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21 Apr 2010
McAfee is scrambling to update its anti-virus products after a recent update caused system crashes in some Windows XP SP3 systems.
The 5958 DAT update was released early on Wednesday and later removed following reports that it was causing 'blue screen of death' and DCOM errors.
The issue occurs after the update is applied and a security scan is initiated. This can record a false positive report, alerting the user of a non-existent infection from the W32/wecorl.a malware. The system then encounters an error and shuts down.
McAfee said in an urgent security alert that it has now fixed the damaged DAT file and removed the offending components. Systems updated after Wednesday morning US Pacific Time should not be subject to the error.
The firm has posted a new DAT file, and is advising users and administrators to start the damaged systems in Safe Mode, manually replace the offending DAT file and then restore any affected files from the quarantine folder.
Users can also remedy the issue by copying the svchost.exe application from an unaffected system and replacing it on the damaged system.
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We consumers are morons
2 PC down and one other partition scrubbed thanks to Mcafee, 2TB of data to save and 3 partition to reinstall. Fortunately I was able to install Ubuntu 10.04 to be able to have an internet connection and read my mail.
Posted by: frog 03 May 2010
BS on the "fix"
After McAfee blows the svhost away you can't copy and past on the affected machine. It may or may not recognize thumb drives and it restoring the file doesn't always work. This error cost me hundreds of man hours today! Please don't act like it's "no big deal". I'm calling BS on the easy fix
Posted by: TD 22 Apr 2010
mcfee balls up ... OUCH
Its just cost me £90 to repair 3 computers because of Mcafees mistake ..I bet they will not refund me ... Mcfee should compensate all the people who have just had HELL to deal with it .. I hope they sack the idiot who did it... Im very angry with mcafee now...
Posted by: jim 22 Apr 2010
I second that!
I Went through the same rigmorole all day today, and basically found a workaround based on bits of different instructions!! I hope McAfee get some lawsuits for loss of earnings or somthing!!
Posted by: Alan 22 Apr 2010
McAfee bad update
I found a good fix that doesn't rely on 'copy and paste' or downloading, which is what the main McAfee fixes rely on. See post #382 http://community.mcafee.com/message/125893#125893
Posted by: nick 22 Apr 2010
McAfee is not fixed
Nothing but reboots and a damaged operating system, not that Microsoft is innocent, like to rotten peas in a pod.
Posted by: Rick 22 Apr 2010