Security center faulting - Firewall keeps turning off & Real-time scanning also has issues

[porter]

This problem first came to my attention when the taskbar notification for the firewall came up. I opened security center to the big red warning "Your computer is at risk! Firewall is off" and cliked to turn it on. It worked; so far so good. However, Realtime scanning almost immediately turned itself off. Not so good.

So, I try to turn real-time scanning back on but the interface is minimally responsive. I can get to the point where I can see the "Real-time scanning settings" link but clicking on it does nothing. So I let it sit for a bit and try again. Still nothing.

I begin to research the issue and find that I'm not alone. In the meantime, the firewall turns itself off again (same cycle ensues: I turn it on, everything comes up green, real-time scanning turns off, can't turn it on, lather, rinse, repeat...). The discussion boards advise me to run MVT.

I do. It finds several things but only solves some. My session ID is 34900334.

Your help is appreciated.

Gotta go; firewall needs to be turned on again. (!!)

Porter

[thecreator]

Hi porter,

What is your operating system, Service Pack Level, 32 or 64-bit and Home Edition or a different version? Anything else in the way of protection installed?

[porter]

Thecreator,

Thanks for the response. I was just working on this and composing the following. At the end I'll be sure that I've answered your questions:

More grist for the mill...

I found this thread (https://community.mcafee.com/thread/21946?tstart=0) that covers this territory. The first McAffee advisor posting there recommends some work in services.msc so I began there. I found many of the services not running so I started them.The second problem came when I checked the recovery settings. The McAfeePersonal Firewall, McAfee Validation Trust Protection, and McShield services will not allow me to edit the failure recovery settings; they're visible but greyed out. The current settings for the Personal Firewall are: 1st failure =restart, 2nd failure = restart, subsequent = take no action. The current settings for the Validation Trust Protection are: 1st failure = take no action,2nd failure = take no action, subsequent = take no action. The current settingsfor the McShield are: 1st failure = restart, 2nd failure = restart, subsequent= restart.

FWIW, after starting the personal firewall service in services.msc theSecurity Center still shows the firewall as off (can't actually get it to turnon at all in Security Center at this point).

Working on this as I type I now find that a bunch of the McAfee lines no longer show "started" in services.msc. I'll turn them back on and see if they stay on... Nope, that didn't quite work. Now I can't turn on theSiteAdvisor service. I get the following error: "Windows could not start the McAfee Site Advisor Service service on Local Computer. Error 109: The pipe has been ended." In the meantime, several other services have turned themselves off again. [30 minutes later] They’ve stayed on in services.msc for a while now. I’m closing it and moving on.

Now I find reference to this white paper: http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=TS100903 Off we go…

Step 1: Doesn’t work. The “Real-Time Scanning” link won’t work. I click it and nothing happens.

Step 2: Done previously. See my first post in this discussion thread.

Step 3: Downloaded it, ran as administrator. It seems to lock up for a few moments but then the comand window disappears. Did this do something? I shut down and restart and the problem persists.

Upon my restart I now get a “Spyware Protection is turned off” error. Joy.

Step 4: Checked everything in Add/Remove programs list and found none that conflict with the list at http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?lc=1033&id=TS101083

Step 5: Not yet…

Now to answer your questions...

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium, Version 6.1 (Build 7601: Service Pack 1)

Other protection? Step 4 covered that, right? That said, I've just installed HijackThis as a precautionary measure and have been sorting through that log but I'm pretty sure that doesn't fall into the "other protection" category, no?

Your help is appreciated.

Porter

[thecreator]

Hi Porter,

You forgot 32-bit or 64-Bit Windows 7?

I have Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Service Pack 1 installed on a Laptop. I will edit from that computer.

Spyware Protection? Windows Defender?

[porter]

Oops.

It's 64 bit.

I removed antimalwarebytes a few months ago due to conflicts with McAfee. Until today I haven't had a spyware program running (or Defender). I loaded Spybot S&D about an hour ago and got two hits from it: BPS Spyware Remover (2 registry keys) and a DoubleClick cookie. The latter is obviously easy to nuke. The foremer has me a bit puzzled because I don't have BPS installed and never have to my memory. I don't find any fragments of it on my system (I have run through most of this link http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=37346 looking for it) except for the two registry keys that Spybot reports (below)

--- Search result list ---

BPSSpywareRemover: [SBI $56D821C1] Type library (Registry key, nothing done)

  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{602E2CE0-53F7-11D2-A7F4-00A0C91110C3}

BPSSpywareRemover: [SBI $56D821C1] Type library (Registry key, nothing done)

  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{602E2CE0-53F7-11D2-A7F4-00A0C91110C3}

Anything else?

Porter

[thecreator]

Hi Porter,

On my system, Windows Defender is turned off, as is the Windows Firewall. McAfee is monitoring.Spybot, not yet installed.

I have TuneUp Utilities 2011 installed and using. I purposely have Real-Time Scanner set to Never on my system.

You can grab the program here: http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/

Any change can be undone.

You can view all suggested changes before fixing it.

[porter]

thecreator,

To what end? I'm perfectly willing to download the free trial version of TuneUp but I want to know what you are thinking may be wrong with my system.

Porter

[thecreator]

Hi Porter,

I have no idea what may be wrong with your system.

I know that you can't get a number of McAfee Services to turn on.

Try this:

Uninstall McAfee from Programs and Features.

Use the Clean tool from McAfee.

Reboot the computer.

Use Explore and delete your \Windows\Temp Sub-folders and files

Make sure that you are viewing Hidden Files and Folders then quit Explore.

Use Explore and go to C:\Users\porter\AppData\Local\Temp

Delete all possible sub-folders and files.

Search for any leftover McAfee folders and delete.

Run Disk Cleanup.

Reboot the computer.

Run Tuneup Utilities 2011's Clean registry located in Optimize system. It presents a list that you can view before you delete the recommendated Registry Keys and you can unchedck a few that you may want to keep.

McAfee has a similar tool, but it doesn't tell you why it wants to remove them.

When done. Reboot and reinstall McAfee.

[porter]

Will do. I'll check back in when done.

Porter

[thecreator]

Hi Porter,

Do not buy TuneUp Utilities 2011 when TuneUp Utilities 2012 is coming out, if you like the program. But sign up for the Emails, so you can get deals on it. I just got an Email today to preorder it.

Lots of people don't like Registry Cleaners, but it is more than a Registry Cleaner.