WinXP unstable since McAfee Firewall update

[johnnytech]

Dell Dimension 8100
Pentium 4 @ 1.3 GHz
640MB PC800 RDRAM
WinXP Pro SP2
McAfee Firewall v.6.0.6012
McAfee VirusScan v.9.0.10

This past Monday, McAfee ran an autoupdate for my McAfee Personal Firewall Plus which updated the build from v.6.0.6014 to v.6.1.6142. At the end of this process, I was told to restart in order to complete the updating procedure. I clicked OK to restart, WinXP logged off, saved settings and went to its Shutdown page where it hung for 5-10 minutes.

Since then, my performance is sluggish, inconsistent, programs often hang and shutdown hangs for 5 minutes every time I close. In addition, my System Restore stopped working; when I attempted to restore to before the update, I received a message that my system could not be restored to the previous time. In addition, I now have trouble reading and writing CD-RW disks. I also lost my Prefetch folder so recreated it and went into msconfig and found Scheduled Tasks had been disabled. Since enabling it, Prefetch is fine but everything is still a mess.

I've tried doing an uninstall of my Firewall (including manual uninstall) and reinstalling it with the original version on the disk with no successful stabilization. I've scanned for viruses from both inside and outside (trendmicro) my system, have my definition files up-to-date and have scanned for spyware with 5 different updated softwares.

Lastly, there were no other changes made to my system that day, no new hardware drivers, no other software changes or installations. I DO have a problematic CD-RW disk that I've been getting ready to make a new copy of though and it tends to hang; I've scanned it and the results are Clean.

Any clues would be deeply appreciated!

 

[tbrunt3]

This may be as easy as a crouppted user account you can fix this buy making a new user account as long as you have Admin.Acess Try makin a new user account first and save what it wants to save let us know..

IF the problem still is there download a copy of spybot update it and run it then get Hijackthis and post your log here....

 

[johnnytech]

Thanx for the quick reply!

I'll try the User Account suggestion.
re: Spybot S&D, I already have it, Ad-Aware, Microsoft/Giant AntiSpyware and CounterSpy as well as Spyware Blaster and keep them all updated. I've just finished running them all in the past 24 hours.

I'll report back as soon as I've created the new User Account.

 

[johnnytech]

WinXP unstable....McAfee Firewall

Hey TBrunt3,

Here's the latest: I ran System File Checker and so far so good. I'd forgotten about sfc and it came back to me what a simple EZ thing if it would help and it seems to have put alot of things back in order (though there are some procedures I've yet to try.)

Again, thanks for the input; the User Account thing is a new approach to me and it's now filed.

 

[triplate]

I ran <McAfee products since day one..and it was great, although hard to install sometimes...as of v7, McAfee has been a bloated PITA...switched to Sygate and everythings smooth as silk..

 

[RealBlackStuff]

That's the problem with all these socalled suites. They drag in more and more switches and bells and whistles, but overlook, why they were made in the first place.
All you need is a decent standalone Antivirus, from the free AVG upwards, and a decent standalone firewall, free or paid for, such as made by www.kerio.com or www.sygate.com or www.agnitum.com

You don't need an all-dancing, all-singing piece of bloatware crap that even makes you tea if you want...
You want to stop intruders and prevent any unauthorised going out, no more, no less!
For best overall protection, also add a router with built-in hardware firewall.

 

[triplate]

I agree 100%...they do more harm than good usually..