McAfee Update (8/9/10) causes win 7 Problems

madtownidiot · 10 Aug 2010

Too numerous to list, but mainly issues of excessive CPU usage, too many false alerts, lost internet connectivity, doesn't play well on dual boot systems.. I don't like the inability to completely shut down NIS whenever I need to do something like upgrade BIOS... Most of which happened 3-4 years ago, after which I boycotted everything symantec makes except for GHOST, which I use to keep my kid's computers from accumulating too much garbage. Their corporate products, especially the firewall, are very good though.

Night Hawk · 11 Aug 2010

Most of these companies actually make their income seeing commercial not private interest sales to start with. Simply look at AVG and AVG Pro to see where Grisoft has made it's revenues from. The same applies to any other freebie for home use.

Mcough_blAh_fee has been a scam for over a decade on the unsuspecting! I dumped that back in the 90s and have heard nothing but complaints ever since! "Bottom of waste barrel"

With the rest Corporate security is their focus while "we also have some home products here for you to look at..." and then simply sign contracts with the ISPs to see their trials promoted through them as well as with the pc manufacturers.

madtownidiot · 11 Aug 2010

That sounds about right.

Night Hawk · 11 Aug 2010

Often when you hear someone complain about the "bloatware" on an HP, Dell, or other premade you can only imagine Mc aaa... aaa... Achoooo... fees may be amongst the trial softwares being pushed. They have to be doing something right somewhere in order to lasted over a decade while the home user suffers!

malexous · 11 Aug 2010

madtownidiot said:

Petey7 said:

I told the lady the McAfee on one computer managed to screw up stuff on all three and it was harder to remove than Antivirus XP 2010 (rogue security software). It sounded like was trying to keep herself from laughing.

I don't trust McAfee at all or any of Symantec's non-enterprise products.. Everything else that requires removal tools to get rid of is listed as malware/spyware/trojans/viruses..

Norton has changed a lot since you last used it.
Add/Remove will uninstall Norton but some things will be left behind. This is true for many programs, not just anti-virus.

Most anti-virus have a removal tool on the occasion that a normal uninstall goes bad.

codyw · 11 Aug 2010

I never used Norton's older versions, 2006, 2007, 2008, etc. When I first got my new machine this past December, it had Kaspersky on it and I changed it to Norton. I've been happy with Norton ever since.
It seems to have a very good detection rate.

Borg 386 · 11 Aug 2010

I just checked my thread in McAfee's help section that I posted to see if other people were having this problem.

I saw a few other people that said the new "upgrade" (and I use the term loosely), hosed their PC's. Also this mention:

I do have an ominous feeling that, now that the Dell Partner McAfee updates are being pushed out, that the sluice gates might be about to open, as I cannot honestly believe there is something unique with my system to cause this problem.

I also saw numerous posts about mcsvhost.exe. This is a quote from McAfee sitting on the top of the page:

McAfee is aware that some customers are reporting an error with file mcsvhost.exe during shutdown.

A software update has been released, and is being distributed to everyone in phases. Your software will be automatically updated when the fix is sent out to your region. If you would like to update immediately you must uninstall and reinstall the McAfee Consumer Suite.

Please be assured that we are working hard to investigate the cause of this error. Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we troubleshoot this issue.

May 10, 2010 4:11 PM

LOOK AT THE DATE THIS WAS POSTED ON...THEY HAVEN'T FIXED IT YET!

NOTE: When I went there yesterday, the only thing it said was "We are investigating this problem", so apparently they just issued a fix. But after how many months????

There are new posts just hours ago about this problem, but in all this time they haven't addressed the issue?

Among the list of problems with the update was some peoples windows would not boot at all, showing the Windows logo or McAfee logo 2 or 3 times & then freezing, and the same problem I was having (once the net connect is established, entire PC locks up), and just general mayhem.

Look at what this poor lady went through:

Having twice installed the new version, with complete uninstall/cleanup/reboot at all the usual points, the end result (at least the 2nd time, since the 1st time was an in-place upgrade) was a seemingly perfectly installed McAfee 2010 and a computer which could only boot into SAFE MODE.
Safe mode with networking -> BSOD and a "driver-IRQL-not-less-or-equal" error message before it and the stop code disappeared.
Normal mode boot -> just a BLACK SCREEN at a point after the Windows logo appears, but before the login screen. TWICE.
Complete removal of the McAfee from the system restores the computer to completely normal booting and behavior. TWICE.
That is where I am now: computer is fine, so long as there is no McAfee 2010.

I think she summed it up well - Computer is fine so long as there is no McAfee 2010

I repeat...they can go blow a goat

On a good note, I'm finding Comodo firewall has a lot of settings/features, but seems to be working out good thus far. I only have the firewall with advanced features, since the AV part of it didn't get so good reviews.

codyw · 11 Aug 2010

My gosh...you will NEVER hear anything like this about Norton.
At least, I haven't...
I feel so bad for all those folks who are experiencing problems.

madtownidiot · 11 Aug 2010

NIS 04, 05, and 06 were probably just as bad for a computer as most malware.. I remember working on an Dell a few years back that had a GB of RAM and a pentium D (top of the line for its time) that ran at 25 to 40% CPU usage just sitting idle and would get stuck at 100% CPU for 3 1/2 hours during a system scan. Boot time was a blazing fast 22 minutes.. After I wiped the HDD completely and replaced Norton with AVG free it never had another problem... And I've lost count of how many computers I've fixed simply by getting rid of McAfreeze,..

@malexous.. i was just being facetious about the removal tool thing... well.. then again maybe not. I've heard the same from numerous others. that Norton is improving, but when I get burned by a company, I almost never use their products again.. And Symantec still recommends using the removal tool to uninstall its software

malexous · 11 Aug 2010

We used Norton for a few years around 2005 on a Dell Dimension 4500 (256 RAM). When re-subscribing we opted to not subscribe to the latest version because it always cost a bit more (and I knew nothing about security back then). When performing a full system scan the PC was unusable.

We switched to AVG 7.5 Free and were actually able to use the computer during a full system scan.

I never expected to use Norton again but once my brother recommended Norton 2009 I couldn't ignore it. He knew about our experience with it in the past.

Used Norton since (2009/2010/2011) and it is nothing like it once was.