Mcafee problems

A customer of mine is having a problem with Macfee 5.xx. It is updated with the scan engine and dat files. The thing is that when the system scan is enabled (doesnt matter if it is set for all files or just program files) it causes the computer to slow down to a horrible rate. It is to the point where it takes several seconds for even a single click to respond after the comp has been running for 20mins or so. When the system scan is disabled, and all other scanning is still enabled the system works fine. I have reinstalled it and cleaned the registry each time with the same end result, the problem is still there

Does anyone have any suggestions, the system is a 450p3 with 512 ram, win 98.

The 512mb ram might be the problem. I don't have much experience in this regard, but this is what I know: win98 can't properly communicate to a system that has then a certain amount (256?) of ram without applying specific registry hacks. Now, I had heard that if you have TO MUCH ram with win98, and haven't applied the reg hacks, then your system will run SLOWER then if you had less ram. You'll have to check this with someone else though, because I can't verify it.

Also, try running that app with all other apps closed first. see if it dogs down then.

[quote]Originaly posted by Danger:

The 512mb ram might be the problem. I don't have much experience in this regard, but this is what I know: win98 can't properly communicate to a system that has then a certain amount (256?) of ram without applying specific registry hacks. Now, I had heard that if you have TO MUCH ram with win98, and haven't applied the reg hacks, then your system will run SLOWER then if you had less ram. You'll have to check this with someone else though, because I can't verify it. <hr></blockquote>

Windows will crap out if there is more than 512 megs of ram (512 is ok) the registry hacks in question limit windows view of the ram down to 512 megs. Here is the artical on this particular issue

<a href="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=%2fsearch%2fviewDoc.aspx%3fdocID %3dKC.Q253912%26dialogID%3d2876321%26iterationID%3 d1%26sessionID%3danonymous%7c2559619" target="_blank">"Out of Memory" Error Messages with Large Amounts of RAM Installed (Q253912)</a>

Has for the scanning problem, With 512 megs of ram, disable the paging file (Uhm Virtual memory in 9x?) force windows to run completly in ram and it may speed things up for you

It is normal for the scanner to take about 10% of the processing power off the top but the way you describe it there is something wrong.

Uninstall the app and then reinstall. if that doesn't work I might chalk it up to McAfee 5.xx being the suckiest virus scanner I have ever seen besides 4.5. I'm not joking. I installed it on a few machines here to test it and we just decided to get rid of it as all of them started comming up with all sorts of problems until the product was removed.

Also, perhaps there is a patch. They had a patch for 4.5 that was pretty good and perhaps there is a patch for this. Contact their tech support and see what they say.

It would make little sence that the ram had anything to do with it since the slow down problem is only caused by the system scan of mcafee. I have made sure that all other programs were closed ect..

This guy is like religously hooked on macfee, so I dont know what I can do about getting him to switch to a different program. I spent a good 15 minutes telling him about different programs and why they are better, but it didnt really matter. I have some personal favorite programs to use, but it is the customers final decision.

Thanks for the help.

[quote]Originally posted by Earthlingttc:
<strong>It would make little sence that the ram had anything to do with it since the slow down problem is only caused by the system scan of mcafee. I have made sure that all other programs were closed ect..

This guy is like religously hooked on macfee, so I dont know what I can do about getting him to switch to a different program. I spent a good 15 minutes telling him about different programs and why they are better, but it didnt really matter. I have some personal favorite programs to use, but it is the customers final decision.

Thanks for the help.</strong><hr></blockquote>

People like this you have to show them with and without the scanner on. Remove it and show him the difference, though to be honest you may run into the "they see whatever they want and not reality" syndrome.

See if McAfee has a patch for it too - contact their tech support. Maybe try the patch for 4.5 - I think it's the same scan engine. The original link posted in other topics is now down. :(

If you are really, really, really, really, really interested in trying I might have a copy I can post to a website this weekend for you (E-m me if you need it).

Is it updated with latest patch to bring it to version 5.21?
<a href="http://download.mcafee.com/updates/upgrade_patches.asp" target="_blank">http://download.mcafee.com/updates/upgrade_patches.asp</a>

Also in the properties of "System scan", make sure in the "What to scan" box, "Program files only" is checked off & not "All files"

Good luck!

[quote]Originally posted by jay015:
<strong>Is it updated with latest patch to bring it to version 5.21?
<a href="http://download.mcafee.com/updates/upgrade_patches.asp" target="_blank">http://download.mcafee.com/updates/upgrade_patches.asp</a>

Also in the properties of "System scan", make sure in the "What to scan" box, "Program files only" is checked off & not "All files"

Good luck!</strong><hr></blockquote>

Oh, hey! Rock on there you go - put that on and I bet the guys problem becomes a thing of the past. Good one Jay.

I do want to thank you guys for your help but I got the guy to switch over to a different virus scanner, and explained how it would be cheaper to go that way then to try to correct the problem with mcafee. Since I already updated the scan engine to the latest version, and the scanning was on only program files. So the odvious problems were accounted for.

Thanks for your help.