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ChrisRobt
Contributor
Message 1 of 51

McAfee update crashed my computer!!

I have a Dell XPS M1730 laptop which I use as my desktop computer; I've had it since November 2007.  It came with McAfee installed for I think a three year period.  I've had no trouble with McAfee until July19th when my computer stopped responding to any kind of input.  This was just before 8 am PDT.  I called Dell and through the day worked intermittantly with three different techs in an effort to solve the problem.  All input devices ran fine in the safe mode (I'm running Vista Home Premium Edition); I went to bed Monday night with the computer running a system scan which confirmed that there is no hardware problem.  I knew there had been an automatic update Monday morning but hadn't noticed which program had done the update.  When I searched further, I found that the McAfee update was the culprit.  I logged on my compiter in safe mode and contacted McAfee support online; I did an internet chat with Vijish who uninstalled McAfee from my computer for me (apparently it was  not a complete uninstall but I don't know how to complete that now). Once this process was completed, my computer seemed to be working normally once again.  I am not pleased that McAfee crashed my computer!! 

But is my computer working normally?  no, it is not.,  I have been using Google's Chrome and enjoy playing some games on Facebook; none of these games now respond to my mouse or touchpad since this incident.  I tried switching over to IE and while I am able to play my FB games on this platform, the response is very slow.  There must be some piece of McAfee still interfering with my computer.  I'm hoping McAfee will help me solve this problem.  I have not tried reinstalling McAfee back on my computer.  I would have sent this as an e-mail to McAfee but cannot find any appropriate e-mail address to send it to so I ask for help here.  I am not happy!!!

Christine

50 Replies
Dinz
Former Member
Message 2 of 51

Re: McAfee update crashed my computer!!

Hi Christine,

Sorry for the inconvenience caused,  Updates more often take place with so many other programs in the computer. Did we check if there was any Microsoft/ any third party applications update that took place in the computer (just to find out the root cause)

Also try performing a system restore prior to the date where the computer was working fine and Run the removal tool available at available links at the top of this page. Restart  the computer after reboot and McAfee would be completely removed of your computer.

Regards,
Dinesh K
McAfee Online Community Moderator

ChrisRobt
Contributor
Message 3 of 51

Re: McAfee update crashed my computer!!

No offer was made to check what the update did to my computer, but since it is working better (not yet right), I can only assume that the McAfee update was the culprit.  I did not see any other software update which matched the timing of my computer crash.  With the Dell techs, we tried to do a system restore but got an error message that there was a problem with the disc. This is why we did the hardware check which came out okay.  I still don't know what happened and would like to discuss the situation with someone at McAfee if they can be of help. 

k3tg
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 4 of 51

Re: McAfee update crashed my computer!!

Hi ChrisRobt,

While awaiting a reply from Dinz, you could try to run the McAfee Virtual Technician. MVT will scan your computer for any McAfee related issues and if it finds any it will attempt to fix them. http://mvt.mcafee.com/

I have found in my experience that sometimes when updates are run you will get a prompt to tell you the computer should be rebooted. I make it a habit to reboot the computer once a day irregardless of being prompted or not.

One other thought is Microsoft seems to push a lot of updates as well so I would double check to see if you are updated with them.

ChrisRobt
Contributor
Message 5 of 51

Re: McAfee update crashed my computer!!

Tom, thanks for your reply. I DL'd the fiel you suggested and tried to install it on my computer.  I got a message stating that the system administrator had policies in place which did not allow this type of file.  This is my personal computer so if there is a system administrator, I am it.  This is getting frustrating!!!


Christine

Aldrin
Former Member
Message 6 of 51

Re: McAfee update crashed my computer!!

You may also create a new user account (Administrator Account) and try the above proposed steps...

ChrisRobt
Contributor
Message 7 of 51

Re: McAfee update crashed my computer!!

I tried the steps outlined by Jayadeep, but really no change; I am unable to back up my computer due to bad sectors on the C: drive which must be repaired before I can do a backup.  I am unable to repair the bad sectors so am feeling really frustrated.  I discussed this with Dell  and was told I had to restore my computer to the factory settings (2 1/2 years ago), and recommended a backup first.  I feel like I'm running in circles


Christine (who really appreciates the attempted help here)

MoxieMomma
Former Member
Message 8 of 51

Re: McAfee update crashed my computer!!

Hi, ChrisRobt:

I'm no computer expert (just a largely self-taught home user), but it sounds as if your best bet might be to cut your losses with trying to get the computer in its current state back up and running.  It may be that the McAfee update problem might have been a symptom, rather than a cause of the current situation.

I can certainly empathize with your frustration -- it can totally suck the life out of you!

I may have missed it, but I didn't see if your Vista OS is completely updated with all the current Windows SPs and patches?

Even if it is, Vista is just a lousy OS.  I struggled with it for ~16 months and finally gave up, b/c of the issues with the backup utility, the instability, the video crashes, the bloat, etc.

If you have bad sectors on your disk, as well as the OS issues, then it *may* be time to reformat the HD and reinstall the OS.

Sometimes, it's just the better part of valor to do so.

Can you at least boot the system (perhaps into Safe Mode), so that you can *move/copy* your data to an external hard drive?

Even if the Windows backup utility itself doesn't work, there are 3rd-party standalone utlities for this, or you could just use copy/paste (drag/drop) to directly move your data files to an external HD.

Even if you try to restore to the factory image (as opposed to a reformat), you will lose your data anyway.

So, one way or the other, you need to try to get your data onto another device first.

Then you could reformat the disk and reinstall the OS (it's likely not worth trying an OS deep repair, esp if you have bad disk sectors).

If your system is compatible, you might wish to upgrade to Windows 7, rather than reinstalling Vista.

It might well be worth the $$$ to do so, largely b/c Win7 is just vastly superior to Vista and b/c support for Vista will end rather soon, esp for non-SP2 installations.

MS offers several resources for checking to see if your system is Win 7-compatible, such as here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1b544e90-7659-4bd9-9e51-2497c146af15&displa...

Once reformatted and your new OS is installed, you will be able to reinstall your McAfee products from your online account, and with a clean disk and clean OS install, you should not have any problems with it.

I used to get annoyed when experts would make this recommendation to me when I was trying to solve computer problems.

However, it may ultimately cost you less time and aggravation to "nuke and pave" than to keep struggling with the current setup.

Most drastic of all, of course, would be to invest in a new computer -- if that's feasible -- with updated hardware and Win7 pre-installed.

Then you could undertake a more leisurely "rehab" of your current machine and use it for a spare. (That's what I ended up doing with my Vista desktop.)

Well, I'll turn this back over to the more expert helpers here.

I do hope you get things sorted out OK.

Please post back and let us know how it goes,

MM

ChrisRobt
Contributor
Message 9 of 51

Re: McAfee update crashed my computer!!

MM, yours may be the ultimate solution; I've been advised to do the same by my software engineer son-in-law.  Fortunately, this Spring I purchased a smaller laptop (my desktop machine is a Dell XPS 1730) for travel.  I have an eReader and needed a way to access my library while travelling, or maybe just to watch movies.  my "small" computer is a Dell Studio 15.6 running Win 7.  I am mostly working on my smaller computer now.  I like the idea of simply dragging stuff over to my external backup drive but wonder if there is another program which could do this despite the bad sector?  I agree that the McAfee update may not be the culprit but just a symptom of the problem.  I can use my XPS machine, but know it has problems so do need to do some kind of backup; I especially need to get my photos on CDs to save them.

Peacekeeper
Message 10 of 51

Re: McAfee update crashed my computer!!

Have you tried running the command chkdsk c: /r at a command prompt? That will repair or mark as bad bad sectors problem is if a windows file is contained in the bad sector you may have problems.It will ask for a reboot and fix things next boot.

ie To repair errors, locate bad sectors, and recover  readable information, at the command prompt, type chkdsk  volume:/r, and then press ENTER.

see

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

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