Any Issues With Bitdefender V.2008?, Please answer our questions here! Options

[rstorm1]

I am extremely disappointed with AV2008. My subscription to AV10 (which was GREAT!) ran out, so I had to upgrade to AV2008.
Here is a list of the issues that I have had so far and what I have tried to do to correct them:

1. Blue Screen of Death. This was happening regularly and the culprit was bdselfpr.sys. I uninstalled and reinstalled the software and that seemed to get rid of that issue.

2. Extremely slow boot-up and extremely slow to open either Internet Explorer or Firefox web pages. Sometimes the delays are up to 30-40 seconds. Also, there would be delays in operation, for instance, when trying to type in a URL, I would have to several seconds for the typed-in characters to appear. I am running Windows XP with 1GB of RAM and web surfing was just fine with AV10. Tried uninstalling, which failed and locked up the computer, so I had to download and run the uninstall tool. IE and Firefox both ran perfectly with AV2008 removed. AV2008 was slowing all operations, not just web browsing, making my computer crawl. Reinstalled AV2008 with freshly downloaded software. Everything is still SLOW.

3. The antivirus and update sections randomly become disabled after the computer has been idle for a while. There seems to be no way to correct this other than rebooting the computer.

4. I have tried to contact the chat help tonight and was unsuccessful-apparently no one was there. I have tried calling tech support and have gone immediately into the hold queu and been hung up on multiple time without ever having spoken to a tech support person. It does not seem as if BitDefender cares too much about helping those of us who experience problems. I will be forced to go to another vendor if I can not get some help with these issues. I would have been content with just being able to renew AV10, as it was simple and worked well and I felt I could recommend it to my customers.

[marcus148]

XP 32bit does not Powerdown with realtime scanning active


Happens with Bitdefender 2008 (regular, as well as with IS 2008).
I have a small home-network under XP SP2, with a FritzBox as Router.
My PC saves its settings, thus no events are being reported, then hangs on the shutdown screen, and the PC does not power down. Network card LED remains orange (indicating some traffic), even after having powered down manually by pressing the power buttton.
Only after unklicking/disabling the realtime shield the PC shuts and powers down completely. Network LED gets green.

[dorsflando]

(IMG:http://forum.bitdefender.com/style_emoticons/default/angry.gif) I had similar problems.. My previous version was working perfectly; after renewing my license and upgrading to BD2008, I started having messages such as "BD encountered a problem and needed to close"; I sent the reports, and ignored it further; then I notice a certain file (dbokf.db 225kb) was coming back for update (though update was labeled as "successfull); when trying to update immediately after again, I got critical warnings... I contacted support (their initial answer was quick); they asked me to send them a logfile, which I did; then I was told that it appeared that my license key was not valid?!!! It was of course.. I was adviced to register again; registring again was successfull, but the problem was still there. Then support told me to reinstall (add/remove->reboot->run uninstalltool->reboot->reinstall); I did so, but still the same problem... (I even removed a paid version of Xoftspy anti-spyware, since I was told it could cause incompatibility issues; I'm regretting it now..) Since then I didn't get any answer (I sent support a Hijackthis-scan showing some "missing files" in BD)

If I get no further help, I will switch to AVG free again I think...

[Olivier Mayer]

Hello guys,

After the launch of BitDefender v.2008 family we would like to know what are the things that bother you about our current product and all those other things that you would like to see in our products.
State the issues that are currently bothering you in the v.2008 product family. Feedback and a list of features that you would like to see in the future versions would be great.
Also we would like to know if some of you geeky users had any problems with BitDefender products installed on your less techy friends or family computers.

One option is missing in the V11 Series and It was available in the V10...
i'm thinking about the option of closing the computer after a scheduled scan
can you add it in a update please ! (IMG:http://forum.bitdefender.com/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)


Another request for you is about the Total Security Suite...
You should integrate the free GNU Technology of Piriform Ltd
Or deal with them cause it's really good stuff that live from pub and donations.

The free registry Utility detect more optimization than the total security 2008 suite,
an of any other registry tools on the market.

The defragmenting tool allow you to defrag only some files,
or most fragmented files faster than any other defragmenting tool.

Only 3 product but good free software to integrate:
Visit Piriform Site

Bit defender is still the best way to keep a single workstation or a complete school quiet happy.gif
With a minimum of 1 Gb of ram and a 1Ghz non celeron Cpu 2008 Suite Works Fine!

Regards,

Oliver, IT A+ in Quebec, Canada

This post has been edited by Florin Stiuca: Nov 16 2007, 06:14 PM

[Olivier Mayer]

(IMG:http://forum.bitdefender.com/style_emoticons/default/angry.gif) I had similar problems.. My previous version was working perfectly; after renewing my license and upgrading to BD2008, I started having messages such as "BD encountered a problem and needed to close"; I sent the reports, and ignored it further; then I notice a certain file (dbokf.db 225kb) was coming back for update (though update was labeled as "successfull); when trying to update immediately after again, I got critical warnings... I contacted support (their initial answer was quick); they asked me to send them a logfile, which I did; then I was told that it appeared that my license key was not valid?!!! It was of course.. I was adviced to register again; registring again was successfull, but the problem was still there. Then support told me to reinstall (add/remove->reboot->run uninstalltool->reboot->reinstall); I did so, but still the same problem... (I even removed a paid version of Xoftspy anti-spyware, since I was told it could cause incompatibility issues; I'm regretting it now..) Since then I didn't get any answer (I sent support a Hijackthis-scan showing some "missing files" in BD)

If I get no further help, I will switch to AVG free again I think...

You must have some registry problems dude, take it easy just clean your pc registry
Install the best free registry cleaner on the market from Piriform Ltd:

www.ccleaner.com

dont forget that AVG free or Avast free are not good solutions,
you will need to use Windows Defender for Spywares... wich is worst

Best thing is too have the behavioral thechnology of BD for protect against spyware and viruses at all time

The problem is when you install BD and already have something wrong,
if you pass 2 days on the internet not secured by a valid license,
your new installation can be corrupted.

Before reinstalling BD clean you registry, use the fast disk defragmenter from piriform.com

You can also use windows update and windows defender for malware active on your computer

if you got lot of spyware to kill: find about Hitman Pro on Google

if it's deep... Reinstall your Windows, upgrade your PC or buy a new one!

Regards,

Oliver, IT A+ from Quebec

This post has been edited by Florin Stiuca: Nov 16 2007, 06:14 PM

[rick24]

This is set under the Exceptions tab when you open the advanced settings window and when Antivirus is selected on the left.

Please respond to customer issues promptly. I have been asking a address of Global Collect so I can send in my payment for days now. No one seems to be able to help me. I have posted a question, PM most all moderators. Still no response. All I need to make my payment it the address of Global Collect.

[pham hung]

Hello guys,

After the launch of BitDefender v.2008 family we would like to know what are the things that bother you about our current product and all those other things that you would like to see in our products.
State the issues that are currently bothering you in the v.2008 product family. Feedback and a list of features that you would like to see in the future versions would be great.
Also we would like to know if some of you geeky users had any problems with BitDefender products installed on your less techy friends or family computers.

Hello
I haved to join bitdefender totall 2008 beta. I haved bugs updated and haved
contacted via mail of bitdefenderBeta.
Please say to me about prize, if Iam winers.
Thank you!

[Octavian]

Posted some days ago, but no replies yet... I'm trying again.

I recently upgraded from BD Antivirus 10 to BD Antivirus 2008 and I followed all instruction with the registration wizard. It's working fine, no problem so far, but I have a question. My account still shows that I'm using BD Av10 with so mamy days left on my subscription and also shows that I'm evaluating BD Antivirus 2008. When I click on BD icon, it shows BD Antivirus 2008 Trial. Is that normal? I thought I'll become fully licenced, not with a trial or evaluating version.

Thanks,
Octavian

[hdesbois]

Hi,
I'd like to repport a minor problem with BD 2008 (french language edition, if that does matter). After some updates, the bdagent will pop up a small windows asking if you prefer to reboot to complete the update, or if you'll rather shutdown latter. But this pop up windows gives absolutely no clue about which application is asking for a reboot. Indeed, I needed to go into the process manager to find ou it was a message from bdagent. I even thought, the first time, that it might be a malware. Please, this thing should have "bit defender security etc." written all over it!

H.

[kalas]

You lack to provide very useful stuff your users were used to. You wanted to make it easier to use, but you missed the mark badly.
Besides of the many problems reported this seems more a Beta version than a Retail one, very dissapointed

1.- Lack of Options when right click the icon on the tray like "Block Traffic" like before
2.- Lack of Options to Allow or Block a program to connect to the internet like "Block/Allow this port Only" like before
3.- Lacks the ability to Load Firewall rules and settings from a version 10 installation, now I have to create all the firewall rules again
4.- Lack of the option to enter a domain name instead of the IP address when entering a Firewall Rule
5.- Problem with the Settings window as reported by many users already
6.- Integration with Thunderbird for spam and white list email addresses
7.- On the Settings window clicked on the Antivirus Scan Tab and it crashed
8.- Scan for Rootkit on the Quick tasks "window"

in all too many errors to be called "Retail version"
I am going back to version 10

[Cris]

1.- Lack of Options when right click the icon on the tray like "Block Traffic" like before
2.- Lack of Options to Allow or Block a program to connect to the internet like "Block/Allow this port Only" like before

The thing I miss the most (which is actually critical for the Firewall module) is the fact that you cannot add "one-time" rules anymore (the option Remember this answer is missing and it's always activated). Because of this:

1. all installation kits which create temporary files which need access to the internet are permanently stored in the Firewall list (until I remove them manually). This simply makes the Traffic list HUGE for absolutely no reason
2. any file that I suspect/I don't know what does, I cannot allow/grant access only once to the internet. I can only give it full or no access, which is simply...dumb!

These reasons are why this version of the Firewall is very hard to use. Even more...when I want to remove a rule (for an application that I wanted to temporary allow/deny access) I have to make 4 clicks just to get to the Traffic list. The usability is very low. Honestly...

Don't get me wrong. In normal conditions, the firewall does it's job just fine. But there are some things that a Total Security solution has to offer but, currently, BitDefender lacks.

There are some other things that I miss in the new BDv11, but this is the most important thing.

[ggfossen]

Issues?

Antivirus 2008 loads, but won't update. That makes it worthless. After being loaded, Earthlink won't disconnect.

Your email help is slow enough to respond that it isn't worth much.

Your phone line, after perhaps a dozen tries, always ends in a disconnect, or a busy signal.

Almost as if your whole outfit is a ponzi scheme running from the law.

I am awaiting an email response. I will continue to try the phone. I probably won't spend much time looking for an answer on the forum because it's too ###### hard to get into...too many steps.

No, I'm not happy with BitDefender, but, at this point, it remains a bit better than the competition.

[Erik]

I'm unable to use BitDefender Antivirus on one of my Windows XP Professional computers because VSSERV keeps aborting. The problem seems to happen when BitDefender does an automatic update. As such I have paid for extra licenses that I can't use. I also have problems with BitDefender Antivirus on a Windows 2000 computer. The Phishing toolbar is missing from Internet Explorer, and the program does not work well with 800 x 600 screen resolution. There is no way to resize the windows to get to the buttons that are not visible. So far I have not been able to resolve these problems through technical support.

I've tried using the uninstall program for BitDefender and then reinstalling the program. I've also tried disabling the Data Execution Prevention (in a few different ways). If anyone has other ideas that might prevent VSSERV from continually aborting, please let me know. I'm starting to feel foolish because I switched from another Antivirus program due to the lack of support, and now I'm having worse problems.

[Long ZI Kai]

My vsserv.exe will terminated unexpected due to Visual C++ runtime error. After which, I have to reboot my machines. It has happened few times -

1. When I turned on parental control, everytime when the page loaded with java runtime, it will have this error
2. I turne off parental control, it will still happened sometime after browsing. especially whe I logout from a trading website, gmail, etc.

Already sent my questions to support in the morning, so far no response.

[bill]

Two things, both of which I have posted.
One. Selecting a path to exclude from scan does not work. Been verified. Have an app that gives a false positive for a trogan. Spy-Bot, Adware and Zone Alarm do not think this app contains spyware.
Two. Laptop BD Total Security 2008 installed on moves from home wireless network to work wired network. Get popups about services trying to connect. Fine. However, this is not remembered. When I next connect to the same network same IP address, home or work, I get to say ok to the same popups again. This is a very high irritant. Others, Zone Alarm 6.5,which I had installed previously, and F-Secure 2008 remember.
Another thing, is the time between the launch of a app, such as Firefox, and the popup is way toooo long. In the case of Firefox, I am already using when the popup comes. Interesting that I am using, but get a popup asking if this is ok to allow. Makes one think the blocking is not happening.
With this concern, plus the two things I posted I have to say this product has that beta feel to it. Not polished not doing what it is supposed to do. Do not have any faith that a potential trogan/spyware might also get by and connect before I get a chance to say block.
I purchased based on a review I read about the 2008 version. His review did not include day to day usage just how well BD found viruses etc. My mistake for buying before downloading and testing. Most test well in the virus area anymore what with the certifications.
I will be requesting a RMA to return BD.
Have installed F-Secure Internet Security 2008. Yes I did download and test first. I do learn. F-Secure just works. Creates a white list of installed applications which can be reviewed so that there are few popups during the learning process. Gives popups before allowing Internet connection and will not allow until I have agreed. That in itself is one up on BD. Don't have the network issues either. Found a few adware that BD did not, but that is to be expected no matter what you use.
It also scores high with testing/reviewers. Has a much more polished feel/look/work. Obviously not a beta, not sure about BD even though it comes with a nice box, etc. My price was about the same for a 3 machine license.
My guess when the "real" gold code comes out BD will be good product as well. Unfortunately I spent 2 weeks of frustration and will not be back or could I recommend.
--bill

[Erik]

Since the White List does not display in the AntiPhishing tool bar here is an alternate way to view and delete entries from the White List.

Open the following file with Wordpad.
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\BitDefender\Desktop\Profilesapconf.xml

Replace "USERNAME" with your actual user name.

You will see entries like this.

<acl id="allowed sites">
<ace type="string" id="0" active="1">website1.com</ace>
...
<ace type="string" id="0" active="1">websiteN.com</ace>
</acl>

The "website1.com" and "websiteN.com" will actually be the web site URLs that you added to the White List.
To remove an entry, delete the entire line that contains "<ace" and "</ace>".
Adding entries to the White List can be done manually, but the add functions of the toolbar do work correctly. You just can't see what was added. If you try to add something already in the list the tool bar will display a warning message, so you can always try to add something if you aren't sure that it's in the list.

[tfewster]

I've been chasing Technical Support for the last week (email, chat & phone) and not managed to get through to _anyone_ yet.

BitDefender Total Security 2008, Windows XP Home SP2

1) I can't schedule a backup - If I click "Schedule Job" I get a Windows "Schedule Error" popup with the message "Access is denied. Bitdefender Backup cannot set job schedule".

I am logged in with Admin rights. If I look in the Windows Control Panel/Scheduled Tasks, I can see the schedule being created (and open it), but when I click "OK" on the popup the schedule is deleted.

I've tried copying the content of the schedule, i.e.
"C:\Program Files\BitDefender\BitDefender Backup\backup.exe" --sch-bak 2
and creating a schedule manually, including the Admin password. The program starts at the scheduled time, but exits without doing anything. Is there any documentation for the command-line options?


2) If I do a backup manually, the Log viewer has several messages like "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process" and "The process cannot access the file because another process has locked a portion of the file", but it doesn't say _which_ files it is failing on.

3) Occasionally (Most noticeably when playing Age of Empires II), a small "info" window appears with no text in it. There is nothing in the AV or firewall logs to indicate what the issue was

4) Updates are blocked even when a scan has completed, presumably until the "Scan Status" window is closed

Yes, I've searched the forums & Googled the Scheduling error, with no success

I hope you can get these issues sorted, especially the matter of Tech Support not responding, as I'm planning to move about 25 family/friends/company PCs off Norton AV and onto something better.

[Bluefish]

The main GUI is a tad dull but I only ever go to settings anyway so it matters little. The AV seems a bit slow loading and XP often has time to warn me that I am not protected. This is a little unnerving.

This post has been edited by Bluefish: Nov 13 2007, 05:17 PM

[JRSC]

Hello guys,

After the launch of BitDefender v.2008 family we would like to know what are the things that bother you about our current product and all those other things that you would like to see in our products.
State the issues that are currently bothering you in the v.2008 product family. Feedback and a list of features that you would like to see in the future versions would be great.
Also we would like to know if some of you geeky users had any problems with BitDefender products installed on your less techy friends or family computers.

I have been a BitDefender user for a few years starting with BD8 and like most people i think the main reason to stay with the current release has been the belief that under the somewhat quirky UI and troublesome operation there is a decent AV/AS/firewall. I thought previous versions worked pretty well, didn't affect system performance too much, weren't overtly intrusive, had concise user interfaces etc. I currently have the Total Security 2008 package running on 3 PC's and have the following general issues with it;

1) I move between different sites a lot, use VPN's, wifi and wired connections, and almost every time an existing profile is not correctly picked up. Annoyingly it always defaults to a firewall setting based on the whitelist which seems not to be editable within BD TS2008. I have seen the entries on this forum on editing the whitelist manually which although a solution should really be a feature in the software. Each time BD 2008 decides it has a new profile, i have to go through the settings process to reconfigure the firewall and the firewall rules which is a real pain. Additionally, there seems no way to edit or delete existing profiles within BD and i have quite a collection of quite a few 'Default untrusted xxx'. It would nice to be able to define and set a 'User Default Profile' on which any new profile is based, c/w editor to read write edit delete existing profiles. Better still, have BD give me the option to add to the existing user profile with the alternative network connection details.

2) The UI seems to be structured in unusual way, with key features and settings being several layers down through the 'Settings' link, while features which are effectively bonus tools (such as Tune Up, Back Up, and possibly Parental Control) are centre stage on the opening screen. Given that the software is really about providing a Firewall, AV and AS/Adware, (and maybe Parental Control), in my view these should be the individual front page items as they are the most important. Also, on the settings page, AV is above the firewall in the list, seems these should be switched around, firewall at the top of the list then AV? For usability i think the current build is not great, the important items are simply too many layers down, almost like you have bought a back up, tune up tool with some AV/firewall capabilities. The UI design seems to have lost focus somehow on what BD TS2008 is actually about.

3) When running a manual AV scan, there doesn't seem to be a way to just run an AV scan, or an AS/adware scan, or a rootkit scan, it just runs the whole lot back to back giving no idea of what the anticipated test time is or the scan progress within that, only the elapsed time. Also the actions provided at the end of each test stage are not intuitively clear as to what has actually happened, and as far as i can see there is no chance to go back to take actions on the findings of a scan if you make the wrong selections, particularly after the default corrective action fails. with disk scans in the 6-8hrs, some ability to split the scans by type and revisit results would be useful. I would like to see the range of options and controls available re manual scanning be more manageable and informative.


From reading the other forum entries, and from my own and my company's experiences, it seems there is some way to go on making this product stable, user friendly and configurable. The jury is still out for me on what i choose next year when my licences expire. I think TS2008 does the job pretty well, i have confidence in it, but it makes me work for it, i would rather it just worked - configure it and forget it. Hopefully these issues can be sorted soon as it evolves.

[codbanger]

I have a single Fujitsu Siemens computer running Windows XP Prof SP2 with all the latest patches. I have used BitDefender v10 for several months but recently took the opportunity to upgrade to BitDefender 2008 as I understood
the licence could be transferred from v10 and allowed to run its course.

My account at BitDefender seems to show that I still have v10 with 150 days to go but that I am merely evaluating BitDefender 2008!

Also, with BitDefender 2008 installed, my computer no longer switches off automatically when I choose to turn off at the end of a session. The other day I uninstalled the software just to prove to myself that it would switch off - which it did - then reinstalled BitDefender 2008.

I realise from the other comments on this forum that I am not alone in experiencing problems with BitDefender 2008. Indeed some people are in a much worse position than me. Consequently I am of the opinion that BitDefender 2008 has been released far too early and should have undergone much more testing. Perhaps its name alone indicates this!!