Can't Remove McAffee Virus Scanner, Please Help?

[HansGroenewold]

Hello,

I have a problem that I believe to be related to McAffee Virus Scanner. I can not uninstall it through the add/ remove program utility and tried to uninstall it manually. When I do that, it gives me an error message on a .dll folder, "access denied, disk is write protected or in use". I went in using "safe mode" and logged on under administrator and gave myself permission and full control over the system as advised in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. I used that method before and was able to get rid of folders giving me the same message.

However, now it won't let me delete the folder manaully even though I have the permissions set and full control checked. I need to get this program off my system as I'm unable to boot up. Right now I can only boot up in safe mode. When I try to boot normally, I get the blue screen that says IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and then the parameters. According to the Knowledge Base, there may be a driver conflict and it may be related to the virus scanner. One of the resolutions is to uninstall any virus scanners, which I can't do.

Can anyone here tell me how to remove McAffee off my system manually? I've never done a XP repair, but I may be looking at that if I can't get this off my system. Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
Hans Groenewold

 

[imported_Bunter]

I suspect that McAfee is still running, which is why you can't remove it. If you are familiar with disabling services (under administrative tools), you need to check that McShield and AVSync Manager are either not present or disabled. Also, in the task manager, make sure there are McAfee processes running. The ones I know of are Avsynmgr.exe and Mcshield.exe, although there may be many more. Problem is that if they are shown in process manager, you probably can not end them. They need to be disabled in services.

If you can get to the point where they are not present in the task manager, you can probably then delete the folder. Getting there may also involved some time in regedit searching for it and removing it.

Check McAfee's support site or drop them an email. When I've had to contact them in the past, they have usually responded with a link to a page on their support site that help resolve the issue.

 

[TechnoPro]

Are you working with the McAfee Online application, or a boxed product? If it's the latter case, I would reinstall the software which would hopefully correct the coruption that prevents you from properly uninstalling it.

 

[tooltime]

i have had some registry entries that were not removed after uninstalling. mcafee's site had a solution of deleting those entries and it worked.

i am not suggesting you do that...i hate hacking the registry...but i uninstalled another mcafee on a 98se pc a few days ago and had some trouble; searched the registry and deleted the mcafee entries still there and all works.

(btw...each time i've uninstalled mcafee it was to install norton)