Last weekend I went from dial-up to broadband (YAY!) but since then my McAfee Virus Scan is disabled when I start the computer. The red Windows shield comes up and there's the red circle and slash on the McAfee icon.
It starts again without any trouble, but naturally I'd rather that it wasn't happening at all.
Is it possible that the two events are related?
Now that I think about it, McAfee has sometimes been slow to load on startup recently.
I haven't made any other changes.

I've seen this occur on occasion on a number of machines including my wife's laptop and my nephew's PC. Appears to be an obvious glitch there. This is not acceptible as many typical users would often not notice that there is no active protection running against possible viruses. The user then needs to manually re-enable that protection.

So it's not just me.
I agree that it could easily be overlooked or ignored. For once that Microsoft warning with its stupid popping sound serves a useful purpose.
Did you hit on any way of fixing the problem, Vincent?

Did you hit on any way of fixing the problem, Vincent?

No!!!

Even though, it is considered one of the better of the bloatware antivirus/combo (firewall, etc.) tools I still prefer to recommend and use NOD32. My wife is attentive enough that it is not a problem (default automatic install by DELL) but my nephew is another matter. McAfee may be aware of this but getting in touch with them is probably a hopeless cause to resolve such OCCASIONALLY found occurances.

I'll have a look at NOD32. I haven't heard of them before. Thanks for the tip.

Follow-up question: I've noticed that when I start the modem after the computer, waiting until it's properly settled down, McAfee is not disabled. The disabling appears to be a part of the start-up process. Does that make sense?

I've noticed that when I start the modem after the computer, waiting until it's properly settled down, McAfee is not disabled.

Given the large number of McAfee related entries in the HJT log, any possible issue in negotiating an internet connection could interfere with the proper initialization of a fully functioning antivirus tool.

Now that I think about it - most of my notable problem examples have often been associated with frequent ongoing difficulties and delays in establishing a wireless connection.

Perhaps I should call this Problems with McAfee part 2.
I have my McAfee - it's Virus Scan 8.0.0 btw - set for automatic updates but I have been using the manual update now service too. I tried that this morning but got this message:
Failed to initialise Common Updater subsystem. Make sure the McAfee Framework Service is running. McAfee Common Framework returned error
fffff95b @2.
I've never seen this before.
McAfee's own website wasn't much help. Following instructions I found on another site I wen to Control Panel - Administrative tools - Services. I found the McAfee Framework Service and clicked on Properties. This showed the service as stopped. When I clicked on start, the service began to start up and then stopped again. I tried to change the startup type from Automatic to manual, that didn't help.
Before I did this I uninstalled and reinstalled. Obviously that was no help either.
I found a few other ideas on other forums but I wasn't confident about trying them in case I created a worse problem.

I downloaded the Miscrosoft Genuine Advantage update yesterday. Is that the cause of the problem?


I've just tried a System Restore back to last Tuesday before the trouble began. The message on the Virus Console was changed to 'The update succeeded' but when I tried to start the Auto update it was back to the old problem.

Just an update for Vop This and anyone else who's interested.
Having given up on McAfee I decided to check around and see what else was available. I decided on Kaspersky, but I was unable to download the trial version from US or Netherlands or Australian servers! A 'please help' email to the local vendor here in WA received no answer. I sent another to Kaspersky's own email address for Australia and was likewise ignored.

Bye-bye, Kaspersky!

I decided to take Vop's original advice and tried NOD32. The trial version downloaded and installed without a problem. My only complaint against NOD at this point is that there are no prices listed on their website. If you try and decide to buy, you contact them and then they tell you what you're up for. I'd rather know in advance.