Monday, August 27, 2012

Living In McAfee Hell - Continuing Auto Reinstall

Trials and tribulation of dealing with McAfee software problems.


McAfee Installed
One would have thought that the issues I was experiencing with McAfee's Internet Security software would have been resolved after all the problems I found on Saturday. I ended up wasting an entire day trying to figure out why I was not able to access the Internet. That experience was one which I would have preferred to have avoided. And I would have, if McAfee had taken the time to inform their customers about the problems with their software. It seems that I continue to remain in McAfee hell. Must have been for something I did to wrong McAfee. Not sure what it is, but my problems continue.

It was in my earlier post where I found McAfee uninstalling itself automatically and then reinstall itself on Sunday morning, I was left with an uneasy feeling. I was really hoping that things would get resolved and I would see no more problems. When I returned to my XP machine in the evening, I was in for another wild ride of dealing with McAfee. It seems that after I started my computer, McAfee kept turning off my protection. I would turn it back on, but then a few seconds later, it would turn it self off. Now I am starting to wonder exactly who I pissed off to have this be happening to me after all that I had already done.

So, I went through the process of uninstalling McAfee Internet Security and then rebooting. I then ran the recommended tool to clean the XP box and rebooted. I then downloaded a fresh copy of Internet Security and installed it. I then rebooted the server. I verified my DAT file version which was at 6816.0 which was greater than the 6809 version they were talking about. I started digging around on the McAfee site and found an interesting page. McAfee has provided information to correct your problems, but I have only been able to see this screen after I logged into their site. Did not do me any good when I had no Internet connection.

At this point, I had some confidence that I was looking pretty good and my problems were behind me. But no, I was not going to be so lucky. This morning, I fired up my XP computer expecting things to come up as expected so that I could begin to clean things up from everything that was going on. And then it struck. The automatic uninstall of McAfee Internet Security was running and soon was asking me to reboot my computer. I was no longer wondering if my computer was infected with a virus. It must be haunted as this is turning into a nightmare. How could this continue to be happening after I followed all of the instructions from McAfee and cleaned things up? This was becoming crazy.

So I prepared to call them, but saw that the wait to talk to someone was 1 hour. They really must be getting hit with these problems. So, I opted for the next best method, "The Chat" window. Only had to wait 10 minutes for someone to become available. Went through all of the questions you normally get. Then they took over my machine and basically duplicated everything that I had done on Sunday evening. I was on the phone for about an hour, with only a single reboot. Far different than what I had done in rebooting after every item. We ended the "Chat" because there was nothing left to do at this point. I was back to where I should have been when I fired up the computer.

Do I have any confidence that my machine is now fixed? Not really. I am starting to believe that my machine may be haunted and fully expect to see an automatic uninstall happen again in the morning when I start my XP box. McAfee continues to fail to provide any information as a register customer about what is going on. That is a big failing for them. Will I continue living in McAfee hell? Who knows.

How do you feel about McAfee considering all these problems?

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