mcshield hanging machine for minutes at a time

[greghig]

running vista 64 but the problem is not with my software becuase if you google "mcshield.exe hanging", you will see hundreds of hits of people having the same problem across multiple platforms and versions. A lot of people are posting details of their system and that seems to be where the thread ends with no resolve. Although it happen with explorer (either searching, opening a web page, looking up files, it does not matter"

Heres the quick rundown, Running computer with various programs, word, explorer, even going into control panel, does not matter

Machine will hang (or appear to hang with the circling vista "Busy" icon), can move mouse around but not click on anything. after 20-30 seconds the window i was trying to open will say "not responding".

From here I can do two things,

<1> Wait about 3 minutes and I will regain control of my machine and the computer will continue as if nothing happened. even the "not responding" window will come back to life and continue on. (until it hangs again).

<2> hit cntrl alt del and bring up task manager. Everytime MCSHIELD.EXE is over 50% processing time. If I right click and stop the process, all my programs come back to life immidately and I can continue.


This is happening on several machines, vista and xppro. Why did I pay for multiple licenses (over 6) to have to turn off the program to get my computer to work? This is unacceptiable.

If you need computer configurations, google them. this is a very known problem and need to be resolved.

greg

[sasnakra1949]

HI,try this...

Repeat: Problem found, work around below.

Problem: McShield.exe consumes 100% of CPU for long periods of time (>1 hour).

Work around:
  a. Invoke McAfee Security Center to feed McShield a "cookie" aka cookie monster. (This work around is less than optimal as it degrades over time.)

b. Search for McAfee anti-spam file error logs, (there are four of them). When found, delete the error logs in these files.( Over time, repeat as necessary.)

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\McAfee\MCLOGS
Install
mcinst
mcmscsvc
MskSrver

Comments: On inspection the logs are "forever logs" that accumulate reports on all errors  encountered by the various McAfee modules. Four modules have log files, these log files appear to "carry over" when an upgrade or a relicense is performed. Inspection of the dates on the logged errors show dates from the first installation up to the current run time. Note that the three machines I have examined all have the same symptoms of 100% CPU consumption and all three cleared up when the files in question were eliminated. The files appear to be diagnostic in nature and would be used by programmers to determine what failed, when it failed and in what module it failed for the McAfee modules.

It appears that McShield processes these logs on every system startup and on every system return from standby. This effect is what causes the consumption of 100% of CPU for extended periods.

A suggestion for a rapid work around would be a simple program that downloads to the user computer, targets these files and moves or deletes them from the error logging that is being processed by McShield.exe.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note that the Customer Service does not understand this problem and denies it exists.

Intake Tier wanted to re-install McAfee.
Tier 2 claims my machines are virus impaired and wanted me to visit the McAfee Virus Removal team.
Tier 1 wants to educate me on how viruses get onto machines.

Everything recommened by Customer Service avoids addressing the McShield.exe problem...actions just work to cover it up. This is a systemic McAfee Organizational problem reflected in the inablilty to admit a problem and fix same.

sasnakra1949

delete the contents of the McAfee "error log" files

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\McAfee\MCLOGS

Install

mcinst

mcmscsvc

MskSrver

[dougr_t3_suppor]

Hi Greg,

I checked on many of my machines and MCSHIELD seems to be idle. It does go up when scanning files though.

Please give us some more information about your system.

What version of VirusScan are you running?

What are the system specs? RAM, CPU, etc.

When did this start happening?

What Operating System and Service Pack?

Thanks,

Doug

[jbernardis]

This EXACT issue, as reported by the OP is happening to me.  This is a Dell system running XP SP2; I have had the system for years without problems.  I have 4 GB of memory (only 3.5GB addressable) and am running McAfee security center 9.15 Virusscan 13.15 Personal Firewall 10.15.

This problem was first noticed by me a few weeks ago.  When browsing the disk with windows explorer, occasionally when trying to open a directory, the system will appear to hang.  The mouse is still moveable, but I cannot click on anything.  When I hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete, IT IS ALWAYS mcshield.exe that is consuming AT LEAST 50% of the CPU with memory usage in excess of 100,000K.  After about 30 to 40 seconds, the system settles down, and returns to normal - I can continue to browse the disk - at least until it happens again.

The above suggestion to delete log files does not work for me.  SOme of the directories he mentions do not even exist, and the ones that do, the files in them are no bigger than 2 or 3k.  This is not the issue for me.

As far as I am concerned, this is a McAfee issue.  If it is not corrected in the next few weeks, I plan on abandoning my remaining subscription and going with an alternative product.

[dougr_t3_suppor]

Can you give me your case numbers? I will have an escalation agent call you back.

Thanks,

[saty]

What are the alternate programs we shoud be looking at ?????

[jbernardis]

I'm not sure what you mean by case numbers - I have not reported anything officially to McAfee.  Perhaps I should have, but my first thought was to google the issue and that is what brought me here.  I was hoping someone else had found a solution.

I wouldn't mind if someone called me to try to troubleshoot.  I do have to state that my usual experience with technical support (not necessarily McAfee, but with any software/hardware company) is that they give me busy work reinstalling my operating system and tasks such as thet.  I understand that these issues can be troublesome to diagnose, but I am not interested (nor do I have the time) to be put on a wild goose chase.

One further piece of information:  While in the task manager, and looking at the mcshield.exe process, if I kill the process (mcshield.exe), the machine returns to normal immmediately.

[lingyi764]

I am also seeing the same issue on my Dell Dimension P4 running XP Professional with 1GB RAM.

PC hangs for 1 - 2 minutes at various times while MCShield.exe maxing out CPU usage at 99% (examples: when opening a JPG file with WindowsPicture and Fax Viewer or AVI file with Windows Media Player for the first time after bootup).

Steps that I had tried:

• As other posters have suggested that Nero might have conflicts with McAfee, I uninstalled Nero 9 but it did not resolve the issue.
• Read that InCD might have conflicts with McAfee, so I disabled InCD from launching at startup through MSConfig, did not resolve the issue.
• Removed some log files as suggested by sasnakra1949, it also did not resolve the issue (although McAfee now loads much faster at startup).
• System restore to an earlier date, did not resolve the issue.

This just started happening very recently, and I have had McAfee running on this machine for a few years with no such issue.  Since so many other people are also facing the same issue, I am inclined to believe that a recent McAfee update probably caused this.  One poster said his problem went away by itself after a while, I am hoping this will be the case with me as well.

[rgates]

Same issue on a Dell Latitude D410 Win Xp SP3.  What is the latest status on a fix from McAfee??

[greghig]

Well, Cant say I told you so, but... I told you so. My orginal post was back in october 3 months ago. As I stated, it seems that many people have reported this problem, one quick "Try this" from a tech, (which did not work for nobody), and Surprise, no more tech or followup. Its really sad that companys get so big and could care less about 'a few' customers. Because of this, I will not renew my subscriptions when they run out and will look for alternate protection software. I recommend everybody else do the same. Mcafee, you will have to win me back if you want my continued support. Stop taking the Microsoft approach the issues of "if it works, how can I help you?" "if it dosent, it must be somebody elses problem, call them." You have till the end of my subscription to fix this or so long. (and I will NOT recommend any of your products to my department of a 'fortune 200' compans as I have in the past).

Still waiting for a resolution...