McAfee Issue causing XP to reboot
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010McAfee Users:
If you are running Windows XP you need to check the versions for McAfee and and it’s DAT file. If you have McAfee 8.7 with 5958 DAT you will probably need to follow the steps on this PDF (http://bit.ly/d9Ziw5) to “Rollback your DAT” to Version 5957.
This SHOULD fix the problem. Once you’ve rolled it back, disable auto-updates for the time being.
Check back for updates.
UPDATE (April 21st @ 2:42PM)
Straight from McAfee:
McAfee is aware that a number of corporate customers have incurred a false positive error due to incorrect malware alerts. Our initial investigation indicates that the error can result in moderate to significant performance issues on systems running Windows XP Service Pack 3.
The 5958 DAT has been removed from McAfee download servers, preventing any further impact to corporate customers. McAfee teams are working with the highest priority to support impacted customers and plan to provide an update virus definition file shortly.
The IT people here are working on an easy way for users to fix this for those effected. Since McAfee has pulled the DAT (update) from their servers, it should be safe to turn on your computers, turn McAfee AutoUpdate back on, and allow McAfee to run in general. As soon as an easy to use fix has been released, I will post it here.
UPDATE (April 22st @ 9:10AM)
If you are getting a message when trying to do the “Rollback” method along the lines of “Failed to initialize [...] McAfee Framework Service”, here’s what you will need to do.
- Go to Start->Run and the Run Dialog will appear
- Type in: services.msc
- A window will appear.
- Find the McAfee Framework service on there and right-click it.
- Click “restart” or “start”, whichever is available for you.
Once you do that, the roll back should work
“Automated” Fix
A somewhat automated fix has been provided by Clemson’s IT Department. Burn the following ISO to a disc, then you can put it in your CD drive and EITHER run it from inside Windows XP OR Boot straight from the CD
NOTE: I don’t know if this will work everywhere or just on Clemson’s Network.