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coldfusion
Former Member
Message 31 of 41

Re: mchost application error

alcohol 120 v2.0.1.2033

shurik
Former Member
Message 32 of 41

Re: mchost application error

WinXP Professional SP3 build 2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.111025-1629

There is no Alcohol 120% installed

McAfee_version.bmp

Peacekeeper
Message 33 of 41

Re: mchost application error

1. Do you have alcohol 120% burning software installed? No you say but was it ever installed? An incorrect uninstall can leave shortcuts.

2. Try disabling netguard a firewall setting That can be a cause.

3. Do you have a HP mopier printer? Try removing the printer suite and only adding the driver.

4. Any folder or file or shortcut with a % sign in the name anywhere?

Can you list the installed programs you have?

shurik
Former Member
Message 34 of 41

Re: mchost application error

Thanks for quick response!

PSB

1. Do you have alcohol 120% burning software installed? No you say but was it ever installed? An incorrect uninstall can leave shortcuts.[Shurik] I had it installed, but it was removed after reading one of the recommendations on this forum using original program uninstaller. Problem keep happen

2. Try disabling netguard a firewall setting That can be a cause. [Shurik]not using McAfee firewall on this machine. Instead I have Sygate firewall installed

3. Do you have a HP mopier printer? Try removing the printer suite and only adding the driver. [Shurik]never had a printer configured on this machine

4. Any folder or file or shortcut with a % sign in the name anywhere? [Shirik] could be, never checked. I have files named in 3 different languages on this PC (english, russian,hebrew), some of it may contain all kinds of legal characters, supported by the WinXP

5. Can you list the installed programs you have? [Shurik] Unlikely, the list is very long

To be honest, Alcohol 120%, printer drivers, special chars - this all looks not serious. The problem appears at many machines at the same time, so I would blame either McAfee upgrade or maybe one of the XP patches, released around this period.

Do we know what operation of mchost (and sometimes of mcsync) triggers the exception? Is it reading, writing, syncing, etc...?

Thanks in advance,

Shurik

Peacekeeper
Message 35 of 41

Re: mchost application error

It is only on XP and mcsvhost. netguard is being fixed and causes other issues with utube and the net but not on all Pcs.

Alcohol 120% will cause itbut a mchost error not a mcsvhost one I tested it but uninstalling with its own uninstaller is correct way. Any % sign could be an issue so if you could check please do.

Do u have Adobe air and tweak ui installed? Those are really only common programs that 3 other users have.

Message was edited by: Peacekeeper on 29/02/12 6:29:34 AM
tvb3210
Former Member
Message 36 of 41

Re: mchost application error

All in McAfee, not wishing to spoil your party here, but after an update from your program i would need to uninstall another program in order to have your program (for which i pay yearly) work correctly. Not want to nit pick, but, should McAfee not try to fix the problem. Ie before your update it was no problem having Alcohol 120% installed, after your update it was, generally sounds like a problem with your program.

Now i agree as a quick solution to get the annoying pop up messages to disappear uninstall the other program but being fair, it should be McAfee that finds a work around, not by removing a third party software.

Can you imagine if it was Windows version  xxxx  that was the cause of the error, would you have suggested the same, remove it to make your program work.

Disappointing to say the least and maybe McAfee will realise this when us users no longer buy your software.

Also considiring that Alcohol 120% is not an illegal program, does any of their developers consider taking action against your product as advising customers not to use it or remove it can not be quite legal?

Peacekeeper
Message 37 of 41

Re: mchost application error

The alcohol 120% issue is now fixed by a simple renaming of its start menu folder and shortcuts.

See

http://service.mcafee.com/faqdocument.aspx?id=TS101320

2 minute job to fix it. No need to remove it

Message was edited by: Peacekeeper on 29/02/12 6:33:09 AM
tvb3210
Former Member
Message 38 of 41

Re: mchost application error

I am amazed by the time it took for McAfee to post a response to this that actually fixes this. Can i ask why no one else at McAfee could have taken the time to respond with the solution even tho it was reported as soon as the new year started. The solution, just in case anyone missed it is as follows:

http://service.mcafee.com/faqdocument.aspx?id=TS101320

I guess it works but like many would have done before, most of us have removed Alcohol 120%

Now to go a little more indepth, if indeed this is the problem, special character in program structure that causes failures with mchost and mcsync, does this mean that anyone could mess around with any other persons machine by creating a simple batch file (.bat) extension, that runs on startup of the machine renaming program folders by adding '%' or a whole other host of characters, to create this problem with McAfee related programs.

Surely this can not be right, put simple it would mean that McAfee can only be used by English speaking machines and any other languages like German, French, Spanish, etc... would have an issue as the use of special characters is quite common in those languages. Also if this is not the case, should McAfee not advise which other special characters should be excluded, so us meaningless coding monkeys, could avoid spamming your message boards trying to get a fix for something that was rather simple to solve and avoid.

Also why did it only become a problem after an update from McAfee and could a simple message to the user after the update not have prevented the miscommunication, afterall McAfee does scan the users machine on a regular basis?

Honestly i came to that logic when the problem initially started, but, as i thought something this simple could not be the issue, i completely disregarded it.

Having some input from McAfee on this issue would be nice, as i can see a whole lot of issues if a malicious person released the aforementioned batch process in the wild.

Maybe some of the people on this board should be offered a job at McAfee... (hint, hint)

Peacekeeper
Message 39 of 41

Re: mchost application error

Actually I reported it as soon as I realised the issue was an issue. A developer sorted it out but the solution needed external testing before they could release the fix. The testing was done and a FAQ TS101320 prepared and approved . It was out a week or so before I linked to it but I did say that there was a fix (more info following) 10 days ago but missed adding that comment to this thread.

I have tested making shortcuts with % signs in them and no problems. It must be a unique combination with alcohol 120% I will ask.

donkey
Former Member
Message 40 of 41

Re: mchost application error

HI,

I am here again. No real solution yet, but the error seems to be rarer then previously.

I have many files with the % character. If this is the real problem, I will not have any long term solution than change McAfee program to an other software... Some file and link can be renamed, its OK. But eg. some more difficult program with % files and folders:

-Skype makes file with % in the Temporary Internet Files folder. It can appear any time (or at least I use Skype). Impossible to look and delete it after all conversation. By the way Internet Explorer saves every special character (or space etc.) with % in file names (%20, %7E, %2F...). So if you save a web page (.htm, .html, .mht etc.) or in the Temporary Internet Files it could be very common.

-an older Adobe Photoshop plugin also uses files with names containing % character,

-or the most diffucult: the Borland Developer Studio also uses it frequently. I do not prefer to rename dozens of files of third party product. I think it will not work correctly.

Previously it caused no problems. I used McAfee and the same programs together for years without problems. I think you should check the development log of the two files (mchost.exe and mcsync) about the time the error occured and carefully look after each modification step by step, line by line, to find which cause the problem with this special character (or other issue).

Have a nice day.

Donkey

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