think. I allow Chrome full access.

[newjack]

These are the so called default settings.I have reinstalled Mcafee 3 times and each time it has installed with FULL access.Also last year it had installed 2010 with full access.I have posted about this in the past.But it was never addressed.That is a differant topic for Mcafee to look into.The Mcshield problem has been an ongoing problem for years.As seen in other posts.One which has over 800 posts.From printers to drivers to who knows.Lucky for me that has not sucked the life from my computer yet this year.Not sure if it is related to Mcafee and XP this time around.Last year I was told I had to delete spywareblaster from a remote session.Although it is and was listed as compatible with Mcafee.I doubt this will help anyone.

[Hayton]

mcshield seems to be behaving itself, at least for now. I modified the system settings to give programs priority, and unchecked a couple of boxes in Real-Time Scan settings. I'll keep an eye on things for a day or so and will report back on the situation.