Goodbye Bitdefender
Comments
-
Dear Buzzard,
A possible cause for this kind of behaviour is a damaged windows installer on your computer. If the windows installer send instructions to the wrong msi installer package than such behaviour can occur. That isn't the uninstaller fault. You may use a search engine you aren't going to find any reported problems where BitDefender uninstall tool deleted other software.
Best regards
Niels
Niels,
Just because you (allegedly) haven't experienced any of these "SPECIAL Uninstaller" problems, doesn't mean that they don't exist. TWICE, the "SPECIAL BITDEFENDER UNINSTALL TOOL" corrupted my system files and screwed my computer into the ground!
I got both Blue Screens Of Death and Black Screens Of Death!!!
Just because you can't find occurances in a Google search, DOESN'T MEAN THEY DON'T EXIST! It simply means that they haven't been listed with the search engine(s)!
To date, I have tried 4 different anti-virus applications/special uninstallers and to date BITDEFENDER is the only one that caused any problems on my new Vista Home Premium 32-bit machine!
If Bitdefender was anywhere near as good and as foolproof as you claim, it would still be running on my machine!!!
AVG, AVAST and AVIRA have all worked FLAWLESSLY on my machine and I've had NO PROBLEMS whatsoever with these other anti-virus products.
You can point fingers all you want, but the TRUTH REMAINS...
BITDEFENDER V.11 IS BUGGY AS ######!!!
And the BITDEFENDER tech people have no ideas as to how to fix it!!!
Cheers
Orphan0 -
This topic has no point. All you are doing here is argue with no solid reasons, and the only thing that is achieved here is a useless fight between users. Therefore, this topic is CLOSED.
If anyone else want to add something to this topic, please think very good about what you want to say, then PM me and I'll open the topic again.
Cris.0 -
At Buzzard's intervention, I'm re-opening this topic.
But to stop the flames, we need to make some rules here, like:
- NO aggressive language. If you want to say something, say it calmly.
- NO statements without arguments. In other words, no statements like "Don't use this because it ######" or "Don't use that because I don't like it". Always give arguments about what you say.
- NO anti-advertising. I don't want to see any more replies like "X product ######, but Y is the best and has no bugs at all". This kind of replies are 100% FALSE! All software has bugs, and if you are unfortunate enough to experience them, then you'll find yourselves on this forum to complain about them. There are also millions other BitDefender users who are happy users and have no problems. I could say the names of few of my friends who don't even know that this forum exists, but they use BD every day.
I reserve the right to delete or edit the posts of anyone who doesn't respect the above rules (which, in my opinion, are fair to everyone). If anyone wants to comment about the above rules, please send me a PM, and don't post your comments in this thread.
@Orphan: You have made your point, AGAIN, that bla-bla-bla works fine on your PC. Congrats, and keep using them. Nobody stops you to do that. But, just out of curiosity: have you bothered to check the forums of those products? I guess not, because they worked to you (as I said above... users with no problems don't even look for the forums). Just a few moments ago, I checked the Avira forums. Guess what? Problems all-over the place, starting from "How do I do this and that?", "That option doesn't work" and even the all-mighty "BSOD error". So before you give any more replies as you did, please check the facts! There is no such thing as 100% protection or 100% bug-free software, because we live in an imperfect world. Period.
About the Uninstaller problem: I find it somewhat hard to believe that it deletes things that don't belong to BitDefender. However, I will talk to someone and maybe a logging feature will be added to the Uninstall Tool, so that anyone who will have this problem in the future will be able to check if, indeed, the Uninstaller is the culprit, and also will provide valuable information to fix whatever issues cause this behavior.
Cris.0 -
To respond to all the comments (this should be fun):
Niels (regarding your memory comment) - Having a full working knowledge of computers, registries, etc, I can assure you that any trace of the former Symantec solution was removed completely. Also, I have 2Gb of memory, a 250Gb SATA HDD, and a Pentium D 840 processor on the system, and the images I work with in Photoshop are not that big. I've had the virtual memory issue with BitDefender even with all programs closed. I didn't have the memory issue prior to using BitDefender, thus logic points towards the product (BitDefender) using up a huge portion of the VM. Thus, the memory leak..
Boris (regarding the RAM usage comment) - With 2Gb of memory, I shouldn't be having memory issues with just those program opened. I don't work with large files in any aspect, and I'm WELL over the requirements to run those programs. Also, the high memory # you're seeing is due to BitDefender increasing in size over time. (It's not releasing memory). Finally, I'm not part of the "uninstall" topic, so I couldn't be lying about something I never commented on.
Sm3K3R - I switched from Norton after reading many reviews about BitDefender from well known magazines. They stated that BitDefender not only allowed the system to run faster than the competition, but provided better protection as well. My subscription was up on Norton, so it was time to make a decision. I tested for a few days, didn't notice any issues (if anything, I noticed the system was a bit faster in booting and loading programs), so I made the choice to purchase based mainly on the reviews I'd seen.
As for your "photoshop" comment, why would anyone waste their time?? There's no logic behind that, and if I didn't have any issues I'd be one of the silent users of the software flowing happily along. I do, however, have issues with ANYTHING that I pay for in which the service is not provided as it should be. Thus, I've come here looking for solutions that BitDefender tech support couldn't provide. Finally, someone in the memory leak topic has already stated that on machines with a fresh install they were still experiencing the memory leak issues. Having worked technical support and worked with computers as long as I have, I know when a fresh install of windows is warranted - this is not one of those situations.
adt - The Symantec product worked fine, although it ran so many background processes that it caused the overall system to feel more laggy than I felt it should've been. Also, as Cris stated, your memory statement is old school, and only used on older systems with low physical memory.
Cris - You seem to be the most logical one to bring these topics to. I do, however, have to comment regarding your statement about the millions of happy users: "what they don't know won't hurt them".
It's like the millions eating "fat free" food thinking they're eating better, when in reality it's sugar and not fat that causes you to get fat. (and that fat free foods are loaded with sugar to compensate). To place this in comparison with BD, people simply install the software and use it without knowing how it works or if it works at all, and wouldn't be able to identify a problem if they had no idea about it.
The millions of happy users of BitDefender don't realize there's a memory leak issue or how their memory even works, so when their systems slow down, they typically just reboot (cause that's what they've been told a million times by their friends, co-workers, and even tech support people). This doesn't solve the issue of the memory leak, it simply means there are millions of people unaware of the truth behind the matter.
For those of us who know computers very well and use programs that utilize more memory than the typical web surfer, we can tell when a system is bogged down - and from there narrow it down to the offending program. If BitDefender doesn't release memory like it should, then after all programs are closed, BitDefender will somehow retain a massive amount of virtual memory. If you use SysInternals process monitor, you can actually see it utilizing that massive page file afterwards, thus causing the system to run much slower. If BitDefender gets slowed, the system will get slowed - this happens with any anti-virus/firewall software. If the protection software gets crippled, the system will follow suit.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
So...
Again, and put quite simply, the memory issue I had was this: the program has a problem with the way memory is managed, which in the end will cause slow downs over time until the next reboot. Normal everyday web-surfers may not notice anything at all for a while... and by then, most will just reboot if it slows down. When memory intensive programs such as Photoshop or Indesign are used, and switching in between programs is done much more, BitDefender uses much more memory. After these programs are closed, the virtual memory is not released, and thus begins the problem. The next time a program is opened, the system is now slower... and the VM from vsserv.exe will continue to grow.
If you're wondering why you may not hear much about this issue from Photoshop/Indesign users, it's most likely because typically those using these programs work for a company in which they use the cookie-cutter "Norton" or "McAfee" solutions. Myself being a one-man marketing company, I'm little more flexible with what programs I can use.
I'm not trying to start a war between the people who like the program and don't, I'm simply trying to promote that there IS an issue, and that it NEEDS to be addressed.
Also, please move any further posts regarding uninstall issues to a different topic - this topic had nothing to do with uninstall issues to start. I used the uninstall tool from BitDefender and had no problem. I know it was brought up early about uninstalling Norton (from Niels), but I can assure you, any trace of Norton was removed before originally installing BD.
Now stop reading and go get some fresh air.... (and a solution if you can
" /> )0 -
Cris posted:
@Orphan: You have made your point, AGAIN, that bla-bla-bla works fine on your PC. Congrats, and keep using them. Nobody stops you to do that. But, just out of curiosity: have you bothered to check the forums of those products? I guess not, because they worked to you (as I said above... users with no problems don't even look for the forums).
Cris, why do you ask ME a question and then continue to answer your question yourself?
This type of response is disparaging, ignorant, offensive and insulting. Please stop it!
The true answer is “YES, I do read at the various forums and YES I do recognize that the other antivirus programs do have problems too.”
Cris posted:
Just a few moments ago, I checked the Avira forums. Guess what? Problems all-over the place, starting from "How do I do this and that?", "That option doesn't work" and even the all-mighty "BSOD error". So before you give any more replies as you did, please check the facts! There is no such thing as 100% protection or 100% bug-free software, because we live in an imperfect world. Period.
Like you say, the FACTS are that NO SOFTWARE IS 100% and I completely understand this.
Now dear Cris, I have a question for you... “Do you also understand and recognize that this IMPERFECTION FACT also applies to your beloved BITDEFENDER?” Period.
I have NEVER stated or even insinuated that these other antivirus products are 100% protection or 100% bug-free. I simply stated that these other antivirus programs have performed flawlessly on MY MACHINE, while BITDEFENDER did not.
Is the above comment clear and concise enough for you to understand?
I think Xavier311 was very astute when he posted, “IMO, you seem so determined to defend the software that it seems like you'd rather place blame on other issues or even small components of the software itself.” in the Memory Leak thread.
Cheers and HAVE A GREAT DAY!
Orphan0 -
Cris - You seem to be the most logical one to bring these topics to. I do, however, have to comment regarding your statement about the millions of happy users: "what they don't know won't hurt them".
[...]
The issue is not a general problem. Me, for instance, don't have this problem.
I also had huge memory leaks because of vsserv (it also reached a few hundred MB in RAM), but this problem disappeared a while ago (I'm not sure why). Right now, th updates take just a few seconds to install, and the memory goes up just a few tens of MB at most...and that memory is released as soon as the update process ends.
I have 2GB DDR on my computer.
So what you say doesn't apply. There really are happy users of BitDefender (including me). And the memory leaks that you (and some other users) experience could be some incompatibilities (maybe hardware, maybe software... I have no idea because I don't have access to any of BitDefender's code). But I announced this, and they are working on it.
The true answer is "YES, I do read at the various forums and YES I do recognize that the other antivirus programs do have problems too."
Well...finally you say it. Until now, the only things that you said were that everything else works just fine, while BD doesn't.
Now dear Cris, I have a question for you... "Do you also understand and recognize that this IMPERFECTION FACT also applies to your beloved BITDEFENDER?" Period.
Have I ever said that BitDefender is a perfect application? When I said "There is no such thing as 100% protection or 100% bug-free software", I included BitDefender in this category.
Also, your last post was 100% off-topic. Xavier already asked that the posts that are not related to his problem should be removed. Your next post like will be deleted without notice (and without reply).
Cris.0 -
The millions of happy users of BitDefender don't realize there's a memory leak issue or how their memory even works, so when their systems slow down, they typically just reboot (cause that's what they've been told a million times by their friends, co-workers, and even tech support people). This doesn't solve the issue of the memory leak, it simply means there are millions of people unaware of the truth behind the matter.
For those of us who know computers very well and use programs that utilize more memory than the typical web surfer, we can tell when a system is bogged down - and from there narrow it down to the offending program. If BitDefender doesn't release memory like it should, then after all programs are closed, BitDefender will somehow retain a massive amount of virtual memory. If you use SysInternals process monitor, you can actually see it utilizing that massive page file afterwards, thus causing the system to run much slower. If BitDefender gets slowed, the system will get slowed - this happens with any anti-virus/firewall software. If the protection software gets crippled, the system will follow suit.
Good point about the reboots.I also had huge memory leaks because of vsserv (it also reached a few hundred MB in RAM), but this problem disappeared a while ago (I'm not sure why). Right now, th updates take just a few seconds to install, and the memory goes up just a few tens of MB at most...and that memory is released as soon as the update process ends.
...
And the memory leaks that you (and some other users) experience could be some incompatibilities (maybe hardware, maybe software... I have no idea because I don't have access to any of BitDefender's code).
Incompatibilities seem an unlikely source for memory leaks: crashes yes but not leaks. It is more likely due to poor bookkeeping on BD's end. It can be a real pain tracking down leaks but some "pro-active programming" can make it tractable.
Cris and other moderators, how often do you reboot your computers? If you don't run into the problems, perhaps you are bypassing them.0 -
Personally, I don't reboot my computer that often. I usually use Hibernate.
Currently, I have 1 day and 5 hours uptime, but I also reached 10 days without a reboot.
And vsserv is taking about 4MB in RAM. However, after the last major update, I also noticed a leak in vsserv, because in Virtual memory it occupies about 200MB. But still, updates are done very fast (a few seconds, max).
I already reported this, but I didn't receive a response yet.
And how exactly can you bypass a memory leak (except closing and restarting that application)?
Cris.0 -
BD, for me, just didn't seem to be a good fit when using larger applications and needing to switch between them constantly. My typical programs open are InDesign, Photoshop, Internet Explorer, Excel & Outlook. I'm also typically switching from one program to another multiple times to grab photo's, pdf's, make modifications, insert into documents, etc.
I am having the same exact virtual memory problem that Xavier311 is having here with version 11 (2008). I frequently use photoshop , indesign, and illustrator at the same time, switching between them and other programs as well. With v10 I did not experience this vsserv VM problem, but other problems forced me to upgrade to v11.
I have been monitoring vsserv for a couple weeks and have done full uninstall/reinstall, and set BD to only scan application files, however I am still experiencing this Virtual Memory leak. In an extreme case where I was determined not to restart for a while, vsserv.exe exceeded 1.5 Gig of virtual memory, at which point my 4 Gig memory system was fairly useless. (no I do not have a screenshot, and it would be a painful week+ to recreate)
I have been putting off upgrading the other 7 computers I have BD licenses for until this issue is resolved.
If it's not resolved in a timely manner I'll have no choice than to look for suggestions of other options. Such as not having a security suite, but different programs providing antivirus, firewall, spyware, etc. Earlier in this post Sm3K3R suggested that BD is the best option for the antivirus portion of this solution.
To my mind, this multi program approach seems like a good fit for the tech savvy, heavy computer users.
I appreciate all the time and effort that goes into coming up with solutions, especially amongst negativity.
-BJ0 -
And how exactly can you bypass a memory leak (except closing and restarting that application)?
I meant by rebooting the computer.0 -
Hi Cris,
My BitDefender typically used a small amount of physical memory as yours does (3-5MB). As you see though, it's the virtual memory that creeps up over time. For me it started at 60MB after boot, 140-180MB the next day, 260MB the day after that, and so on. If your average reboot time is every couple days, it's probably not noticeable. When it starts getting up there after 3-4 days though, programs like InDesign, Photoshop, and even IE7 will crawl. When you start seeing your virtual memory above 1.5Gb, you begin to wonder why half of it is being taken up by your Internet Security.
When this first started occuring, I figured maybe it was the anti-virus portion of the program scanning the files I was using in the Adobe product line. When I ruled those out, I thought maybe it was something with Microsoft Outlook (as it checks for email once every couple minutes). When that didn't pan out, I used the system monitors provided by Microsoft to "watch" the processes as they're used.
This began the disturbing part. With no other programs open, I watched as vsserv.exe slowly used up more and more of my page file. From there, I disabled the anti-virus portion to see if that was the cause. Nope. So I re-enabled it and disabled the firewall. Nope. So I disabled all of the functions of Bit-Defender (while still leaving the program itself running). Now this is the kicker... it was still utilizing more and more virtual memory. I was left confused as to what in the program was still running, and what information could possibly be stored in VM with all functions of BitDefender disabled. (Again, this was done by unchecking all functions in the advanced settings)
I'm looking forward to seeing what they come back to you with as a possible reason. Thanks for your continued help!0 -
Cris,
Looking through old logs and comparing all the data I'd gathered in the past - the problem that was causing the memory increase in vsserv.exe was the following. (This was found by using SysInternals Process Explorer & Process Monitor)
Process & Thread Activity:
Operation: Load Image.....Path: Program Files\BitDefender\BitDefender Backup\abapi.dll
Operation: Load Image.....Path: Program Files\BitDefender\BitDefender Backup\syswrap.dll
Operation: Load Image.....Path: Program Files\BitDefender\BitDefender Backup\edtp.dll
It performed this action every 10 seconds, and each time it did so, 28k of Virtual Memory was used. Over time, this grew the page file to the #'s that I've presented.
Something to pass along to the BitDefender people..
***edit***
NOTE: It did not always have this process occuring.... typically after restart it was not doing this. I'm not sure what the trigger was to cause those operations to start occuring over and over again.
***edit2***
Found when it started occuring. After opening up the standard BitDefender interfact and making a change, it started to loop the same operations over and over. Now this is odd, it didn't always perform the action above. Instead, on some occassions, it did a ton of operations to:
C:\Program Files\BitDefender\BitDefender 2008\fwrules.dat
C:\Program Files\BitDefender\BitDefender 2008\pcontrol.ini
Basically creating, writing, cleaning up, closing, creating, reading, cleaning up and so on and so on... again, every 10 seconds.
So....... maybe the program has a problem with some kind of loop in the code????0 -
OK, thank you for this information, Xavier.
Today or tomorrow (whenever I have time), I'll send an email to someone about this, with all needed details.
In the meantime: the first part of your post refers to BitDefender Backup. If that is what causes the leak (however it happens), it means that the users of BD AV and BD IS (which don't have the Backup module) shouldn't be affected by this leak.
If anyone who is NOT using BD Total Security is reading this post, please reply if you noticed the described problems. Thank you.
Cris.
P.S.: The amount of 28KB@10sec is the exact same thing I noticed yesterday, when I monitored vsserv, so your assumption might be right. If it is accurate, then the fix should come soon.
P.S.(2): By any chance...isn't this related to the update event? After you boot your computer, BD searches for updates and applies them (if you have auto-update enabled). The fact that not always new updates are found might explain why the behavior is sometimes different.0 -
I too was convinced by a rave review on consumersreport.com into buying BD.
I dont care WHAT anyone says; I am incredibly disappinted with the product.
1) Tech support is LAUGHABLE! The best support (and only responses to my inquiries) Ive gotten is here.
2) I purchased 2 liscense and installed it on two different PCs. Both have never been the same again. I had to rename a bdir.dll (I think thats the file name) file to bddir.old as a work around to connect to the internet... this was suggested here onthe forums! BD never replied to my tech support request. Have to DISABLE HTTP scanning in order to be able to surf the web? Then whats the point of using this as an ANTIVIRUS program!?!? THIS is a finished product?!?!?! THIS is how BD fixes their faulty problems??? Work arounds suggested by other users having the problem???
3) The program constantly crashes and causes problems on BOTH Pc's, especially on my Windows XP system (the other one is windows 2000 pro).
Say what you want about Norton's, McAffe or product XYZ. Im sure they have their problems and bugs too. Maybe BD IS the better product, maybe it protects a system a HUNDRED times better than anything else on the market... WHATEVER!
I have spent SOOOO much time trying to 1) Get this product to work as advertised 2) Fix things that it messed up (like drivers for my video card, internet connections) that I feel BD should put me on their pay roll. I spent 2 weeks troubleshooting NIC cards, Hubs, routers, UTP cables when I couldnt connect to the web BUT it was BD's .DLL file causing problems ( turning off the firewall was one of the first things I did)
Right now, Im waiting for my liscense to run out. As soon as it does its BACK to Norton's (Maybe Ill try Sophos). Say what you want but I feel ANYTHING's got to be better than BD.. Maybe even NOTHING is better than BD; BD did more damamge to my system than alot of viruses out there!
I DO want to thank all the people HERE though, that have lent a hand with problems I have had, as well as problems OTHERS had. Maybe BD should hire YOU guys for their tech support....0 -
Looking through old logs and comparing all the data I'd gathered in the past - the problem that was causing the memory increase in vsserv.exe was the following. (This was found by using SysInternals Process Explorer & Process Monitor)
...
It performed this action every 10 seconds, and each time it did so, 28k of Virtual Memory was used. Over time, this grew the page file to the #'s that I've presented.
...
Instead, on some occassions, it did a ton of operations to:
C:\Program Files\BitDefender\BitDefender 2008\fwrules.dat
C:\Program Files\BitDefender\BitDefender 2008\pcontrol.ini
Basically creating, writing, cleaning up, closing, creating, reading, cleaning up and so on and so on... again, every 10 seconds.
Excellent sleuthing Xavier. This prompted me to check this out with ProcMon myself, and I found a similar correlation when analyzing the Process Monitor log:
$ head -1 Logfile.CSV
"Sequence","Time of Day","Process Name","PID","Operation","Path","Result","Detail","Command Line"
$ egrep -v '(("Reg)|(procexp.exe))' Logfile.CSV >| _Logfile.CSV
$ cut -d',' -f6 _Logfile.CSV | count-it '.*' | head -10
"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\BitDefender\DTrace\livesrv.log" 1538
"C:\Program Files\BitDefender\BitDefender 2008\pcontrol.ini" 720
"C:\Program Files\BitDefender\BitDefender 2008\Lang\l_bdagent.ini" 144
"C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\Manifests\x86_Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.2600.2982_x-ww_ac3f9c03.Manifest" 132
"C:\WINDOWS\system32\shell32.dll" 121
"C:\WINDOWS\""C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 2.3\program\shlxthdl.dll""" 108
"" 86
"C:\WINDOWS\system32\MSIMTF.dll" 84
"C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\Manifests\x86_Microsoft.VC80.CRT_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.762_x-ww_6b128700.manifest" 84
"C:\Documents and Settings\Tomas\Desktop\Apps\ProcExpl details.lnk" 73
...
$ fgrep 'C:\Program Files\BitDefender\BitDefender 2008\pcontrol.ini' _Logfile.CSV | grep CreateFile | cut -d',' -f2 | count-it '^"\d.\d\d:\d\d' | sort | head -10
"1:49:47 6
"1:49:57 6
"1:50:07 6
"1:50:17 6
"1:50:27 6
"1:50:37 6
"1:50:47 2
"1:50:48 4
"1:50:58 6
"1:51:08 6
...
Thus, I'm guessing the pcontrol.ini operations are the culprit.If anyone who is NOT using BD Total Security is reading this post, please reply if you noticed the described problems.
This is for BD-ISS-2008, and the increase is 24KB every 10 seconds.
Tom
p.s., See the attached image for my current task manager listing. This is just after 6 days, so this is a serious problem in a system utility!
0 -
If anyone who is NOT using BD Total Security is reading this post, please reply if you noticed the described problems. Thank you.
Cris.
Hi,
I use only BD AV 2008 and I do not have this problem. My PC is always up 24 hours a day, 6 days a week, every week for the past few years. And my BD is set to receive auto-updates. So I guess the problem is not related to the AV portion of BD.0 -
If anyone who is NOT using BD Total Security is reading this post, please reply if you noticed the described problems. Thank you.
I do see the problem on a machine which has Internet Security 2008 installed. I don't see the problem on another machine which has Antivirus 2008 installed.
Guenter0 -
BD IS 2008, here, obviously, no problems. I actually never had memory-consumption problems with BD.
0 -
BD IS 2008, here, obviously, no problems. I actually never had memory-consumption problems with BD.
We have two systems with BD IS 2008 running, and I see it happen on both machines.
I do _not_ see it on another machine with BD AV 2008. Might have to do with the Firewall - I do block
outgoing internet connections for several applications, which is maybe not that common.
Guenter0 -
Just bought and installed total security 2008 and after reading the posts here wonder if ive dropped a clanger, it seems to be installed ok except the back up keeps asking for attention saying no backup been done in 14 days despite setting up schedule and running it 3 times mmm i was using eset nod 32 which was brill maybe i should have paid for that but its early days for me so ill stick with it for a while ill have to seeing as ive just spent hard earned cash on it, Skiddly
0 -
Hello skiddly,
The Backup problem is known (I've reported it a few times). However, there are slim chances that it will get fixed, because the Security Center was not designed to take event notifications from the Backup module (which is totally a separate module). The only way to get that sign to show green is to run a manual backup, from the Security Center interface.
But since you set BD Backup to make automatic backups, I'd suggest to just disable monitoring for that item, and trsut that the Backup module does it's job (also, it has a separate Event history, which you can check in the BD Backup interface).
Cris.0 -
I bought BD v10 last year for 2 PC's at my church and then for my 2 work computers at home.
First, the computers at church:
Computer 1 (2.4 GHz P4 w/512MB) is not heavily used and mostly for Word Processing. I didn't see much of a performance hit on that machine and if there is any, the user didn't notice.
Computer 2 (2.4 GHz P4 w/512MB) is heavily used by the church admin and the financial officer. At first, BD didn't seem to make any difference in its performance but that was due to the fact that it wasn't really working. After I reloaded BD, ran all the updates, and made sure it was working properly, the performance reduced to a snails pace. It was basically unusable. I spent weeks debugging and investigating the problem. After looking at the memory usage, I noticed that there was only about 40MB of available RAM out of 512MB. Something was eating up a lot of RAM. I unloaded a bunch of unused programs from the PC to free up space and looked at getting more memory. Unfortunately, I was unable to free up much space and buying more memory was too expensive (RDRAM). I looked in this forum and noticed similar problems. I unloaded BD and noticed an immediate resolution to the speed problem. I then went with AVG's free version for the short term.
Computer 3 is my work computer that has a Core 2 with 2GB of memory. It seems a little slower but for the most part is OK.
Computer 4 is my laptop with a 2.4 Gig P4 and 768MB of memory. It, for the most part runs OK but I do notice many instances when it freezes. During updates and when BD is doing something. Some of the Scans take forever to complete and I end up just killing them. I likely will end up removing BD from this machine as well and will go with another solution.
In other words, to use BD, you really need a fast machine with lots of memory. This to me is completely unacceptable. When 50% of the machines show a drastic reduction in performance, this tells me that this software is horribly written and likely not validated properly. I've used Norton, McAfee, and others. I didn't like them either but they did not reduce the performance this drastically. As far as I'm concerned, I will never use any BD products again and will definitely pass that on to others. BD should be ashamed of putting a product like this out there.0 -
Hello AZ-Guy,
computer 2:
What was the previous installed antivirus? Because there still could be leftovers that are conflicting with BitDefender. Check this topic. And perform all the steps. After that remove BitDefender by using this tool. First right click on the red BitDefender icon near the system clock and press on exit. Now run the uninstall tool and reboot your pc when asked. Install BitDefender again. But be sure that every other security program is disabled.
BitDefender Total Security 2008 runs fine on my computer that only have 512 mb ram and a 2 Ghz processor and I run Windows XP sp2.What I always do to aviod problems is removing the previos antivirus or security software. I search also for specific uninstaller afterwards I run a registy cleaner. Finally I reboot my pc and install my new antivirus.
Check the hard disk on errors and run a defrag.
Best regards
Niels0
