Latest update causing excessive CPU and Floppy Drive activity

[Peacekeeper]

The fix for the machine gun floppy is next release (major patch)as far as I gather the slow down issue has not been reproduced or Logged even due to log issues. I will chase the techs up again.

this on xp I forget what you have?

Message was edited by: Peacekeeper on 29/06/14 1:49:26 PM

[Graffin75]

Machine gun floppy issue... nice name... sums it up well, though there's no bullets flying out of it thankfully!

The slowdown only happens during the update. Most times the update downloads and installs in the background and doesn't afffect what i'm doing at all.

There are occasions where it will actually get stuck in the update process (after 15 minutes, if I click on the tray icon it still says McAfee is installing an update). That's where internet access is blocked and I notice quite a bit of a slowdown with using any other software. It seems the only way to get unstuck is to restart Windows... and even there it takes about 5-10 minutes to shutdown (normally well under a minute for XPSP3, and even less for my Windows 7 machine). After it restarts, I get McAfee to check for updates, it finds it and installs it without a problem.

So, whatever it is, it's a very temperamental bug. I can live with that, but please remove the machine guns LOL

[Hayton]

"Machine gun floppy"  © Hayton, post #5 in this thread

I almost wish I hadn't coined the phrase. Descriptive, though, isn't it?

The sticky update problem has been much discussed. I've seen it myself, quite frequently, on XP. The update gets to 99% but the last stage fails to complete, and then everything gets bogged down in treacle. There is no other way I know of to cure it other than by re-booting, which tells McAfee to finish off the final incomplete stage.

At least there are workarounds for both these problems, if you find they still occur. I thought they'd both been fixed

[jmckee]

Still on XP here.

[nigelbtn]

This is really a reply to all. Back in update number 87, dougr_t3_support gave details of the problem and a fix scheduled for the June timeframe. Would it be possible to find out if this fix has been released to us and if so how do we identify if we have it loaded? Thanks

[Peacekeeper]

That is the floppy issue fix I said above that fix is due next major patch. You are correct re June but we mods never say a date as things always get extended. I would say it will be soon. Will find out date.

[stonehenge]

Don't know if this will help you, but I started having mega-floppy drive activity on Wednesday, March 12 after a McAfee update to Anti Virus Plus on my XP Pro SP3 system. I am using Version 16.8, Build 16.8.708, Engine Version 1828.0, both updated to Mar 14 2014.  I first tried to eliminate the issue by going to a restore point from the previous day but his work-around failed with the next McAfee update.  I discovered I could stop the problem by turning off Realtime Scanning but for obvious reasons this was not a satisfactory solution either. Finally, I simply inserted an old floppy into the drive and this stopped the activity until I removed the floppy and the problem started all over again.  Since I almost never use the floppy drive, I'm just going to leave a disc in the drive, removing it only when I have to reboot.  Simple, but effective so far.

Hope this helps you and others with this issue until McAfee fixes it.

Regards,

stonehenge

[holden05]

I'm the same. XP/SP3. Mcafee2013 (& previous) ran great. Installed 2014 today & the CPU usage went through the roof, and the floppy drive went nuts. Unplugged the FD, and turned off real time scanning - all went back to normal. Defiantly a bug in the software of 2014, in relation to XP/SP3.

I know XP is almost dead... but I'll still be using it for a while. So a fix would be appreciated.

[Peacekeeper]

Ok I reconnected my floppy and enabled it in the bios on my XP test box sp3.

Yes there is a scanning of the floppy issue in fact far worse than I remember as well as 40secs in every 60secs and up to 40% cpu from Mcshield opening programs seem to slow down heaps.

Installed MSc 12.8.934

Virus scan 16.9.708

Vulnerability scanner active.

I uninstalled Mcafee fully as per http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?lc=1033&id=TS101331

and ran the mcpreinstall tool as well.

I then reinstalled Mcafee minus the following

No file lock

No online backup

no Vulnerability scanner

No parental controls

Issue still there so Vulnerability scanner not the cause seems to be RTS scanning removable drive. Confirmed Real time scanning is teh cause I disabled it and floppy silent after 5 minutes reenabled it and floppy immediately accessed.

I remember this issue back 8mths or so on win 7 PC my wife uses but was not as bad( need to find another floppy cable I threw all the rest out.). I will test that OS as well as installing beta 13.0 on it maybe they fixed the issue in the new version. This of course will not help the fading XP OS but I will bring this up in our Monday call to the techs.

on 15/03/14 5:58:53 EDT AM

Message was edited by: Peacekeeper on 16/03/14 3:29:42 PM

[digitech2009]

We are computer delear, and we trust, byt the moment, in mcafee. We have notice during the last two weeks an anormal behaviour in our custormer runnning mcafee viruscan plus 2014 on windows xp sp3 machines. They all complain on an slow system performance, and an increase of the floppy disk activity. We think, as any other times, that mcafee release a buggy update. Can any one help us or provide any solution for this problem?