Task Scheduler Stopping / McAfee

[Mark MacGregor]

I posted several messages that my Task Scheduler service
stops working after about 5 minutes with no indication
that it has stopped (except that tasks just don't run)
until restarting the service, at which time it gives error
message that some tasks might not have completing because
it was not running.

Well, it's been a month or so that I have waited for an
answer and tried various things on my own. Finally,
today, I started experimenting some more to find out
exactly how long the service runs before crapping-out.
When I found that it was about 5 minutes, I started
suspecting that the update check task that McAfee
VirusScan automatically creates in the Task Scheduler
might be the culprit (these tasks run every 5 minutes,
contrary to what McAfee says >> every 4 hours). Upon
further investigation, I found that if I removed the
McAfee task my problems vanish.

Next I went to McAfee and had a chat with one of their
technicians and he told me to uninstall and reinstall
VirusScan, which seems to have done the trick. I am very
curious as to how widespread this problem is because there
is no information on the McAfee website or in the
Microsoft Knowledgebase. But I have noticed many, many
seemingly unresolved problems with the Task Scheduler, so
I wonder if some of those ...

If this post helps anyone, or if you already figured out
the same problem, please post a follow-up to my message.

Thanks.

Mark

 

[Colin Painter]

Same problem here, Mark. I've just been putting up with it. Never occurred
to me to "uninstall/reinstall". I reboot so infrequently that getting rid of
the offending McAfee tasks and restarting the task manager is not an issue
for me. I do find it odd that this problem is not well known since I suspect
that many McAfee users suffer from it.

cp

 

[Terry]

I have a similar problem (I think) with Norton AntiVirus
2003 Prof Edition. Every time I try to run a full system
scan, at some point, within 10-15 minutes, my pc just
shuts down. I haven't been able to run a full system scan
in months.

I had the free AVG virus program on until recently so i
wasn't concerned but now that I removed it (thought it
would help speed up my laptop), it is a real concern not
to be able to run a full system scan.
t

 

[Mark MacGregor]

So the saga continues ...

After posting my message yesterday and reinstalling McAfee
VirusScan, everything was working great the rest of the
day (tasks were running). This was unusual because as I
said, prior to rinstalling VirusScan, the task scheduler
was stopping after about 5 minutes.

However, this morning when I checked my backup task that
was supposed to happen at 3am, it did not occur. So I
restarted the task scheduler service and got the message
that I have become all too familiar with: "Some tasks may
not have executed at their scheduled times between
10/28/2003 12:02:01 AM and 10/28/2003 7:58:25 AM, either
because the Task Scheduler Service was not running, or
because the computer was hibernating."

But this message is different this time because the Task
Scheduler ran all day just fine, then it stopped just
after midnight. So what the hell happened at midnight?
The Event log shows nothing. This time I am going to
uninstall VirusScan and then try to run for a couple of
days and see whether or not the problem is still there. I
will report more after that.

 

[Mark MacGregor]

I've posted at least a dozen similar messages in these
groups and to my knowledge nobody from MS has replied.
Doesn't anybody have advice?

A couple of days ago I uninstalled McAfee VirusScan
completely and this solved the problem -- my scheduled
tasks ran as planned and the task scheduler did not stop
working.

Then I thought maybe because VirusScan puts update check
tasks in the scheduler under each user and one of my users
did not have a password that maybe the root cause was the
typical problem that I've read about before in these
threads when users try to run scheduled tasks without
passwords. So I followed Kelly's advice: Go to
Start/Administrative Tools/'Local Security Policy/Security
Settings\Local Policies\Security Options
Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to
console logon only. This is enabled by default, disable it.

Then I reinstalled VirusScan.

Guess what... again today my scheduled tasks did not run.
So the problem is definitely with McAfee VirusScan 8 and I
have no more ideas on where to go from here besides
throwing McAfee out the window. And McAfee's tech support
has no idea how to solve the problem, either.

The thing is, I used the same McAfee VirusScan 8 on the
same computer in the past with no negative effect on my
Task Scheduler. The only thing that's different now is
instead of just having a single administrative account I
now have two administrative accounts and a third non-
administrative account.

Mark

 

[Manivel \( Msft \)]

When the tasks did not run, have you looked at the error messages in the log
file ?
Just go to control panel -> Scheduled tasks -> advanced->View log. This will
openup
notepad with the log information. Search for a line that looks something
like this

[ ***** Most recent entry is above this line ***** ] -- ( The log file is
circular ).

You will see the message box about tasks not run only when the service was
stopped or
machine was not running.

-Mani.

This posting is provided "As Is" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm

 

[Mark MacGregor]

So here is my final post on this subject. On my computer
McAfee VirusScan 8 causes the Task Scheduler to stop
working. I have tried everybody's advice, including the
MS experts like Kelly, and nothing works except
uninstalling VirusScan. I have finally given up and
installed Norton Antivirus and the problem is now gone.
I'll bet tons of people are having this same problem and
do not even know about it because they don't use their
Task Schedulers and by default they don't choose the
option to be notified of Task Scheduler problems. I am
very disheartened that Microsoft has not posted any
information on this because I am convinced this is not an
isolated incident.

 

[Icebound]

So here is my final post on this subject. On my computer
McAfee VirusScan 8 causes the Task Scheduler to stop
working. I have tried everybody's advice, including the
MS experts like Kelly, and nothing works except
uninstalling VirusScan. I have finally given up and
installed Norton Antivirus and the problem is now gone.
I'll bet tons of people are having this same problem and
do not even know about it because they don't use their
Task Schedulers and by default they don't choose the
option to be notified of Task Scheduler problems. I am
very disheartened that Microsoft has not posted any
information on this because I am convinced this is not an
isolated incident.

Have you tried posting this over at Macafee??

http://forums.mcafeehelp.com/index.php