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republic
Contributor
Message 1 of 4

Sluggish & unprotected

Running XP SP2
Security Center version 9 Build 9.0.295

Scheduled scan was getting slower & slower (ordinarily my 250Gig C drive takes 18-24 hours on minimal resources; was up to 40+; last time after 12 hours, only 2057 files scanned - i.e., not even out of My Documents). Also getting "Not Protected" for Script scanning and Buffer overflow every 4 hours or so. Fix usually incapacitated my system for 5-10 minutes without helping, and Virtual Tecnician still said McShield not running.

No other programs ( except maybe Firefox - new build & still buggy) seem affected.

Given that the only advice I ever see here is run Malwarebytes and SuperAntispyware, then reinstall, I did (4 days after I started). No major problems in the external scans. Worked OK ( as far as I can tell) for a few hours. After the next update, back to the same thing, except more stuff was screwed up:
realtime scanning
spyware & PUP
IM scanning
script scanning
Buffer overflow

Fix button went green, Virtual Tech still says error with McShield.exe It is indeed stopped in Services.msc (everything is on automatic except McAfee Scanner (mcods.exe) which is set to manual. Recovery for McShield is restart service after 1st and 2nd failure. Windows won't let me change the settings for subsequent failure (it never would - I went through all this for "System Guard Disabled" a few months ago). Starting the service brings up the "Not Protected" warning again with all 5 services off (and about 6 minutes + chewing through around 500MB of RAM). Have switched service to automatic to see what happens (nothing when I tried it before reinstall).

This is the sixth or seventh time I have had to reinstall. The SystemGuard took a month to "resolve" ( based on other users hints, not anything official - I notice that the thread is plenty active after 8 months). I haven't been able to do a full scan in 6 months, and even a scan of my C drive puts my computer out of commission for 2 days. I'm ready to eat the remaining 5 months of my license and go to Kaspersky - nothing in your "Knowledge" base comes close to helping and I see that plenty of others have just thrown in the towel too.

Oh, setting McShilled to auto lasted 4 minutes before "Not Protected" came up. Virtual Tech yields page cannot be displayed after 15 minutes or so of spinning its wheels.

12 more random incidents, plus 3 on update, 2 on reboot since initial post. "fix" button takes 2-4 tries to go green. Not happy.
3 Replies
OliverJohnSimps
Former Member
Message 2 of 4

RE: Sluggish & unprotected

Hi,

Would it be possible that your computer could have had some infection? Did malwarebytes detect any infections on the computer? Can you also let me know what are the versions of the McAfee Products that are installed your computer as of now, to know this please open the McAfee Security Center and then click on 'View Details' or 'About'.

Regards,
OJ
republic
Contributor
Message 3 of 4

RE: Sluggish & unprotected

The only thing malwarebytes found was weatherbug from about 3 years ago. Removed it without any apparent effect. SuperSpyware found a couple of tracking cookies (fairly innocuous - techrepublic & the like).

Security Center 9 build 9.0.295
VirusScan 13 build 13.0.218
Personal Firewall 10 build 10.0.209
Site Advisor 2.8 build 2.8.304
Anti-Spam 10 build 10.0.186
Parental Controls 11 build 11.0.378
EasyNetwork 3.0 build 3.0.154 (not used)
Backup and Restorer 3.0 build 3.0.131 (not used)

Got things to settle down after tracking down and removing a couple of old mouse drivers (I managed the original system guard issue 7 or 8 months ago by removing an old enhanced keyboard driver). Some days I can go 12 hours or so without a problem, other days it still goes off every 2 hours. I was getting the JS debugger popping up quite often, but the latest build a few days ago seems to have taken care of this ( I was current on Java before). Manually starting in services.msc sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, and sometimes lags 4-5 minutes. Two or three "Fix" tries are more common than not.

The only "iffy" thing on the system I know about is Jaeder-Naub in MultiExCommander (which McAfee routinely removes and I restore), which I use for game mods. Removing it for a couple weeks never affected the McAfee problem in the slightest. Having a standard windows screensaver on seems to increase the frequency, but turning it off doesn't stop the "not protected." McAfee updates still set it off fairly often.

Scheduled scans are still incredibly slow (30-40 hours and lots of resources, certainly not minimal) for a 200 GB drive. Defragging a couple weeks ago didn't help much. Manual scans seem to work more reasonaly, though I haven't run a manual for the whole C Drive to compare.
OliverJohnSimps
Former Member
Message 4 of 4

RE: Sluggish & unprotected

Can you please uninstall all the McAfee Products and then reinstall it back on and then see if you still have the same problem. Please follow the FAQ: TS100507
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