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.