Latest update causing excessive CPU and Floppy Drive activity

[dougk_t3]

jk7868,

A couple of things:

1) the agent you spoke to  - do you have his name or a case number ("SR" a.k.a. Service Request) so I can backtrack on who you spoke to?  The information that was given you, as you surmised is incorrect; it's true that Microsoft won't be fixing any problems with XP after April 8th but we continue to support XP for now.

2) Our Dev is currently analyzing logs we captured on one machine and hopes to have their analysis complete by Monday.  This doesn't mean it will get fixed on Monday, but it means we should have the cause figured out by then.  After that they need to actually fix the problem and then get it released - as of now, I can't speak for how long that will take because it's out of my control but I'll be in touch with them on Tuesday to see if I can get an ETA on the release.

3) For now, you can disable the floppy in Device Manager.  Doing it this way is faster and easier, avoids the need for rebooting, and prevents the possibility of 'human error' mistakes in the BIOS.

[jk7868]

Thanks dougk_t3,

Yes, two service requests because we were disconnected on the first.

Don't remember the gents name this morning, he had a very strong accent

though.

Two service request #'s are 1448693284 and 1448624497 .

If your folks need more info, let me know.  Would love to have this fixed

without having to hold the computers together with software band-aids,

bubble gum or paper clips (so to say).

Thanks again!

[dougk_t3]

Thanks jk7868!!!!

I'll get these service requests followed up on.

Also, thank you for the offer of additional info; if requred I'll have one of my guys (probably Selvan) reach out to you.

You forgot to mention the duct tape.  🙂

Hold tight - I'll see what I can do to push Dev into fixing and releasing the solution quickly (no promises, but I will try).

[jk7868]

Thanks, never thought of duct tape too!

Ah...the power of the third mind!   🙂

[selvan]

Hi jk7868,

I have stirred up my contacts in Support with regards to the Information provided to you on Call for the Service Request Number1448693284.

I will get in touch with you( As DougK said above) if I need further information on progressing in this issue.

[jk7868]

Selvan and dougk_t3,

Thank you for the followup.

Sounds like I may need to change my decision to stop auto-renewals and delete my credit card from all my McAfee accounts....

The Tier 2 Support gent was so positive/affirmative when he told me on the phone, that I went ahead and stopped any future renewals.

My thoughts were "Why pay for something that was just broken by McAfee and not going to be fixed or supported at all?" 

From the responses so far here in this blog, you guys have really changed my mind!!

Keeping my fingers crossed that we can get this fixed.

Thank you again!

[Peacekeeper]

JK I have this issue as well and was the 1 who brought the issue up with Doug in our mod call. My daughter now has it as well. Seems to be common issue now and the disabling in the device manager easier than rebooting.

Doug will update us on Monday in our mod call and one of us here when we hear anything.

[Peacekeeper]

OK this is what I found when My Daughter complained yesterday that XP started to suck very bad.

1. There is an issue with performance and floppy noise if you have a floppy installed. This is being looked at fix for the moment is disable the floppy in device manager.

2. In her case she had installed the full version trial of malwarebytes it has a real time scanner that was clashing with the Mcafee scanner badly. Disabling either scanner allowed the PC to function. Do you have anather full version scanner installed  is so only use the free version of Malwarebytes or other free scanners.

3. She also had indexing of c drive selected on boot so the mcshield scanner was working flat out till indexing complete this slowed the PC till the indexing was complete. I deselected indexing of you could index only my documents. This is in open explorer right click on c drive and properties and deselect indexing.

I wonder if those using XP and complaining about slowness have either of 2 or 3 issues above. I need to know so I can point Mcafee to it. My other XP box is stable and does not have 2 or 3 present.

[jmckee]

On my system , I have MalwareBytes free version installed , but only activate it when I want to run it. Indexing is selected.

[Graffin75]

I've always had indexing of the C: drive enabled, but McAfee's always been the cause of slowdowns on my systems (both XP and Windows 7)... the most noticable slowdown is when the program updates (either downloading new virus definitions or who knows what in the background... some times 2 or 3 times a day), occasionally it seems to jam... even when there are no other programs (other than Firefox) open... the update process seems to take forever, never completing, and whilst that's happening, I can't browse or download or do anything.

This latest problem with the floppy drive, well, I knew that was McAfee straight away because it just updated, then 30 seconds later my drive is grinding away (hell loud).

I realise most systems don't have floppy drives anymore, so i'm fine with disabling it in Device Manager and only re-enabling it if/when I need to use it, but it still is a minor inconvenience, and one McAfee should have tested for.