Jonuk76, HARRYCAT It is desktop pc

One of the main reason I want to upgrade is to get my 3 monitors working, without crashing every few hours, also want to get Windows 7 64bit, and basically get a trading/gaming maching all in one

How about this review of one of the PCs on ebuyer.com - the reviewer's name is AliG :-)

this Pc is well tidy , me like to put me floppy disk in da mazzive holee , its feel sooooo gooood . izz likeee to pushh youu dee buttons well arddd . tooochhh meee USBBB!

If you don't believe me: Extra value PC

looking for a wireless tv box thingy that lets me play my files videos music files, webcasts from my PC to TV, needs to be easy setup etc and whatever else you think it should have, harddrive etc

Hope someone can help with this. Bought my daughter a new Dell laptop. Everything worked fine until I uninstalled the trial version of McAfee that came with it. Immediately after the uninstalltion of McAfee, I noticed I could not browse websites although the connection to the router was active. Obviously McAfee has done something to the networking...looking for solutions desperately before daughter gets back home!

McAfee Problems and Help (see more at the bottom of this page)

Alternatively, you could try these guys:

'The Computer Doctors' - Northampton
Tel: 01604 411 444

They don't actually recommend McAfee but they will have a damn good idea what your problem is. Ask them if they can help you 'remotely'. Your machine would need to be enabled to do this and they will tell you what to do and then take over your machine to sort things out.

They say at:http://www.computerdoctors.co.uk/care/index.htm

"....You can purchase a one-off remote repair for 19.95 per 30 minutes. This is often long enough to sort the problem or decide that the PC or laptop will need a vist to our workshop or an engineer on-site. For example a failing hard drive. If this is the case, you get 10.00 off the subsequent workshop or on-site repair.

Alternatively, you can purchase a remote repair contract for 6.99 per month (3 months minimum) or 79.95 per year. The plus pack gives you a remote repair contract + 4 free visits per year to our workshop (parts not included) for 9.99 per month (3 months minimum) or 99.95 per year. Any of the free workshop visits can be converted to on-site visits for just 30.00 (half our normal call out charge)...."

Thanks ExecLine. I'm looking at the first link now to see if I can fix it myself. Alternatively, do you think doing a system restore to a very recent date help fix the problem? One other options that come to mind is to restore the laptop to factory settings using the hidden partition. Last resort, I guess get in touch with Computerdoctors. I've tried speaking to McAfee who have very cleverly refused to do anything saying that McAfee product is no longer on my laptop, hence it is not their issue! Dell want to charge me a big fee for fixing it! What a mess!

I doubt that there is much wrong. It is probably just something minor with your internet connection settings.

Thanks Haystack. You're probably right about this. The one thing I forgot to mention is that the laptop has started freezing after uninstalling McAfee. Damn McAfee! Will stay well clear of that blasted product!

I have always disliked MacAfee, Norton as well. They just slow the PC down.

Klal,

Not sure if it will help in your case, but when you uninstall McAfee you also need to download a file from their website (MCPR.exe) to complete the removal. Try looking at this link.

Tried that Hils - hasn't resolved the problem. :-(

Guys, do you think doing a system restore will help? The most recent restore point is from late last night which was before a Windows update and today's MdAfee debacle)

In XP cntrl+Alt +del will bring up Sysytem manager. Might be worth having a look to see if there is anything recognisable as a file which is still running from McAfee. Also I have often noticed that an uninstall does not take out all the files. Go to My computer, Program files and have a look for McAfee folder and delete any remaining files within that folder manually.
Not sure how Windows 7 works as have not yet tried it.

Klal,

I asked my son and the response was:

1) What OS and browser are you using? Could it simply be a case that your browser is set to working offline?

2) Can you see if any processes (and what they are called) are hogging all of your resources before the freeze?

3) Have you tried re-installing McAfee to see what happens now that you've run the product removal tool?

Thanks Hils.

I am an ex-IT guy though only application software. So H/W, networking is not my cuppa tea exactly.

1. It's Win7. Definitely not working offline mode!
2. Will look out for any processes that hog....shortly
3. I could try re-installing McAfee, it'll be a pain.

But, I've just restarted the machine in Safe Mode and find I CAN browse fine!

I'm going try this solution: Solved!

Guess what! Sorted the problem out. Turns out Norton Internet 2010 (which I installed after removing McAfee) was the culprit. Never expected that. Used the Norton Removal Tool and got rid of NIS 2010. Rebooted and everything worked fine. For the moment I am on Windows Security Essentials. Would appreciate suggestions on what alternative internet security product to use.

I just use Security essentials and Zone Alarm and periodically scan with a couple of other anti virus apps.

My McAfee comes free bundled with BT Yahoo. Never had a problem.

klal: you end-user you! You didn't mention you'd installed Norton! Never mind, it's all working and that's what matters.

Windows Security Essentials has a (surprisingly) good reputation, and I'd recommend sticking with it.

I would use the free version of Malwarebytes to scan occasionally - it's a pretty good product.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Personally, I've canned Norton (when the sub became due) on two machines and switched to AVG. Sadly, the latest version of AVG (2011) seems to have acquired some of the attributes of Norton (basically, getting in the way) according to some reports, although it hasn't yet offended me.

I'm using AVG Internet Security on Windows XP Pro.

I've got a little advisory screen for it which says:

Security components and status overview

Anti-Virus - Active
Anti-Spyware - Active
Anti-Spam - Active
Firewall - Active
LinkScanner - Active
Resident Shield - Active
E-Mail Scanner - Active
Update Manager - Active
License - Active
Online Shield - Active
Anti-Rootkit - Active
System Tools - Active
PC Analyzer - Active
Identity Protection - Active

So basically, just at one glance I can see everything is actually working and (theoretically) how well protected I am.

Thinks...I am probably being conned by this stuff just like millions of other Internet users. However, it looks good, is easy to manage and seems to work quite well and fast too.

Whenever I use Google this AVG stuff tells me which are the safe sites and which are Verisign registered sites on all of the Google answers. So that's nice.

Now I happen to know that any Anti-Virus system is not going to be 100% successful. However, it is best to have one and also one that you are happy to use. This seems to fit the bill for my simple mind.

The AVG version is 10.0.1191 and is '2011'

Here's a link to a page which tells you what all the above stuff means:

http://www.softwarediscountcodes.com/avg-antivirus2011.html#UK