PCGuard with Vista

geoffreyc · 25-04-2008, 09:34

I have one PC, which previously ran Windows XP and NTL Netguard. I recently upgraded to Windows Vista SP1 and PCGuard, and I now have a problem. I have 4 users on the PC, including Administrator, and under Administrator and 2 of the others, PCGuard works fine, but on one user (which is my main user), it fails to start. First I get a message saying "You have not used your service for more than 30 days. PCGuard needs to validate your subscription." The PCGuard window then shows all the services as inactive, and clicking on them gives the message "You are trying to run PCGuard on too many PCs, and this installation has been disabled. You can only run PCGuard on a maximum of three PCs."

Please note:-
1) I have only ever run NetGuard or PCGuard on this one PC
2) I have spoken to VM Tech Support several times, and tried uninstalling and reinstalling, using the diagnostic tool to check the installation, and to clean up the installation, uninstalling and waiting overnight before reinstalling.
3) PCGuard was installed and activated under Administrator.
4) Searching the internet forums, I found a few reports of this problem, but no solutions.
5) My guess is that there is a marker of some sort under the user with the problem, which prevents the service starting. I tried starting PCGuard under the failing user without having previously activated it, and still got the same error messages.

Any ideas? (I want to get this fixed, so please don't suggest simply removing it in favour of other products)

chickendippers · 25-04-2008, 09:49

PC Guard is junk, download a free (and better) virus scanner from somewhere else:

http://www.free-av.com/en/products/index.html
or
http://free.grisoft.com/

Morden · 25-04-2008, 10:50

On XP the I get a warning when switching users, with PC guard but it still protects the PC.
But to use its admin screens I have to kill the other user.
Could it be something like that in Vista, are you switching users, which would mean they are still logged on or do they log off as normal when using PC ?

Stuart · 25-04-2008, 10:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morden

On XP the I get a warning when switching users, with PC guard but it still protects the PC.
But to use its admin screens I have to kill the other user.
Could it be something like that in Vista, are you switching users, which would mean they are still logged on or do they log off as normal when using PC ?

Even under XP, if you use the "switch users" option, the other user stays logged on.

geoffreyc · 25-04-2008, 11:01

Morden, I get the problem with just the one user logged in - it is very frustrating, since I have three users which work fine, and it is only my main user which has the problem!

Morden · 25-04-2008, 11:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stuart C

Even under XP, if you use the "switch users" option, the other user stays logged on.

I know Thats what I was saying as i noticed that, but Windows warns that no A/V when that happens till you log other user off through Task manager. Kids are lazy in my house and don't always log off

---------- Post added at 11:50 ---------- Previous post was at 11:47 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by geoffreyc

Morden, I get the problem with just the one user logged in - it is very frustrating, since I have three users which work fine, and it is only my main user which has the problem!

Do all the users have admin rights or just the ones that work ?

geoffreyc · 25-04-2008, 12:40

All the users have admin rights.

the-cable-guy · 25-04-2008, 12:43

PC Guard is sh*t mate its made every pc that iv ever had crash & fail to boot on average every second boot. also it doesnt even work iv been infected in the past when it said that my pc was clean. so my advice is get rid of it, i did years ago.

discoade · 28-04-2008, 16:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by the-cable-guy

PC Guard is sh*t mate its made every pc that iv ever had crash & fail to boot on average every second boot. also it doesnt even work iv been infected in the past when it said that my pc was clean. so my advice is get rid of it, i did years ago.

I agree 100% say good bye to it!

trevortt · 28-04-2008, 16:34

PC Gurad for me (when on XP) knocked out my internet, luckilly i was able to retain all my settings but it was a farse. I now use more professional and stable antivirus, adware, malware etc etc programs.

the-cable-guy · 28-04-2008, 22:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by discoade

I agree 100% say good bye to it!

aye id rather use nowt then PC Guard, thats how poo it is.

geoffreyc · 12-06-2008, 14:19

Solved by VM support. Uninstall PCGuard, reboot, and then run NETGUARD-CLEANUP.exe, which VM support will send you a link to (sorry I didn't make a note of it).
Then reinstall PCGUARD and all is well.

dave6x · 12-06-2008, 19:54

I gave up on PCGuard a long time ago, it has caused problems with all my PCs, 3 running Windows2000Pro and the forth on XP Pro. It slows them down even my latest high spec AMD 64 dual core PC, andis just not very good at detecting viruses and spyware!!!

I went back to using AVG Free AV + Spybot + Adaware (all freeware poducts) and these immediately found the malware that PCGuard had let through.

Recently I gave up on AVG AV as version 8.0 does not seem happy on my Windows2000Pro PCs. Have substituted Avast AV (free) and this is excellent!

goldoni · 12-06-2008, 20:45

I use PC Guard and I have never had a problem apart from slow pings when running a speed test. Disable identity theft protection and my pings went from 600ms to 4ms and browsing the internet was super fast. ThatÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s the only fault I could find.

poppyred · 22-10-2009, 21:33

I have just had this problem, and then remembered that i had messed with the date on the computer yesterday, when i checked i had not changed the date back from December to October, so as far as pc guard was concerned it had not been used so needed validating and has disabled itself, so I closed PC Guard down changed the date back to todays date, restarted PC Guard and voila it worked :0)