McAfee showing disabled in the system tray

[whiz]

Hi All,
Some help required. I have recently updated my sons McAfee antivirus and firewall software through AOL. ( AOL I know , I know !) Everything seemed to go as planned with the exception of the icon in the system tray. The icon has remained 'blacked out' and when I hover over it I get a message saying firewall disabled, antivirus disabled.
If I right click the icon I get the usual lists of features but left clicking on either the antivirus or firewall lines results in nothing happening. Now here's the strange part, If I actually open the McAfee Control Centre it informs me that both the firewall and antivirus are on and are protecting the system. Selecting WIndows Control Panel and then Security Centre gives the info that the McAfee firewall and antivirus are both on and protecting the system. As it was an update I allowed the AV to carry out a full system scan thinking that maybe it wouldnt be fully operational until that had been done but the problem is still there. I have rebooted several times but this hasnt cured the problem either. Any clues ?
Thanks in advance

[spannersatcx]

The version of McAfee is....?

The operating system is....?

This is quite an old/common problem I had it a few years/versions ago on version 7 or 8 I think. If you go to the McAfee site there are solutions there, or do a google search for McAfee Black M, there are loads of articles/forum answers on the Black M problem.

[whiz]

Sorry guys,
The operating system is XP Sp 2
The McAfee version is called AOL security suite
I'm not at that actual PC at the moment so I cant give you anymore detail than that.
I had searched google using 'Mcafee antivirus disabled' that produced a few results from about 3 years ago but nothing was relevant.

[spannersatcx]

try here (http://ts.mcafeehelp.com/faq3.asp?docid=398586) or have a look on McAfee forums here (http://forums.mcafeehelp.com/index.php)

[whiz]

Many thanks spanners, I will investigate this evening and report back :ok:

[outofsynch]

i had the black M recently, and it was a virus... wish i could remeber its name. It was actually disabling the av, as most of them seem to do now.

[Paris Hilton]

McAfee is useless. I had it on my PC, and it spammed it up no end, made it very slow. So on the advice of someone who knows about these things ( "Are you crazy? You let McAfee anywhere near your PC?" ) I uninstalled it. Replaced it with AVG, which is free. Works a treat. PC OK now.

ps. never got the promised refund from McAfee.

[green granite]

I use McAfee, but only the anti virus part so my icon tends to be black all the time. I use zone alarm for firewall and also run windows defender that seems quite good as well.