Thread locked as started in 2012 - see latest reply, link above. (Moderator)
I, like many it seems, am having problems with mcshield.exe of the InternetSecurity Suite taking up 100% CPU quite often and making my computer almost unusable until it clears. I have not carried out a fresh install of McAfee,just kept it up to date. Looking in the forum I see that this problem goes back well into 2010. There I found posts referring to a Hotfix which cured this problem in November 2010. I could though not find any link to download thisHotfix.
Why was this fault, which is clearly still a problem, not cured by the normal regular updates? Is it still going to be fixed in this way or do I need to get this Hotfix? If so please could you advise how I can download and install it.
Dell Dimension 3100 with 3 GHz Intel Pentium 4 and 2 Gbyte RAM
Windows XP Professional SP3 kept up to date.
Derek Shaw
Message was edited by Moderator hence latest date
This is part of McAfee Virus Scan. Mcshield.exe constantly monitors your computer's running processes, accessed file and registry to detect virus activity. It is one of the core components to the virus protection offered by the McAfee virus scanning software and should not be stopped. If it is stopped your computer will not be protected from viruses. Mcshield.exe is flagged as a system process and does not appear to be a security risk. However, removing McAfee Shield may adversly impact your system.
I obviously don' t want to stop it because I realise what it does. What I want to do is to stop it using 100% CPU and making my computer almost unusable so often. My wife has a similar although older computer with similar software installed. This has a 2.25 GHz Intel Pentium P4 and 1.5 Gbyte RAM. She uses a different Internet Security Suite now (after it became necessary to remove McAfee when it prevented her computer from connecting to the internet). This internet security suite does not cause a similar problem to the one I have. So I don't see why it is not possible to prevent McAfee from using so much CPU whilst still doing its job. What I therefore need is a fix for this problem and I get the impression there is a Hotfix that might do this, but I cannot find it. So does it exist and if so where is it?
Derek Shaw
Message was edited by: DerekShaw on 23/02/12 02:13:32 CSTI have the same problem. About once a week, my computer virtually locks up due to McAfee running a scan at 100% cpu. It takes forever just to bring up the task manager to see what's up - though I no longer need to do this, as I now know it is always McAfee. I don't have permission to kill the process (what's up with that, btw? I am the admin), so the only solution I have found is to restart the computer -- which takes about 15 minutes, since the cpu is slogged. Heaven help me if I haven't saved my work. My subscription runs out in a couple months. Needless to say, I won't be re-upping unless McAfee fixes this problem.
You are lucky that you have this only about once a week. I get the problem frequently all the time several (many) times a day. However, in my case I just need to be (very) patient and it clears on its own in a couple of minutes without having to restart my computer. I carried out some steps about disabling spamkiller (which I found on some posts) and this has helped quite a bit. However, like you I am thinking about whether I will ditch McAfee and get another Internet Security Suite. It would be a pity because otherwise I have found McAfee very good and it would involve quite a bit of work to make a change.
So, is there someone at McAfee reading this thread who can do something about getting the problem fixed? After all, it goes back to the beginning of 2010 as far as I have been able to find out.
Derek Shaw
Just adding to my previous post. I am finding that having disabled the McAfee Anti-Spam Service it has helped more than just a bit and the CPU only goes up to 100% briefly for mcshield.exe. Most of the time it is very low or not more than about 60% (for example when watching a video on line). This does not slow my computer very much.
This is not just a case of turning Anti-Spam off in the McAfee Internet Security Centre which I did a long time ago but disabling McAfee Anti-Spam Service in Services.
In Windows XP Professional this is found in:-
Control Panel|Administrative Tools\Services
Whilst it is supposed to be just anti-spam for e-mails, it clearly has a much wider effect than that, so presumably it is trying to carry out a task when it should not and hence the general effect on the CPU use.
Don't know if this is a general solution but if anyone is having this problem this is at least worth a try as it only takes a matter of seconds to do and ia easily reversible if it has no effect.
Derek Shaw
Message was edited by: DerekShaw on 27/02/12 08:28:22 CSTI have this problem all the time, as well, many times a day. I tried to follow your instructions, but I am running Windows Vista and I don't see anything called McAfee Anti-Spam Service. I do see Firewall Core Service, McShield, Network Agent, Personal Firewall Service, Proxy Service, Scanner, Security Scan Component Host Service, Services, SiteAdvisor Service, Validation Trust Protection Service and VirusScan Announcer. Any thoughts as to whether I could/should disable one of these to fix the problem? Thanks for your help!
It is there in Win 7 2nd Mcafee entry 1st is Mcafee anti malware. I wonder did you install anti spam?
I do not use Vista so cannot give detailed advice for this OS. I am still getting this problem with XP though, and it is enough to make it impossible to use my computer at times. However, I don't usually have to reboot but just to wait a few minutes when it then clears. But I do think it is still a problem with McAfee and they really ought to fix it one way or another - either with a normal update or with a special patch program. If they don't I am still seriously considering changing to another internet security provider.
I found the anti-spam in two places - one is in the McAfee Internet Security under Web and e-mail protection. When you turn off Anti-spam here you will somewhere (can't remember where) have to say ignore this.
With Windows XP Professional, Classic setting, which I use, the other place is under Control Panel/Admistration Tools/Services
Here I set the Anti Spam Service to Disabled. Everything else for McAfee I left at the default setting.
Whatever you do you should not turn off McShield even though it is mcshield.exe which produces the 100% CPU usage, as this, as far as I understand, is the main part of the Realtime Scanning.
Derek Shaw
This Issue dates back Years.The Issue has gone on for so long McAfee decided to start a new thread.They will of coarse say these are all different Issues 4 different situations.
Here is a Link that dates back years https://community.mcafee.com/thread/24530?start=0&tstart=0 & one of the many reasons I will probably never use Mcafee again.Good luck
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