McAfee products NOT SUPPORTED on MCE 2005

The lazy tech didn't even try. Soon as he knew the OS, he was gone. I wrote to tech support and here is the reply:

"Please be informed that McAfee product is compatible to Windows XP but not with Windows XP with Media Center Edition."

I'm happy it works for you, but others should be forewarned about purchasing after the trial. It's not supported.

Doc

Does this mean McAfee tech support won't help with problems, or does it mean there are known conflicts? I bought the 15-month package, of course. You'd think someone would mention something like this.

An anti-virus shouldn't cause [additional] problems; a firewall might if you're using Media Center Extender. I say 'additional' becuase there are occasionally problems with installs, etc. on any machine which the virus scanner might interfere with. That's why some recommend/require that you disable the virus scanner during the install.

I use Grisoft AVG Free on my machine. ( http://free.grisoft.com/ ) Works better (I've had far fewer problems with it than either McAfee or Norton/Symantec) and none of those stupid nag screens.

Doc,
It appears this tech gave you inaccurate information. McAfee does support Dell installations on MCE 2005. Have you been able to resolve your problem? If not, please let me know so we can work on addressing it for you.

Sorry, but two online chat techs never let me get past "What is your operating system?" They knew this was a Dell system. But as soon as I typed "MCE 2005" they responded "McAfee products are not supported on Windows XP Media Center Edition" and the chat session was immediately terminated.

My subsequent letter that drew the above-quoted response was as follows:

"I have a Dell Dimension 9100 running Windows MCE 2005 that came with McAfee Virusscan and Firewall preinstalled. Your online techs have informed me that your products are not supported on MCE systems. As I am at the end of my trial period, I am faced with either purchasing your product or a competitor's. Before I make this purchase, I wanted to confirm whether your products are or are not supported on this computer."

I did state that the software came pre-installed on a Dell computer. Hard to be any clearer than that. And, you can see the response for yourself. As I could not get the trial version to update itself (as of the date of my original post in this thread) I had no choice but to uninstall it.

What you say may be true. But if McAfee technicians are instructed not to give Dell MCE installations support, there isn't much point in purchasing the product. Especially if an issue such as this is going to take weeks to resolve.

You may, at your discretion, allow McAfee associates to contact me if they so desire. But without some magic code to get me by the quick-to-disconnect techs, I cannot purchase nor recommend the purchase of this product.

Doc
(doctordon@prodigy.net)

Message Edited by drdon on 10-06-2005 02:30 PM

Message Edited by drdon on 10-06-2005 02:56 PM

Doc,

Since Network Associates provides my corporate solutions, I decided to bait this one out for you. Here's the partial quotes from my discussion moments ago with a McAfee tech:

Geotex1: I have a problem with VirusScan not updating properly on my new Dell Dimension 9100 after reloading the XP Media Center 2005 operating system and VirusScan. I contacted McAfee by chat previously about this and I was told McAfee does not support XP Media Center Edition 2005 by the answering tech. So I just got off the phone complaining to Dell who told me to try again with McAfee because that is simply not the case. Sort of a round and round headache for me...

Veronica Rodricks: I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.

Veronica Rodricks: We support all Dell installations of our products including your Dimension 9100 system with XP Media Center Edition 2005. Did you initiate the chat session through the McAfee partner technical support pages established for Dell or through the general US website?

Geotex1: Not really sure.

Veronica Rodricks: You may have then reached a technician who does not service our partners. We offer our Dell partner customers free Priorty Support by phone and chat access from our Dell partner page.

So, perhaps you did exactly as she indicates and did not access through the Dell partner site which I quickly located at the bottom of the McAfee Help page (bottom of the page). If the knowledge base does not help you, at the end is an option to "Contact a live technician". This should put the issue to bed and bring you some resolution.

 

Message Edited by geotex1 on 10-06-2005 04:35 PM

That is entirely possible. Do note that the chat sessions I got to were reached through clicking the McAfee support options presented wthin the McAfee program running on the Dell system. I rather doubt most users would think to start with the Dell support site rather than simply cliking on the support options within the program.

Still, you can't disagree that some level of information should be passed on to these "other" support people. A handy, "Since you have a Dell, you need to contact another site for support" would have been infinitely better than the instant disconnects I encountered.

I posted here. Thousands of other customers with similar systems will never read this. They'll simply be left with the impression that Dell has given them software that is not supported.

As I am now one day past the 90 day trial, I no longer have the option to see if the above-stated support methods will work (I assume they do since you ran your baiting test) to resolve the update hang and give me a chance to further evaluate the product before purchasing. I will, instead, have to rely on alternate means of temporary virus protection until such time as in-depth reviews and user feedback are available for the new crop of security products. I will be looking to see if similar installations of these products on MCE systems have the same bug mine apparently had.

Thanks for your efforts and information

Doc

I posted this in another thread and think it is relevant... Apparently it helps a few other errors that were being received by other people.

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Thanks for all the information in this post.  It helped me troubleshoot why i was getting the "Code: 3" error.  Neither Dell or McAfee was any help.  Usually Dell has been excelent help, but I did get the run around this time.

I even tried a reinstall of the system to "factory settings" and only installed McAfee and was getting the error.  I un-installed the privacy service and... vaoula!  No more error.  So, now I'm running without the privacy service!   :)

I even checked on the packaging of McAfee, and it does not mention that it does not support Media Edition, but does support XP Home and Pro.  So I guess you need to not only read the fine print, but also read between the fine print too...


ShyDemon