I am currently evaluating BitDefender AV 2008. I've run into an possible issue with the program but I can't tie it directly to BitDefender. The problem is that on restarts I occasional encounter what I believe is the CHKDSK screen. The screen in question is two-tone blue, dark at the top and bottom and light in the middle. It has the Windows XP logo in the upper right hand corner and a message "Please wait", followed buy a string of dots that gets longer until the screen disappears and the restart continues as it normally should. This problem started when I installed BitDefender and the only times I have seem it before was when Windows was hung and I had to restart the computer using the power button. Is this a normal process for BitDefender or a problem?

My configuration:

Windows XP SP2
BitDefender AV 2008, v. 11.0.16
PC Tools Firewall Plus (free version)

Dear JCMac,

Go to start,run,now type msconfig press enter go to the boot.ini tab check /BOOTLOG press on apply.
After you have rebooted a file called ntbtlog.txt will be created in the windows folder. Please upload or post the content. Check als the computer logbook: go to start,run,now type eventvwr. Open the system and application logbook and see if there are any warnings or errors reported at the time you had that issue and post the content.
Normally if it's a scheduled chdsk you must have seen a message if you want to deny the process of checking and fixing hard disk error. I recommend that you perform a scheduled chdsk. Go to start,run,now type chdsk x: /f (Change x by the letter of your hard disc or partition press on enter. You will see a message type y to schedule the ckdsk at next boot.

Best regards
Niels

I captured the bootlog and will attach it. I also captured some event information and will attach it. It occurs to me that this problem only seems to occurs after an extended browser session, usually by my daughter, who spends a lot of time on MySpace. I don't know if that is any help. I also ran chkdsk and there were no errors, however, it seemed to take a very long time to run.

Dear JCMac,

Go to start,run,now type msconfig press enter see if use original boot.ini is selected if not check it afterwards go to the boot.ini tab what value is entered by time-out? Change it to 3 seconds. Don't forget to press on apply. I can't see any drivers that failed to load. It could be also a leftover of your previous antivirus. What was your previous antivirus or security suite? Did you removed it? I also recommend that you check this topic.

Best regards
Niels

I'll do the above after I finish this reply. I did some further checking and it appears the "invalid display" and "ip address" errors occur on every restart, regardless of whether the "please wait" problem also occurs. I also noticed that BitDefender appears to be loading a firewall driver during startup (bdftdif.sys). Could this conflict with the PC Tools firewall I'm running?

For some reason, this turkey won't let me edit my own reply to Neils post, so I had to add a new reply. Go figure!

O.K. I changed "use modified boot.ini" to "use original boot.ini" and changed the timeout from 5 sec to 3 sec. When I restarted, the condition occured again, but cleared more quickly. As to previous AV's, I ran Kaspersky for about a year and uninstalled it using both the control panel app and Kaspersky's own (downloaded) uninstaller. The Kaspersky uninstaller showed nothing present when I ran it. After Kaspersky I sampled a number of other app's, including Avast! Home, BitDefender, AVG 8.0 and AntiVir Classic. After any uninstall, I always run CCleaner to remove any leftovers from the registry. I've never used RegCleaner, but I'll give it a try.

Dear JCMac,

BitDefender Antivirus 2008 doesn't have a firewall. What is loaded is infact a part of the virus protection. ft means filter driver.
The chance of leftover is indeed almost non-exist because you have used ccleaner and also a specific uninstall tool. Try this press several times on the F8 button before the windows loading splash screen select load lastworking configuration press enter. To test can you please unplug your network cable and attach it again once you are in windows. To see if your computer isn't looking first on your cd-rom drive for an operating system please change the boot sequence. Normally when you start your computer you will see a screen where you see which button that you have to enter to go into the BIOS or entering setup or something different. Press that button and look for a section called boot sequence or boot order and see if your hard disk is on top because otherwise it can take some time before windows is detected.

Does that error message of bad block still appears in your eventviewer?

Best regards
Niels

My boot sequence hasn't changed since I originally got this computer. This problem began when I installed BitDefender. As for the block errors, I haven't seen them again. I have HDDLife running and it doesn't report any hardware problems, so I believe the block errors are software related. I also failed to mention that I opened a ticket with BitDefender support. They asked me to run a number of reports and send them the resulting files, which I did. I received this reply, in part, this morning:

Thank you for sending us the information. There are several programs
installed on your computer which are known to create conflicts with
BitDefender. In order to resolve the issue, please completely
uninstall the
following applications then reboot your computer:

CCleaner
Spyware Doctor
Spyware Blaster
PC Doctor
Norton Security Scan

My first reaction is that if BitDefender is this anti-social, do I really want it on my computer??? As a matter of fact, none of these programs run full time, so shouldn't cause an on-going conflict. Since I only have 8 days left on my evaluation time, I think my best course of action is to remove BitDefender and re-install Avast! to once again verify that the problem is associated with BitDefender. If that turns out to be the case, I won't be re-installing BitDefender.

Neils, thank you for your efforts, and I'm sorry for mispelling your name in my last post!

Dear JCMac,

Did you run chdsk for every partition that you have made on your hard disk?

You can let these software installed. The only thing that you better doesn't do is running more than one security program in realtime mode. That is exactly what you said. I know that support always will tell you that you have to remove additional security software even when it's not necessary. This will also be the first answer if you are reporting a problem to them.
Some other vendors will not let you install if you have some security software installed BitDefender only informs you about it.

The error you received is more hardware related or software related more specificly for your hard disk.

I wouldn't recommend you that you use the free edition of Spyware Doctor because you only get 1/3 of the signatures that are available for paid customers. You can verify it here


Best regards
Niels

I tried removing PC Doctor but that didn't help. All of the other programs listed by BitDefender Support are run on-demand and should not cause a problem. As to running CHKDSK, I only have one partition.

Given that no one seems to be able to explain this problem, I must conclude that BitDefender is incompatible with my system and I cannot use it. I have removed it and will use another AV product.

Dear JCMac,

The reason is because it isn't that simple because we(me and support) can't see what you describe. Which make it very difficult what might be the cause of it. A screenshot of it would be very helpfull.

A bad windows installation could also be the case you could have tried this put in your windows installation cd-rom go to start run now type cmd press enter and type sfc /scannow and press enter. Press the windows button together with r now type msconfig press enter go to the boot.ini tab and copy and paste the content of that.

Best regards
Niels

Perhaps you could mention similar problems, rather than assuming the problem lies with external software. The following might be relevant:
System Grinds To Halt After Update: http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?sho...amp;hl=grinding
BD-2008 hanging up XP: http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?sho...=3443&st=20

I suspect JDMac's problem is related to these problems. My computer hung up yet again earlier this evening, and I had to power reset, which lead to the '...... wait for reset' XP screen during reboot, which I have only enountered once before.

Dear Tom O Hara,

I said it could be related. I never said that it's 100 % related to other software. Some security software installl a driver that normally loads at the very beginning of the boot processes once the software is uninstalled sometimes a empty value could be left where windows is still looking for. I didn't received the problem yet. I am just trying to figure out if the problem hasn't another cause.

Best regards
Niels

I had exactly the same problem as JCMac, although I had already paid for the product, so I was reluctant to just stop using it! I am sure it is BitDefender related, for the simple reason that I didn't get it before I installed BitDefender and I didn't get it when I disabled BitDefender Virus Scan. It got so bad I was reduced to powering off while those dots were marching across the screen, and selecting the "last known good configuration" option when XP restarted. This allowed a normal login. I also noticed that it only seemed to appear after a browser session. It is not CHKDSK running, although CHKDSK gives output to the same two-tone XP splash screen. I tried various things - including Norton's Software removal tool, to remove every trace of my previous installation of Norton Anti-Virus. In the end I went to Security Centre - Settings - Anti Virus - Custom Level and I unchecked the "Scan Boot" option. I'm not sure how much this has cost me in the way of security (maybe someone can tell me?), but at least I seem to be getting a normal startup now.