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stan_1936

99 Posts

9014

November 20th, 2006 12:00

Will PC restore cause the preloaded free trial McAfee to COMPLETELY reinitialize?

Hello,
 
Please bare with me as this is a long post.  I was told that I should document every step so that I can get the best possible assistance, so here goes:
 
I have been using my new Dell dimension E521 with Windows XP (service pack 2, automatic updates ON) for the past month using the preloaded free 90 day trial McAfee anti-virus software....no problems with anything, speed was great and everything was running smoothly.  I registered it as it was required...all I supplied to McAfee was my email address and name.  The local computer store was selling the FULL version of McAfee...the product name was McAfee TOTAL protection.  I purchased it and removed the preloaded version of McAfee.  Here's how I removed the preloaded version:
 
1.  I went to Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs
 
2.  I selected McAfee.  The only option was to Remove it....there was no option to Change anything.
 
3.  I restarted the computer.
 
I then proceeded to install the FULL product mentioned above.  This required me to register the product online so, I chose to do this as an existing customer....using the same email address and name as I used for the free 90 day trial version.  Now, I have an account at McAfee with my product details and software available to me for the remainder of my subscription period - this is ALL for the FULL version.  After installing it, some of the product' s features were not working and when I tried to shut down or restart, I would receive an error message about memory not being read due to MCPROMGR.EXE (a McAfee Integrated Security Platform).  I also noticed that the speed of the internet connection and the system in general slowed down significantly.  I didn't mind the speed slowing down, hoping that it would pick up as time went on, but DID NOT want to experience error messages (that I felt I could avoid) just a month after purchasing the system. I decided to remove the FULL software version.  I followed the steps outlined above to remove McAfee..the FULL version. 
 
 
I then tried a system  restore to try and get back the old free 90 day trial (with the subscription obviously having less than 90 days left...not a problem as long as I have some anti-virus software).  Upon restoring, I was able to get McAfee Personal firewall and McAfee Anti-spam up and running fine, but McAfee antivirus and McAfee security center prompted me to restart the system to apply updates.  I restarted but the same error messages came up..they prompted me to reinstall McAfee security center.  I restarted again but nothing happened.  I am not able to view the option to CHANGE when I go to Add Remove...just remove, so I can't fix the installation or reinstall anything. 
 
My question is this: 
 
1.  Could the fact that I registered the product online be causing a version conflict with the trial version, when the trial version tries to update or install correctly?  What is really puzzling me is how the firewall and anti-spam (both features of the FULL version AND the TRIAL version) are working perfectly, but the antivirus and security center are not.
 
2.  If I run a Dell PC restore to restore factory settings, will the free trial-90 day version reinitialize itself or will the version conflict I mentioned above prevent me again?  If it reinitializes and prompts me to provide an email address, I can supply an alternate one to try and get around this version conflict as I think it would consider that to be a new subscription.  Basically, I would like to know if the PC restore will fully (if that's the word) reinitialize the installation or if I will remain trapped in these FULL version subscription settings.
 
All I want now is to simply restore everything to the point where it was upon first startup.s
 
One last thing...this may seem a bit awkward but,....I read that Norton Security Suite was not recommended for Dell Dimensions(I think)...would Norton Anti-virus and Norton Firewall be recommended?
 
Any help would be greatly appreciated.  If you have further questions, I will be checking this forum regularly all day and will quickly answer anything you need clarification with.
 
Stan

stan_1936

99 Posts

November 20th, 2006 17:00

Thanks for taking the time to respond.  I'm now hoping that the CTRL-F11 thing works because I have, over the past 6 hours at work, read of a lot of people having difficulty getting Ctrl+F11 to produce anything.
 
As for speed, I'm thinking of the free trial version of Kaspersky which is supposedly "light" and so does not slow down the system as much as Norton or McAfee.....
 
Now if only the next 2 hours could go by fast......:smileyvery-happy:
 
Stan

trailrated1

86 Posts

November 20th, 2006 17:00

By doing a dell pc restore (Ctrl-F11) that will restore to an as shipped condition and the full version of Mcafee will have been removed and you will recieve the initial trial registration at boot up.You should be able to use your existing e-mail address without any conflicts to activate that.As far as system slow downs they are just a fact of life with mcafee and norton and i doubt you will see any significant increase as time goes on.
 
Just a reminder that if you have any documents-photos-music,That you would like to keep be sure to back it all up to a disk as you will lose every thing on the system restore.
 

Message Edited by trailrated1 on 11-20-200601:48 PM

trailrated1

86 Posts

November 20th, 2006 18:00

At reboot just hold the Ctrl and F-11 you will see the lights on the keyboard flash.If done incorrectly you will receive a keyboard error fault.At which point you will have to start the process over. If you decide to not stick with mcafee here is a link with a mcafee removal tool you should run before installing another A/V program to avoid any conflicts.
 

stan_1936

99 Posts

November 20th, 2006 18:00

Thanks, I'll give it a go around 6:00 p.m. EST and post further problems.  I know I used to repeatedly jam the keys when trying to unsuccessfully access the BIOS on my old system. 
 
Again, thanks for taking the time to reply.
 
Stan

stan_1936

99 Posts

November 21st, 2006 15:00

Quickly, I ran the PC restore and it seems OK so far after restoring.  McAfee reinitialized and the rest of it seems OK for now.
 
Thanks for the help.

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