Vsserv.exe Using Full Cpu In Game Mode

G'day

I've noticed that while playing a game (in "game mode") my Windows XP Task Manager shows vsserv.exe is using all of my CPU. I know games are meant to use most or all of your processing power to optimise performance but is this normal for the game to channel the usage through the vsserv.exe process?

I don't play any online games and in most cases I even turn the wireless internet off on my laptop when playing a game.... so I can't see why Bitdefender would need to be this heavily active, particularly in "game mode" which is mean't to use minimal resources.

I realise that my logic described here may be pretty silly to you guys that know heaps about computers and how Bitdefender works but just wanted to know for peace of mind if this is normal behaviour?

BTW, my games don't crash and still run normal at good frame rates so it doesn't appear to be cooking my computer.

Any info would be great.

Cheers!

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Alex Stanciu

Hello Hawks08,

Just in testing purpose try do disable the Antivirus (Real Time Protection) module while Game Mode is active and you are playing a game and look if vsserv is still having the same high CPU usage. Also, if possible, give us some examples of the games that you are playing when this sittuation occurs.

We are looking forward to your reply .

Thank you .

plutoniumboy

Hello Hawks08,

Just in testing purpose try do disable the Antivirus (Real Time Protection) module while Game Mode is active and you are playing a game and look if vsserv is still having the same high CPU usage. Also, if possible, give us some examples of the games that you are playing when this sittuation occurs.

We are looking forward to your reply .

Thank you .

G'day Alex

Sorry for the delay in replying, have been away from a computer for a few days.

Thanks for responding to my post and your suggestions. I tried turning off the real time protection whilst in game mode and was still getting the heavy spikes in CPU usage pertaining to the vsserv.exe process.

On further analysis I did note some small stutters in frame rate (confirmed also when having FRAPS active) when vsserv.exe was using between 97-99 of my CPU (in task manager). It's not happening all the time but appears to happen randomly, lasting 20-30 seconds at a time, and occurring maybe 3 or 4 times when gaming for about a 45 minute period. The memory usage rises slightly during these CPU spikes but virtual memory remains about the same.

I've only got a an integrated GMA 900 graphics adapter on my laptop with a Pentium M and 1GB RAM and therefore only play a few older racing games on it, namely F1 Racing Championship by Ubisoft (2001) and Need For Speed 3, 4 and 5 (1998-2000). I didn't notice the same thing occurring with Bitdefender 2008 that was previously installed on my machine. I mainly use my laptop for running DJ software like Traktor Scratch Pro and Ableton Live 7 and don't experience such CPU issues in game mode (but these programs require very little graphics processing). BTW, my laptop runs XP Pro SP3.

Also, I run a desktop computer built primarily for gaming (2GB RAM, Quad Core CPU and GeForce 8600 GTS) but it runs on Vista (soon to be replaced with XP tho - but that's another issue!) and I've had no CPU issues at all with it using Bitdefender 2010 in game mode. On this machine I play Call of Duty 4, Madden 07, NHL 07, NBL 07 and heaps of modern racing games like GRID, GTR2 and a few F1 simulators. These are all pretty demanding on graphics processing for this system, even relatively speaking in comparison with the integrated chip running the old games on my laptop. Therefore I don't think the problem has too much to do with my laptop not being able to handle the games (I get 35-70 FPS out of these older games on this laptop in native resolution with v-sync turned off).

Furthermore, I've found what seems to be a short-term fix for the problems I was experiencing: I've installed IObit's Game Booster on my laptop (been previously using it to good effect on my desktop machine) and it appears to have fixed the problem. Game booster temporarily shuts down any unnecessary processes in the background when run. However I don't use it to shut down Bitdefender. Also, there's no garbage on my computer as I'm very diligent at maintaining a clean system.

Anyway, hope this gives you some good info to work with. I must say that I'm very happy with this latest version of Bitdefender, despite this small issue.

Take care mate.

plutoniumboy

G'day Alex

Sorry for the delay in replying, have been away from a computer for a few days.

Thanks for responding to my post and your suggestions. I tried turning off the real time protection whilst in game mode and was still getting the heavy spikes in CPU usage pertaining to the vsserv.exe process.

On further analysis I did note some small stutters in frame rate (confirmed also when having FRAPS active) when vsserv.exe was using between 97-99 of my CPU (in task manager). It's not happening all the time but appears to happen randomly, lasting 20-30 seconds at a time, and occurring maybe 3 or 4 times when gaming for about a 45 minute period. The memory usage rises slightly during these CPU spikes but virtual memory remains about the same.

I've only got a an integrated GMA 900 graphics adapter on my laptop with a Pentium M and 1GB RAM and therefore only play a few older racing games on it, namely F1 Racing Championship by Ubisoft (2001) and Need For Speed 3, 4 and 5 (1998-2000). I didn't notice the same thing occurring with Bitdefender 2008 that was previously installed on my machine. I mainly use my laptop for running DJ software like Traktor Scratch Pro and Ableton Live 7 and don't experience such CPU issues in game mode (but these programs require very little graphics processing). BTW, my laptop runs XP Pro SP3.

Also, I run a desktop computer built primarily for gaming (2GB RAM, Quad Core CPU and GeForce 8600 GTS) but it runs on Vista (soon to be replaced with XP tho - but that's another issue!) and I've had no CPU issues at all with it using Bitdefender 2010 in game mode. On this machine I play Call of Duty 4, Madden 07, NHL 07, NBL 07 and heaps of modern racing games like GRID, GTR2 and a few F1 simulators. These are all pretty demanding on graphics processing for this system, even relatively speaking in comparison with the integrated chip running the old games on my laptop. Therefore I don't think the problem has too much to do with my laptop not being able to handle the games (I get 35-70 FPS out of these older games on this laptop in native resolution with v-sync turned off).

Furthermore, I've found what seems to be a short-term fix for the problems I was experiencing: I've installed IObit's Game Booster on my laptop (been previously using it to good effect on my desktop machine) and it appears to have fixed the problem. Game booster temporarily shuts down any unnecessary processes in the background when run. However I don't use it to shut down Bitdefender. Also, there's no garbage on my computer as I'm very diligent at maintaining a clean system.

Anyway, hope this gives you some good info to work with. I must say that I'm very happy with this latest version of Bitdefender, despite this small issue.

Take care mate.

Hi Alex

Further to this above post I made serveral hours ago, disregard the info on the short term fix I thought I'd found when using IObit's Game Booster to disable background tasks. I just played F1 Racing Championship and still had a few random CPU spikes as described previously. I even tried turning off the antiphishing whilst in game mode, along with the real time protection, my wireless adapter and all other backgound tasks. It's weird.... vsserv.exe is totally inactive and then every 10 minutes or so decides to utilise almost all of my CPU for about 30 seconds... it's like "game mode" is not working at all. This feature worked perfectly in Bitdefender 2008 on the same machine.

Do you think it's worth me doing a fresh install or repair?

Thanks mate

Cheers.

Alex Stanciu

Hello Hawks08,

If possible, when you encounter the same sittuation please follow the steps bellow and reply to our email with the resulting report attached:

1. Save the tool from the next link on your Desktop:

http://www.bitdefender.com/files/Knowledge...ile/sysdump.exe

2. Run it and you will notice that a command prompt window will appear on your screen.

3. Please note that the information gathering process can take a several minutes therefore please wait until the command prompt window disappear by itself. The output of this tool is a new file called sysdump.tar placed in the same location with sysdump.exe

4. After the file is generated please reply to our email with it attached.

We are looking forward to your reply.

Thank you .

dave r

Hi Alex

Further to this above post I made serveral hours ago, disregard the info on the short term fix I thought I'd found when using IObit's Game Booster to disable background tasks. I just played F1 Racing Championship and still had a few random CPU spikes as described previously. I even tried turning off the antiphishing whilst in game mode, along with the real time protection, my wireless adapter and all other backgound tasks. It's weird.... vsserv.exe is totally inactive and then every 10 minutes or so decides to utilise almost all of my CPU for about 30 seconds... it's like "game mode" is not working at all. This feature worked perfectly in Bitdefender 2008 on the same machine.

Do you think it's worth me doing a fresh install or repair?

Thanks mate

Cheers.

Well thats what i just have done,as the game i play was taking some 40seconds to load the next map and became slow too, firstly i killed all bit defender by disabling all its services whilst in safe mode then booted into normal mode started the game and it ran as fast as it should(btw i added the game to list of games,)use game mode,disables realtime av but no difference as this sec app does as it Want's to and not as we want it to,my game btw was tom clancy's rainbow six vegas 2

plutoniumboy

Hello Hawks08,

If possible, when you encounter the same sittuation please follow the steps bellow and reply to our email with the resulting report attached:

1. Save the tool from the next link on your Desktop:

http://www.bitdefender.com/files/Knowledge...ile/sysdump.exe

2. Run it and you will notice that a command prompt window will appear on your screen.

3. Please note that the information gathering process can take a several minutes therefore please wait until the command prompt window disappear by itself. The output of this tool is a new file called sysdump.tar placed in the same location with sysdump.exe

4. After the file is generated please reply to our email with it attached.

We are looking forward to your reply.

Thank you .

G'day Alex

Many thanks for your time and efforts to help solve the problem I've been experiencing, but since my last post I've uninstalled Bitdefender Total Security 2010 (not using the uninstall program that's available for download but simply the remove option accessible from Bitdefender's location in the Start Menu) and reinstalled my old version of Bitdefender Total Security 2008. Following this I've had no problems at all with vsserv.exe using any of my CPU in "game mode" when playing the same 3D games. I realise that this is an older version and lacks some of the new features, has a slightly less attractive looking interface, and perhaps it's a little less stable but it still updates to the latest virus engine (thus providing me the same av protection) and the "game mode" works flawlessly, so it's a fair trade off I reckon.

I'll probably try reinstalling the 2010 version again in a about 6 months to see if Bitdefender has patched it with the "game mode" working how it should. I'm still going to persist with the 2010 version on my desktop machine as I've noticed no such slow-down's generated by vsserv.exe whilst gaming, but this could have something to do with the fact that this computer uses Vista and/or has a quad core CPU which may be able to better deal with the random CPU spikes I was experiencing on my laptop running XP with a single core processor.

Cheers

plutoniumboy

Well thats what i just have done,as the game i play was taking some 40seconds to load the next map and became slow too, firstly i killed all bit defender by disabling all its services whilst in safe mode then booted into normal mode started the game and it ran as fast as it should(btw i added the game to list of games,)use game mode,disables realtime av but no difference as this sec app does as it Want's to and not as we want it to,my game btw was tom clancy's rainbow six vegas 2

G'day davey

It's pretty annoying hey? Glad to see I'm not the only one that seems to be having issues with vsserv.exe and "game mode". See above on my previous post on how I got around the problem. It's not the ideal solution I know but the 2008 edition does everything I need it to do and the game mode works how it should. I never tried the 2009 edition (I jumped straight from 2008 to 2010) but the game mode might work properly on that too, which could be another option for you untill the latest version hopefully gets patched. I had no probs using my product key for Bitdefender Total Security 2010 when rolling back to and reactivating the 2008 version. Hope something works out for you!

Cheers

P.S. If anyone out there reading this can let me know if Bitdefender Total Security 2008 offers any less (and in what way?) anti-virus protection to this latest 2010 incarnation then that would be great? The 2008 edition updates to the latest virus engine and signatures so to my reckoning it would protect my system in much the same way as the 2010 version, despite lacking some of the newer features. Many thanks!