System hangs at startup

Technical Articles ID: KB87281
Last Modified: 4/27/2020

Environment

McAfee VirusScan Enterprise (VSE) 8.8 Patch 7

Problem

An affected system does not complete the startup sequence. You might see the Please wait screen, but the system does not start.

Do not confuse this issue with slow startup symptoms.

An affected system might also hang when starting third-party applications or accessing files.

Cause

An interaction between FileInfo.sys, the Prefetch driver, and McAfee code leads to a deadlock between threads that are waiting on one another.

Solution

This issue is resolved in VSE 8.8 Patch 8.

Updates are available when you log on to the ServicePortal at: https://support.mcafee.com/downloads.

Workaround

To avoid the deadlock, disable the Prefetch startup operations.

For information about disabling Prefetch, see:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms940847(v=winembedded.5).aspx

NOTE: It is not advisable to disable Prefetch for all systems because some hardware might be adversely affected. (Especially at startup, performance might be slow.)

Related Information

This issue might occur with multiple McAfee products because the underlying code, SysCore, is shared among many products.

To investigate this issue, generate a full system dump after the symptom has occurred. If possible, generate the dump after the symptom has been present for several minutes. This action ensures that the hung state is reflected in the memory dump.

Or, you can identify the issue by elimination. After disabling Prefetch, as explained in the Workaround, the system will boot normally.

Affected Products

Known Issue/Product Defect
VirusScan Enterprise 8.8

Languages:

This article is available in the following languages:

English United States
Spanish Spain
French
Japanese
Portuguese Brasileiro

Glossary of Technical Terms

Highlight Glossary Terms

Please take a moment to browse our Glossary of Technical Terms.

System hangs at startup

Environment

Problem

Cause

Solution

Workaround

Related Information

Affected Products

Languages:

Glossary of Technical Terms

Title

Title

Featured Solutions:Draft for New Nav

Explore Our Portfolio

Security Outcomes

Industries

Products

Featured Solutions

Explore Our Portfolio

MVISION Products

Services & Training

Threat Research

Our Researchers

Threat Landscape Dashboard

Tools

Contact Us

Resources

Downloads

Product Help

Connect with Us

Explore

Our Company

Our Efforts

Other Resources

Careers

Partnerships

System hangs at startup

Environment

Problem

Cause

Solution

Workaround

Related Information

Affected Products

Languages:

Glossary of Technical Terms

Choose your region

Title

Title