Comments on: How to fix the McAfee SVCHOST crash from the virus definition update

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 14:32:07 +0000

Our office computers were down with virus. We tried to use McAfee but we can’t figure things out. Currently in the organization work for MS patches are managed. I’m sure that other customers will demand this from McAfee, so that at least it can be piloted (with a one day delay before a complete release).

By: Megan

Megan — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:00:26 +0000

This is very helpful. I thought I already need to reformat my computer. I’m very lucky that I found this post. It fixed my problem perfectly.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 27 May 2011 07:22:08 +0000

Nice tips. This helped me to fix McAfee’s virus definition debacle that affected by computer. Please carry on with such great posts.

By: Marian

Marian — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:15:17 +0000

Just ran into this on an older computer I booted up last night. Thanks for posting about this, I was getting ready to reformat it.

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By: stewart

stewart — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:03:28 +0000

Bingo.

Brian apologies for using your site for support but you have saved one amateur.

Nick thanks for the post – I didn’t see the Mcafee posting in my desperate searches.

Jonas you’ve probably already solved it – if you can get the link working the fix does work – as Nick says you’ll need to use a CD to transfer the file, not a thumb drive.

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By: Jonas

Jonas — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 10:07:32 +0000

I have the exact same problem as stewart. I followed the link that Nick sent, but this is för corporate users and when I click on the link for personal users I get an error message. Stewart, if you have solved this, please let me know how you did it.

By: Nick Roberts

Nick Roberts — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 21:10:25 +0000

First up, I suppose people should read McAfee’s article on the subject:

https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB68780

Second, I would guess you need to boot into Safe Mode without Networking, because networking doesn’t work without svchost running (am I wrong?).

Thirdly, I think it’s worth noting that USB memory sticks also don’t work without svchost. However, I think CD drives do.

Finally, I would suggest it is better to have your anti-virus program working with up-to-date definitions, rather than just deleting all your .DAT files. The McAfee article describes how to fix the problem by adding a special EXTRA.DAT file. I cannot vouch for it, but this might be a better way to go if you can.

Finally finally I offer the time-worn advice: do what you have to do, but try hard not to make the problem worse (by panicking or just not taking the greatest care you can). HTH