Hi Stevadore1,

You did not mention when you took delivery. Was it a trial of McAfee that was good for a limited time and gave you the option of extending protection to 36 months? Or did you pay for a 36 month subscription to begin with?  Did you see this discussion? http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/virus-spyware/f/3522/t/19337164.aspx

If that does not help and no one comes along with additional information, you could try posting on McAfee's forum: http://community.mcafee.com/community/home

Malware frequently disables security software, so if you are seeing any other symptoms feel free to post a log the Malware Removal Forum.

Sorry that I cannot be more helpful, but I do not use McAfee. I use the free Microsoft Security Essentials.

Hi Bugbatter

Many thanks for your reply and suggestions. I took delivery of my PC early April 2010(15th I think). The McFee software was included in the invoiced price.It is shown on the invoice as follows: McFee Security Centre-36 Month Protection. I assume that this is not a trial version and is good for 36 months.! I have sent an email to McFee 10th July but have not yet received a reply.

I also have a laptop which uses Avasti software for protection. This laptop is also part of my home network. I'm now wondering if this may be causing the problem with the McFee software. Is it possible that there is some conflicting effect going on. Unfortunately I am not very computer literate so I'm hoping that I can resolve this issue quickly. I feel "exposed" without Virus cover at the moment.

I'm not familiar with Microsoft Security Essentials which you mention in your reply.

Thanks again for your help

Stevadore 1

I've been very happy with MSE, but that is not the topic of this discussion, so we can talk about that another time.

It appears that you paid for McAfee, although the disconnect would have put it at exactly 3 months. That sounds like a trial period. Did you try contacting Dell Warranty Support to have them review what you paid for and investigate what's going on?

If the info at the Dell link I provided above did not help, and you don't get an email reply from McAfee (because they think you are no longer a customer) try posting on their forum. Perhaps others have run into this same problem. If not, the moderators there may be able to steer you in the right direction. Let us know how it goes

That's good news. It sounds as if you are on the right track now. :emotion-1:

Hi Bugbatter/Red Dawn

Many thanks for the replies to my McAfee software dilemma. Well I emailed McAfee and I received a very prompt reply. My subscription is valid for 36 months as I expected. It was working up to 9 July. It seems that the software was updated by McAfee on that date.The comment on the email was that "McAfee has upgraded to the latest version. This issue is caused due to some corrupted files of McAfee."  I got detailed step by step instructions to uninstall and then reinstall the software on my PC. The virus protection is now active. However they requested that I run McAfee Virtual Technician. This threw up a few issues which I dont understand. I have requested Mc Afee to advise me on their resolution.

In summary then ...my subscription was valid but there seems to be some issues with the upgrade software. Not sure if the problem was a this end or at McAfee!! However I now have Virus Protection!!

Many thanks again for your interest and suggestions which are very much appreciated.

Regards

Stevadore 1