Bitdefender pegs Disk at 100% after latest Update - How to Fix?

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/help/

Hello @ClashDan,

Based on your description of the situation encountered, I would recommend contacting the Technical Support Teams, as more information might be required to troubleshoot this. You can get in touch with our engineers by choosing one of the contact methods available here:

Regards

All comments

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/help/

Hello @ClashDan,

Regards

@Alexandru_BD,

I'm having the same issue. Fan is constantly running and CPU usage of bdservicehost is consistently above 20%

What is really strange, is that any & all links on the Bitdefender Expert Community are taking forever to load. Following the support link you shared, it took 15-20 seconds for the page to load. Odd.

sxs9001

With all due respect Alex B, you folks already have increasing evidence of that the high CPU usage issue, from me and others is due to the update to build 26.0.25.84. I was asked by Andrei in Engr Support to use performance recorder and record all processes and activities, also create bdservicehost dump file, new support ticket records and upload them to Bitdefender. I spent about 1.5 hrs this AM doing this.

The evidence is mounting and is clear that when the program works OK before the update and cpu goes nuts after the update, the update is at fault, whether it's Win 10 or Win11. It's either flawed or is scanning drives 100% of the time for some reason. 100% scanning of all drives has been reported to you folks going back to 2020 from posts here. You even linked to it earlier in the other thread. I dumped Norton from 5 PC's for bugs that the company never fixed going back to 2014. And went to Bitdefender which has been until now, pretty good performance, very happy with it. Do some of us need to start looking at other antivirus/security programs?

Work on resolving it. Either rollback the update (AV engine or other components) at least temporarily until you have a fix. We users can't undo updates, so we're stuck with underperforming PCs, or flat uninstalling it and just rely on MS Defender for awhile.

This is all on your company's end. End of rant.

Hi @MRyan,

Kindly get in touch with our engineers, as we need more information from the devices to tell for sure what is happening and open an investigation with the development teams, if necessary.

Regards

camarie

@sxs9001 If it's the same problem as the one reported here (https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/93016/bd-episode-2-the-return-of-the-forced-scans/p1), the issue has been fixed by the team delivering the components, it is currently in the test stage and will be most likely be released via product signature updates.

@camarie

I do not believe it is the same issue as 'forced scans'. bdservice host runs my CPU consistently at or above 20% of my CPU usage. That bandwidth is CPU usage that is driving my fan to run constantly AND impacts performance.

A Senior Customer Support Engineer requested that a series of steps (windows performance recorder, process dump, support tool log) be performed. Quite frankly, I have spent too much time on this already and I'm frustrated.

When will this issue be fixed? One week? One month? Three months? I'm at the point where I'm ready to uninstall Bitdefender, cancel my subscription, and find an alternative solution.

As I sit here and type this, my fan is whirring in the background. A constant reminder that Bitdefender is taking me away from paid work.

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/93224/constantly-high-cpu-usage-by-bitdefender-virus-shield-after-a-recent-update-requiring-device-restar

@MRyan try @Scott's workaround from this thread here and let us know if this works for you:

Regards

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/315222#Comment_315222

Yes, it's still working. As long as Central provides v26.0.23.80 for the download, we're fine until the engineers find a permanent solution. The Total Security offline installer could be another option, but I'm not sure what version that is.

I just did a manual update, disabled/unchecked the Product update, and 23.80 is still running smoothly :)

@Alexandru_BD

Want to make sure I understand what you are proposing. You are suggesting that I uninstall and reinstall (again!!!) and follow @Scott solution to turn off Silent Update.

@Scott I appreciate you figuring this out, though I am getting weary of trying to fix something that should have been fixed already. Would turning off Silent Update leave my machine vulnerable to new threats?

@Alexandru_BD maybe the simpler and easier question is why do I want to spend another 1.5 to 2 hours messing around with this? Why shouldn't I just remove Bitdefender, cancel my subscription (which I've had for five years) and find an alternative solution???

@MRyan

I'm not sure if your issue is related to the newest build, as this is where the issue lies with many of us.

Turing off silent update is for the interval of time you desire, but the newest Threat definition update can always be installed. It just depends on how many times you would want the pop up to show. You can always run a manual right click update from the BD system tray icon.

@Scott Thank you. Last night I uninstalled & reinstalled BD. 1st screenshot is where my CPU was at installation, before "update requires a device restart". After I restarted, the 2nd screenshot shows CPU at 24.6% which is where its been hovering for days (a week?).

I'm going to try and uninstall, remove my device from BD central, then re-add and re-install, paying close attention to see if I can get the 26.0.23.80 version.

If this uninstall reinstall cycle fails, it'll be the third time I've tried it. Figure I've lost at least a half day screwing around with this. @Scott thanks again for your help. I appreciate it.

@MRyan you came here for help and we are trying to do just that. But we are not developers nor engineers. We are just using our past experience with the product and the knowledge we have accumulated so far, to find a workaround, if any, while the product teams are investigating the situation.

To answer your last question, from my point of view, I wouldn't want to go through the hassle of looking for another provider, purchasing a new subscription and end up with God knows what.

Following the steps described by @Scott will not leave your machine vulnerable, as a matter of fact no settings that are available in the product would do that (except from when the security modules are disabled willingly by the user).

Cheers

I'm really sorry to hear you had to go through all this @MRyan.

@Alexandru_BD I appreciate your help in trying to find a fix. My frustration is not with you personally. My frustration is with the product and the time that I have sunk into trying to make it perform as expected.

I know @MRyan, I know...

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/315228#Comment_315228

Yes, and as one member did, after the install and you confirm the build of 23.80, disconnect your device from the internet and make the update settings changes before BD runs its update.

@Scott Thank you for the heads up on disconnecting from the internet & making the update setting changes before BD runs the update. Will try now. See you in a bit. Fingers crossed.

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/315228#Comment_315228

@Scott so far so good. Confirmed I'm on 26.0.23.80 and disabled Silent Update. I think that is what caused the window to pop up about 'select which updates should be downloaded'

Interestingly, it did not have any product updates to select, so maybe that is a good sign??

sxs9001

@MRyan

Yes, Scott's workaround works. I'm a user just like you and also was at the point of considering canceling BD for 5 PC's (which had just renewed 3 days ago!) and looking at alternatives.

But do an uninstall and reinstall one more time :) The installation file from yesterday that I got off their website was still giving version 26.0.23.80. What it may be today, an hour from now, etc I cannot say! So the sooner you do this the better IMO or you may get tagged with installing the problematic 26.0.25.84.

I'd also see if you can block internet access as soon as it finishes installation and validates your subscription. I can block PCs in the router I have but yours may not allow this. Mine uses an access control list so I can block wifi but allow ethernet. So I blocked wifi, then removed the ethernet cable immediately after it validates. This may not be necessary but I will tell you that it will update very quickly after the installation, within minutes or even less. So you need to get that Silent Update setting changed very quickly after it installs and verifies your license.

From that point on, when it wants to update you will see the dialog box that Scott screenshots and uncheck the feature update - IMPORTANT - just check the virus definition update and leave the feature update box unchecked, then click OK. This keeps your protection updated and intact but does not update the program itself.

The nuisance is every time it's time to check for updates, you will get the notification box and have to keep unchecking the feature update box. I watched it go through another update cycle 1 hr later, and the virus files check box was greyed out, meaning no newer one; I unchecked the feature update box, then the OK button greyed out, clicked Cancel, it went away and version was left at 26.0.23.80. CPU use stays OK.

If having to do this every hour isn't convenient, increase the update check time to more.

I just did this with one of my wife's PC's too and it worked on it. I showed her the process and made sure she knows to not ignore the box when it pops up. I have 3 more PC's to go with this workaround.

Good luck and we owe Scott a big thanks. Hopefully, Bitdefender comes up with the fix soon. Until then, this works.

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/315240#Comment_315240

That update will arrive, if you do a right-click system tray update, will usually, not always, include that build update. Just remember to always uncheck the product update otherwise you'll be back to .25.84

It may be a bit annoying to be doing this, but I'm sure the engineers will have a patch out soon.

edit:sp

@sxs9001 , @Scott ,

Went through the process (hopefully for the last time) and rebooted my machine. BD CPU usage is fluctuating between 0.1% and 5%, which is a HUGE improvement over consistently running north of 20%.

I'll keep my eyes open for the 'update' box and be sure to uncheck the product update. Thank you both.

Ok, time for me to get some work that pays the bills done! Have a good one guys and thanks again, Mike

BMJ53

I have done what was recommended by others, uninstall 26.0.25.84, erase the machine in Bitedefender central and don e reinstall by adding device. The old version 26.0.23.80 is still the one that download. As mentioned, I deactivate the internet and change the setting to deactivate the silent update. I am down from 20-30 % CPU to 3-4%. My other machine was not update, and I saw it work fine.

@Scott @sxs9001,

Even after deselecting 'product update' somehow 26.0.25.84 snuck past me. CPU usage back into mid-teens / low 20%. Ugh.

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/315357#Comment_315357

@MRyan the same thing happened to me last night. One member mentioned that in doing a "repair"/reinstall (it does leave some previous files and some settings) from Windows worked as far as it reverted back to 23.80.

The newest update to 25.86 seems to have fixed the issue for some of the members, including myself from an update 2 hours ago that I just noticed in getting back on this PC. Normally the updates hit me later (my link below) but this got here quicker. So it's up to you if you want to wait for the update or try the repair.

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/315375#Comment_315375

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/315381#Comment_315381

Good luck, as we all got through this together :)