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jack_aubrey
Contributor
Message 1 of 12

Extremely slow full scan time

Have others noticed an incredible increase in the time needed for a full McAfee scan? On my core 2 quad XP (SP3) desktop, the full scan used to take about 75-90 minutes, but during the last few months, the time has increased to 7 or more hours. What's more, when I try to shut McAfee down during a full scan so that I can actually use my computer for something useful, the system freezes. By comparison, the scan time on my i5 laptop running Windows 7 with a similar software configuration and data load takes 40 minutes. The McAfee online technicians, usually knowledgeable, have not been helpful. Would uninstalling and re-installing McAfee possibly solve this? Any other suggestions?

7 hours is ridiculous and if it can't be resolved, I will have to become a former McAfee subscriber after almost a decade of being pretty satisfied.

11 Replies
Peacekeeper
Message 2 of 12

Re: Extremely slow full scan time

Some thoughts

1. what version post the securirty centre version and Virusscan versions please.

2. Have you got scan using minimal resources selected that will slow it down. Try a custom scan and do programs and files only is that faster?

3. No dvd in the drive and drive marked to scan. I have reported recently scanning a dvd (game) disk can cause lockups and long long never finishing scans.

4. If you have teh 2011 version you can exclude files and folders of your choice from being scanned. this is usually done with folders of large game files; photos; zip files etc that you have scanned previously and not added to so you consider them clean.This can speed up the scan as does the 2011 version which also scans using 2 scanning threads.

5. If all above no chop an uninstall/ reboot and reinstall via http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?lc=1033&id=TS100507 is worth while.

Also clean out your temp and internet temp files before reinstalling

Message was edited by: Peacekeeper on 14/09/11 8:07:00 PM
Hayton
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 3 of 12

Re: Extremely slow full scan time

I'm seeing this too. My last scan two weeks ago finished in well under two hours. Today a scheduled scan has been running for over seven hours and is nowhere near finished. This is with Internet Security 2010 on an XP machine. Something has changed in the past couple of weeks to extend the scan time.

One thing I notice in Task Manager is that a McAfee process, mfevtps.exe, is taking up 113Mb of RAM and 103Mb of Virtual Memory and has clocked up 12 million page faults, and that mcshield is using 161Mb of RAM and 184Mb of VM and has 22 million page faults. So those two programs between them are using half a gigabyte of memory (RAM + VM). I don't remember seeing mfevtps taking up resources on that scale before.

Task Manager.JPG

Message was edited by: Hayton on 03/10/11 00:20:54 IST
Peacekeeper
Message 4 of 12

Re: Extremely slow full scan time

Peter ask re this on tomorrow's call. That file is the process validation service.

Hayton
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 5 of 12

Re: Extremely slow full scan time

Good idea. There's something not right here. I know what mfevtps is and what it's meant to do, I just can't understand why it should be devouring resources like that during a scan. Nor did it release those resources once the scan finished (after 7 and a half hours). Normally that process sits quietly in the background and monitors McAfee resources, consuming little in the way of cpu or memory (see below). So why did it go crazy during the scan?

Task Manager 2.JPG

Gene
Former Member
Message 6 of 12

Re: Extremely slow full scan time

I have this problem also. A scan normally takes about 3-4 hours on my machine because I have a large amount of hard disk capacity (4 large drives) that contain a lot of graphics files. I have been scheduling a scan on Sunday at 5 a.m. so it would be finished long before noon, when I need to use the machine. About 4 weeks ago I had to abort the scan because it was still going a 5 p.m. -- 12 hours later. The same thing happened the next week.

I also discovered in the logs that the scan wasn't starting on time. It was starting about 1-1/2 or 2 hours later than it should have.

I didn't complain about it because I found a workaround. I disabled scheduled scanning and instead started a manual scan before bed on Saturday night. After checking the logs, I found that the manual scans were taking a normal amount of time. Only the scheduled scans that were lasting forever.

Peacekeeper
Message 7 of 12

Re: Extremely slow full scan time

First assume you have the 2011 version it has "about" in top right corner of teh security center home page. Have you?

If you have you can skip scanning folders that the graphics files are in as also for large zip files. Once you scan them the 1st time Real time scanning will check them when you open them so if teh are slowing down the scanning free happy to exclude the folders.

I notice use minimal recources is selected by default so untick this.

The Scheduled scan starting late is a glitch Mcafee has with Idle timer it waits for cpu actiity to be less than 10% for 10 minutes prior to starting a scan. Problem is this happens rarely so they added another option whereas if no scan starts it will start at +2hrs if PC has not been restarted.

I have a workaround for this if you are being bugged by this or wait for the 2012 version as it will have a idle timer disable option.

jack_aubrey
Contributor
Message 8 of 12

Re: Extremely slow full scan time

I appreciate everyone’s responses. As suggested, I un-checked “scan with minimal resources” and a custom scan was completed in about 3.5 hours, which is a big improvement. In addition, checking the option to exclude ZIP and other compressed files cut the time down to about 90 minutes, which is much closer to the original performance before this problem arose. Am I correct in assuming that ZIP/compressed files can be safely bypassed after they have been scanned once, as long as they have not been modified? I continue to feel there is a flaw or inefficiency in the latest McAfee version, at least on older XP systems. The scheduled weekly full scan is unacceptably slow and too demanding of system resources (it essentially takes complete control of my computer, which never happened before). So I will just do custom scans instead. This may work around the problem, but it does not solve it.

Peacekeeper
Message 9 of 12

Re: Extremely slow full scan time

Yes I scan my zip folders occasionly but exclude them from scheduled and custom scans. Real time scanner would detect anything amiss if you access them.

Ensure you have no dvd in a drive as mcafee might get into a loop and get stuck scanning it. I have reported this recently.  Do you have the 2011 version? Secuoity centre 11.*

Gene
Former Member
Message 10 of 12

Re: Extremely slow full scan time

You're correct. I have the 2011 version. I did not have the "use minimal resources" checked. I've tried that before and I know it adds considerable time to the scan. I also don't keep CD's or DVD's in my drives. I'm a neat freak and they're all cataloged and filed so I can find what I want.

I haven't tried excluding graphics or zip files. I may do that next week.

The strange thing is that the slow scanning only occurs with scheduled scans. Manual scans choosing all drives and files are normal.

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