SecurityCenter commits suicide

[andyross]

When I bought my Dell in 2007, it came with McAfee. This fall, it went through a major update to the 2010 version. Ever since then, it has not been a well functioning program. The worst is it's timidness in trying to update. The main screen would say my security was 'CURRENT', when the DAT file was several days old.

A few weeks ago, there was another small update. Ever since then, I'd had an occasional crash in some part of McAfee that Vista was catching in the program problem and solutions feature. One time it was security center, another was 'McAfee Instrumentation'.

This Sunday, something happened. I went to shut down the computer, and I got something about McAfee updating running, and if I wanted to continue or terminate. I told it to continue. Several minutes later, I checked, and McAfee was still 'updating'. The status screen on updates said 0% and was showing no progress. I ended up terminating it. On reboot, nothing seemed wrong, but the McAfee shield in the status bar was not working. When I tried to run McAfee from the Start menu, I just got a white rectangle.

I tried virtual technication, and it showed a bunch of files and registry entries were missing and couldn't fix it. I then tried to reinstall. I downloaded a file from McAfee, which then appeared to trigger an on-line install. Problem is, that screen was just a rectangle with the McAfee logo near the top, but no progress indicator or anything telling me what was going on. There was a large amount of network traffic. Even odder, looking at TaskManager, a file involved with audio was showing around 20% CPU, along with the install program. After about 20 minutes of continuous traffic, I said enough. I clicked the small X in the corner, and it did cleanly shut down after I told it I wanted to cancel.

I uninstalled McAfee, downloaded MSE from Microsoft, installed it, and did a scan (nothing found.)

I don't need Parental Controls or Spam filtering. Is there really anything better about McAfee's firewall over the Vista firewall? As a Comcast customer, I can also use Norton's for free if I wanted to.

[Aldrin]

What is the version of Windows that you have installed and what type of internet connection you are using? I guess McAfee was in the progress of upgrading your programs but it failed due to connectivity issues.

Please click on the Useful Links on the top of this page, run the McAfee Removal Tool (MCPR), reboot the computer and reinstall McAfee im sure it should work, but before that make sure you remove all other Security Programs which is installed in your computer

[andyross]

This was Vista, and the standard Comcast 12/2 plan. No break in connectivity at the time that I am aware of (nothing in modem logs.)

I have no plans on reinstalling it for now. The uninstall seemed to have done a good job, as there is nothing left but an empty temp folder in program files\McAfee.

Any data to prove that McAfee is better than the Vista firewall and MSE? Take into account I don't care about spam filtering or parental controls. I also have SpyBot S&D, not as resident, but I do use the immunize feature.

[Aldrin]

andyross - Spybot S&D and MSE would conflict with McAfee programs and that may be even one of the cause of your issue. Running multiple security programs in a computer is really not advisable. Moreover, Vista firewall doesn't have all the features as McAfee Firewall does, such as: Control incoming/ outgoing internet traffic, Heuristic scan, Port control, Trojan attack etc..

[andyross]

I installed MSE after uninstalling McAfee.

I don't use any of Spybot's resident features.. The immunize feature just fills IE and Firefox's security lists and the HOSTS file with sites to restrict. Otherwise, it's just used as a standalone scanner if needed.

[Aldrin]

I understand that you are not using any of the Spybot's resident features, however the service of those program would be still running at the background. Moreover, as I have mentioned earlier remove the McAfee completely and reinstall it back I'm sure it should work...