Memory Leak

Dear warrentaylor and a user

First of all this is only a user forum.

That isn't normal the memory usage on my computer that has only 512 mb internal memory is lower than 2 MB at boot. It's normal that it increases after an update but on my computer after a few seconds the memory usage drops immediately. Right click on the red BitDefender icon near the system clock press open advanced settings,click on custom now enable the option do not scan files greater than you can change that value to confirm these changes press on ok. You can also uncheck scan packed files, don't scan network share press on apply and ok. You can also exclude large folders if you want to do that press on the exceptions tab select the option choose a path not to be scanned. It's normal that vsserv.exe uses lots of memory if you didn't shutdown your computer on a week base.

Did you uninstalled your previous antivirus? Do you have other security programs running in the back-ground? If so which?

Best regards

Niels

Same problem here.

The actual memory size usage is usually about 5-25 mb, no problem at all.

BUT, the virtual memory (VM) size never goes down, I'm about to reboot now because bd is taking 900 Meg of VM.

I have 2 gig of ram here, huge pagefile, and i still get messages from windows telling me its increasing the size of my virtual memory !! BD has stolen up to 1.3 GB in the past !!

I have some screenshots of this in action, will post soon. I am beginning to regret buying BDISS 2008. java ******:add_smilie("" />","smid_15")

I have contacted bd customer services, but the seem unable to give me any information on the BUG.

Looking through some of the problems people are having, I wonder if the top execs at BD realise that the future of their brand is right now being slaughtered.

Dear warrentaylor,

That report button is only to report for example spam topics or vulgar posts to the moderators so we(=moderators) get notified about that.

If it's a real bug that every BitDefender user has? Can you please explain me why I don't have it on all my home computers? Don't misunderstood me it could be an isolated bug. Do you have

Did you uninstalled your previous antivirus? Do you have other security programs running in the back-ground? If so which?

That could be the cause of the huge memory usage just the same as how many startup processes you have running.

Best regards

Niels

Dear marc28uk,

You can try to set your page file on another partition. I agree that the virtual memory usage is too high.

I let windows manage my page file and I didn't received a windows warning message.Did you already disabled your page file and enabled it again?

Best regards

Niels

Niels,

So why is nothing being done about this bug that causes the VM to be so high? Yes, I call it a "bug", as it causes performance issues throughout the system when the page file gets too big. We shouldn't have to reboot when the VM gets too high just because the software is poorly designed.

Warren,

I think you see the holes in the ship as well... I'm thinking of just going back to Norton, as they at least have a massive support section if you ever have any issues. BitDefender's support ###### - they want you to jump through hoops providing every bit of data (might I add - PRIVATE information on what's installed on your system), and then come back with no answers.

In the end, if this issue can't be resolved, I'll be jumping on all the sites that gave it "rave reviews" to set the record straight on this second-rate software design.

Dear Xavier311

I think that you didn't understand me I do not and also the other moderators don't work for Softwin (BitDefender) I am just a normal user just as all you guys. Keep in mind that the virtual memory isn't always used. What you see is just a reserved place when your memory is overloaded with loaded processes. This doesn't means that vsserv.exe is using that at the moment but windows just is increasing that amount. You can only see it when there is access to your hard disc. Your page file could also became fragmented that can cause also the virtual memory usage.

I agree that some support people doesn't know what they are talking about. But there are real knowledgeable people active.

Best regards

Niels

Niels,

I understood from the beginning that you don't work for BD. I also don't think I've done anything wrong in the manner that I am posting to this forum either. I was just reading Xavier311's reply and was throwing up my hands. ready to just go away when my computer froze up again. The icon in the system tray grew a black exclamation mark and the 'page file' usage for vsserv.exe went to 344meg.

A couple of things. This IS a bug. This has nothing to do with MY configuration. There is nothing I need to check on my system, it is just fine. Just because you don't see it on your systems doesn't mean it isn't happening to other folks.

Now, I did manage to get task manager up and was watching the page file usage and eventually it did go back down but my system response became very poor and for a few moments it appeared that BD wasn't doing its job (that black ! and the mouseover comment says 'unprotected').

If you have any pull with BD, just make sure this gets monitored. The sooner BD gets fixes out for these problems, the better it is for them. After all, having this forum hanging off of the BD website does imply an official connection with them. Personally, I'm hoping that they can fix these issues in short order and I can stop worrying about my AV and get back to my life.

Dude, that's all we want.

peace and love

Warren

The only thing I haven't tried is to disable VM and enable it again. I don't have another partition to move the page file to so that is not an option.

I have reinstalled BD as this was always the suggestion for other problems.

Since I added 1g of memory, this isn't so much of a problem. Right now its only annoying.

Do you know how fixes are distributed? Also, is there a bug tracking database that is made available to the users? I realize this might not be something that BD wants to publish but thought you might know. I was curious because I would like to know when the update problem is going to be fixed.

I would also like to suggest a separate forum like 'General Talk' for bug reporting rather than a single thread as you have now. Its too painful to sift through a single thread when you'd rather be looking at headings that match your problem. I think that would be a huge improvement to this forum.

thank you for your time, it is appreciated

Warren

I surely hope the scan engine is doing its job :S

You can test it here: http://eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm

Cris.

I am having this exact same issue. My uptime is about 3 days. vsserv.exe is currently using 377mb of physical memory and 691mb of swap space. This is the forth time I have had to reboot to fix this issue. I am using XP SP2, I have no other firewalls or virus software running. BitDefender is not currently scanning. I am unable to restart or shutdown the BitDefender Virus Shield service, and trying to restart any other BitDefender services (which automatically attempt to restart the BitDefender Virus Shield service) hang waiting for the service to respond.

Thanks for any advice,

-Musfuut

It is now at 460mb physical ram used and 700mb of swap, 4 days uptime. Seems to be an average increase of 100mb per day.

-Musfuut

Dear warrentaylor and Musfuut,

Try to change this option go to the antivirus section once you are on the shield tab press on custom level click on the +-icon that you find before scan accessed files and select scan program files only. You are still being protected because vsserv.exe will now not scanning everything only files that can be started.

If that still fails please do this. Log in to your my account and contact support and add the output of the files.

Best regards

Niels

1. In Windows, choose Start>Settings>Control panel.

2. Open the System applet.

3. Click on the Performance tab and then on the Virtual Memory button.

4. Choose the Let Me Specify My Own Virtual Memory Settings option.

5. In the Hard Disk drop-down list, choose a location for the virtual memory swap file. This should be the same drive on which you have Windows installed. You probably won't have to change this setting.

6. For the Minimum and Maximum parameters enter the same value. The value should be anywhere from 2 to 4 times the amount of physical memory you have installed in your computer. Try going with 2 times at first. The higher the number you use the more disk space you need for the swap file. For example, if you have 128MB of memory installed in your computer, you should enter a value of 256 for both the Minimum and Maximum parameters.

7. Click OK.

8. Click Yes.

I have also made this change but I am not going to say yet whether it is successful. This appears to be related to how long my system is up so I will have to let it go for a couple of days first. Looks good so far but jury's still out. As long as I don't get something nasty from a file I guess I'm OK. I would like to note the BD says I need to 'fix' this setting.

Warren

while changing the level of scan helped in the short term. In the long term, the problem persists. I am including a screenshot again with the settings changed to scan programs only.

If I change to game mode then I am reducing the level of real time protection. If the answer is to protect myself less then where is this going? I mean, obviously if I turn BD off then I'm not going to have this problem at all but then I'm unprotected.

Do you know if BD is looking at this yet? It needs to be addressed.

Thanks

Warren

I would rather not run in this mode. If I were in an online game and I knew I was just on the game server, I would do this but I'm not. This cripples my protection and I am not willing to do that. That defeats the purpose of the software in the first place.

I'm not willing to test anything.

I also do not get any response from BD so you're my only hope obi-wan.

Here is the latest screenshot. The memory usage began climbing faster when I opened security center and tried to open the custome settings in BD...and it went up fast. When I killed that BD GUI (it wasn't responding), the memory usage went right back down.

Warren

This is really quite ridiculous.

warren,

I have a suggestion. try this:

Start -> Run

Type "services.msc"

Find "Ad-Aware 2007 Service"

Right click -> Properties

Change "Startup Type" to "Disabled"

Click Apply and OK

Close Services

Restart

See if vsserv.exe's memory usage goes that high after a few days. Of course, you will be given an error if you'll try to run Adaware, but try my suggestion for the sake of testing. Thanks and i'll be waiting for your reply.

no thanks

Certainly,

I've gotten exactly three suggestions:

1.turn down bd

2.go into game mode (turn it down even more)

3.turn off adaware

I'm simply not going to let my system sit unprotected just to satisfy your curiosity. I have already mentioned this. I'm not going to use my system as a 'test bed'.

So, thank you very much for your suggestion. If you have another suggestion that doesn't involve turning protection off or down, I'm willing to listen.

Not to be sarcastic here but if I turn BD off its fairly obvious this bug will go away. So, if you've run into this before and you've fixed it, let me know. Otherwise...

Again, thank you very much

Dear warrentaylor,

Did you also checked the link that I posted in my previous reply? If you aren't using the paid version of Ad-aware 2007 than there is no need to let the ad-aware service to start because the only thing it does is using memory and virtual memory for nothing this is used for the realtime protection but you need to start it when you want to perform a scan. Alternatevily you can change the startup type to manual but that will not differ that much because you have to manually start that service.The more internal memory you have the more space windows will reserve. Only your firewall protection might at risk when running in game mode but you can enable the windows firewall as back-up. When you do safe surfing your protection will not be affected at all.

Best regards

Niels

While cleaning folders, I found a couple great snapshots for you of this issue. These were a part of the main ones I originally based my VM case on back when I first contacted Bitdefender support.

Notice the only program opened at the time was Internet Explorer (everything else were background processes), and once again, look who's taking up a massive amount of the page file. This was done at a time where Bitdefender was set to scanning programs only, had a number of exclusions to prevent file access slow down, yet continued to climb. Also note, I had taken the suggestion of setting the page file to Windows handled (it was mentioned in many topics, so I gave it a shot as well).

Warren, unfortunately I think the horse has now been beaten to the point of it coming back to life and screaming "for the love of god, buy better software". " /> You and I have both gone through Bitdefender support and received no answer. The answers you receive here all revolve around turning off BD's functions until it's near not functioning at all. (Game mode??? UGH!) If this issue could ever be solved, I'd consider using the subscriotion again that I paid for.

B-D, you're absolutely right on the update issue - and the suggestion we've received here is to simply restart the machine daily to reset the VM. It gets worse from there though... using SysInternals Process Monitor & Process Explorer, you can literally watch BitDefender in action (set Process Monitor to only watch the program vsserv.exe by using the filter icon). You'll notice in Process Explorer when memory is used, and you can literally watch your VM go up slowly. IMO and based on monitoring - it's the firewall that's causing VM issues, and not the anti-virus. I documented everything the program did, just in case a class-action.... cough cough... wow, look at the time. Gotta run!

LOL Xavier.....

Making all these changes had no impact. VM still goes up, BD falls over dead (screaming), computer locks up, only resolution is push and hold the power button on the box.

Opened another ticket with BD, collected all the data, sent everything to BD.

When I said "you're my only hope, Obi Wan", what I mean is please push BD for a solution. They have all the information they need (hopefully) to resolve this. Don't get 'butt hurt' when I don't respond to inane suggestions, please. If you're an expert, I'll listen. Right now, the only person exuding any type of 'expertise', imho, is Xavier and he bolted a long time ago and only comes back to laugh.

Its broke, lets get BD to fix it.

Thanks

Warren

Dear Xavier311,

If you have enabled http traffic scanner than it's normal that at that moment when use Internet Explorer that BitDefender is using the page file.

With game mode you don't disable protection. Like I said before only firewall protection is lowered down. That is the only risky at using the game mode.

The most important thing still is the real memory usage. Which isn't that high by the way. If you really want to limit the to a certain amount you need to set a maximum size for the page file.

Best regards

Niels

Yes, I had http traffic scanning turned off as well, as it made web surfing a crawl.... so.....

Dear Xavier311,

On my computer the virtual memory usage of the vsserv.exe drops and doesn't keep increasing every 10 seconds. I use BitDefender Total Security 2008 on a pc with only 512 mb which isn't that much memory. My opinion the high space of the page file that is reserved is to decrease the cpu and real memory usage. You can always disable page file if you want. Slow down is mostly due a fragmented page file but I am nto saying that this is always the case. I don't if the problem only occurs on certain language version of BitDefender. I have a non-English version. So it could be an isolated bug.

Best regards

Niels

Sighs, sadly the problem has returned. Over 600mb of ram is being used and bitdefender keeps randomly failing, going all red under Status. I guess I have no choice but to contact support about this. Thanks for the advice regardless Niels.

-Musfuut

Dear Musfuut,

Check this topic that I made. Please can you say what previous antivirus you had installed? Or contact support but follow these instructions.

Best regards

Niels

Dear warrentaylor,

I also posted the direct download link to the Norton removal tool in this topic. Good to hear that your problem is solved.

Best regards

Niels

That's about where I"m at now

Alright, cool. It looks like my problem has been fixed, as vsserv.exe doesn't go past 65,000 K of memory. " />

Thanks a ton for your help, Niels, and everyone else who contributed to the topic. An uninstall, leftover cleaning of Norton and ZoneAlarm, and a clean re-install did the trick!