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General discussion

McAfee and Windows 7 64-bit CRASH!

Mar 7, 2010 8:56AM PST

I have had an ongoing subscription with McAfee for several years and recently bought a new laptop loaded with Windows 7 64-bit. This came with a free 60 day trial version of McAfee antivirus software installed on it which seemed to work fine. When the free trial expired I decided to use my current subscription, (which allowed protection for up to 3 different machines and had used on my old laptop) on my new laptop. When I called McAfee to do this I asked the rep if it was compatible with Windows 7 and I was told that it was. After receiving download instuctions via email I noticed that Windows 7 was not on the list of compatible Operating Systems, just Win 2000,Win XP and Win Vista. I called McAfee back to verify Windows 7 compatibility and again, they assured me that is was fine. So I went ahead with the download. I clicked the RUN button for DMSetup.exe and then RUN for the IE Security warning as per the instuctions from McAfee and the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH appeared for about 2 seconds and my machine shut down! After attemting to restart it went into Windows Error Recovery mode then Launch Start-up Repair and then could not repair problem and shut down again. This sequence repeated every time I tried to restart. I called McAfee back and again I was assued that it was compatible with Windows 7 and they said I should do an online diagnostic on their site. I told them this was impossible as my machine would not start up even in safe mode so I could not even go online at all! They finally said to contact the maker of my machine as that is where they thought the problem was, which I did. The maker told me that the machine would have to be reformatted after several attempts to get it going. 1 Day and $200.00 later with a reformatted machine I called McAfee again and told them of the crash and that I thought their software was the cause. They advised me this was impossible as their Software is compatible with Windows 7 and that there was no problem in trying to install again. Hesitantly I tried the download again. At the same point in the download the exact same thing happens...shut down. This time thankfully, the system recovered after several attempts. I called McAfee AGAIN and told them they had nearly crashed my machine again! They said my operating system must be corrupt. I told them it was reinstalled only 1 hour earlier so how could it be corrupted? I insisted on talking to a technical rep which they agreed to (and didn't charge me the $9.95 per incedent fee thank you very much). I finally got an explaination after 6 hours, 5 phone calls. McAfee does not have a product that is compatible with Windows 7 64-bit yet. It should be ready in a month or so. They then offered to extend my trial version for an extra 30 days! I said "you just told me there is nothing compatible with Windows 7 64-bit" so what good is it to extend my trial version. Besides I was told to uninstall the trial version before installing the new one so it was gone from my machine. What really confuses me is the trial version worked fine so it must have been compatible with Windows 7 64-bit but the tech rep said they had nothing yet that was compatible???? Needless to say I have cancelled my subscription with McAfee and will NEVER use their products again.....

Discussion is locked

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Need your help for that problem
Mar 24, 2010 3:18PM PDT

Hi,
I just purchased a Dell laptop with Windows 7 (64-bit) Operating system. They are provided McAfee for 30 days trial period, which ended out yesterday. Now, my laptop is not having any anti-virus for its protection. So, please suggest me, any best anti-virus for machine. And if possible, provide me the link to download it.

I had found different forums, saying that many anti-virus is not compatible with Windows 7 (64-bit).

Need your help, in order to get saved from the problem, faced by you.

Thanks for your support, in advance.

Waiting for your help.

Regards,
Dhaval Gandhi

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McAfee and Windows 7 64-bit CRASH!
Jul 17, 2010 6:39PM PDT

wow! I have a very very similar problem. the difference is i wasn't using trial mcafee. downloaded it from my mcafee account and it was working for the last 6 months without a trouble. recently after upgrading toshiba bios i had a huge system problem and had to restore my laptop to factory setting. since then tried to install mcafee same way that i did before and getting blue screen crash. thought it was memory problem. so sent for warranty repair. they found no problem with hardware. tried again mcafee and crashing blue screen. just finished chatting with mcafee customer support and he told me that it's not compatible with windows 7 64 bit! couldn't explain why it worked before. asked me to try another trial av lol.

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chash
May 4, 2012 12:14PM PDT

I had the same problem with Mcafee, experience was terrible, technical support was useless, spent hours and hours with them on a phone and the issue wasn't resolve. Now I need to reinstall the windows thanks to Mcafee. Never buy their products!!!

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mcafee and win 7
May 5, 2012 12:46PM PDT

I have been running win 7 64 bit for over a year with mcafee and have had no problems. My computer came with a trail version also. If you did not do it you must and i say again must completely remove all aspects of the trial version from the computer before you install the new one. This means the programs and the registry entries that usually do n ot get removed. Sometimes it takes a sleuth to find all the remnants but they can be found.

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What a crash
Sep 8, 2012 9:42AM PDT

I thank you for posting as I am going through the same experience. I tried and tried to get back in once I took McCaffee out...I was told I needed a new hard drive, Went and bought one. I am still having problems if I shut down to get back on.

I have been told the problem is the motherboard. I am at a point that I am refusing to close my computer which I use for work and reading as much as I can.