Latest BD Total Security 26.0.33.139 Causes Windows 10 To Boot To Black/Blank Screen. Any Help?

Hello @Cindernat,

As far as I know, there haven't been any recent reports about such a behaviour. It will be necessary to contact the Support engineers, so they can obtain logs from the machine for troubleshooting purposes, otherwise it's difficult for us to pronounce ourselves here, based solely on the available information.

You can get in touch with the Support Teams by choosing one of the contact channels available at the link below:

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

Let us know how it goes and we would appreciate if you could share the outcome with the community as well, so we may help others that might encounter this issue in the future.

Thank you and best regards

And to add to Alexandru's post above. On the PC where Bitdefender is not installed, follow the second option in this article, and let support know you will be sending the support tool log file. They will then send you an email link in which it will be possible to send that file.

Kind regards,

Scott

On a Windows 10 or 11 PC, Pro 64-bit?

Thank you for that information, @akk246 My only suggestion at this time would be to go through the same steps, if you wouldn't mind, as with @Cindernat so that the engineers can try to figure out what's causing this issue.

@Alexandru_BD just giving you a heads-up on this second post with the same issue, on same version of Windows.

Kind regards,

Scott

You're right, that may be the first thing they flag, Malwarebytes. Even though you've had that combination running for years, it could have been a MBAM, a Bitdefender or possibly even a Windows 10 update that broke their compatibility.

It may be something where you'll need to do a total clean-up to remove traces of Bitdefender and MBAM.

But, let's wait and see what support has to say, as it may also include some other issue. These steps below by @Flexx could help after we learn more. Knowing that if you can get your PC working properly, and you feel the need to run MBAM, I would only use the free version and run on-demand scans. Also, disabling it from Windows at start-up.

Kindly perform below steps & see if this helps you in anyway.

1) Uninstall the bitdefender product with add/ remove programs option in windows

2) To remove the remaining files download and run Bitdefender product uninstaller: https://www.bitdefender.com/files/KnowledgeBase/file/Bitdefender_2022_Uninstall_Tool.exe

3) Restart PC in safe mode: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/start-your-pc-in-safe-mode-in-windows-92c27cff-db89-8644-1ce4-b3e5e56fe234

4) As soon as desktop opens, assuming your windows drive is C, open below things in run (windows icon + R) command one by one :

C:\Program Files (delete any folder with name bitdefender)

C:\Program Files (x86) (delete any folder with name bitdefender)

C:\ProgramData (delete any folder with name bitdefender)

C:\Users\{your pc name}\AppData\Local (delete any folder with name bitdefender)

5) Open run command again and run below command one by one :

temp ,delete all the files in the folder

%temp% ,delete all the files in folder

prefetch ,delete all the files in folder

6) Open registry editor through run command (windows icon + R) and then type regedit. Once registry editor opens, click on edit -> find, make sure to tick mark match whole strings only. Type bitdefender in search box and click find next. If any file or folder under name of bitdefender is found, delete it. Continue searching the registry and deleting until the search will report no registry keys found.

7) Restart your PC in general mode by unticking the option that you selected to run the system in safe mode and then click apply.

8) Remove devices from online bitdefender central: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/2795/

9) Then, reinstall Bitdefender from Central to "This Device."

Scott

Two posts from two members that involve MBAM. I'm not sure if @akk246 was also running Malwarebytes or not?

I found a HMPA support article describing how to add an exclusion for Windows Explorer, so the Windows user Desktop can load. Search for "HMPA - Black screen after latest Bitdefender Update (build 26.0.33.139)". Similar exclusions may need to be added for other applications or Exploit mitigation may need to be disabled e.g. notepad, Wordpad, Acrobat, Tracker Software PDF-XChange Editor (PDFXEdit). This method at least leaves Exploit mitigation in place for other application such as browsers etc.

Crashing applications can be found in the Windows Event Viewer by filtering by Sources: Application Error, Windows Error Reporting. The 1000/1001 events should describe the crashing application.

Update: also need to disable HMPA Exploit mitigations for "Pick an app 10" aka openwith executable. Otherwise double-clicking a e.g. PDF file in Explorer will not open the file in your default PDF application.

Hi @netmon,

Thank you for sharing your findings with us! I hereby confirm the situation was fixed with the build 26.0.34.145.

Regards

I made the huge mistake last week of renewing my Bitdefender licence (not at the vastly inflated ‘special price for existing customers’ thankfully.)

Windows told me that Bitdefender needed updating yesterday (Bitdefender never tells me, nor has it ever ever updated itself automatically.)

Today I boot up and black screen. It appears that explorer.exe needs to be killed and restarted. 

Thankfully, I use a proper application for imaging and recovery, so I wind back to 2 days ago. Windows loads ok.

Windows tells me that Bitdefender needs updating … rinse and repeat. This is now 100% reproducible and, frankly, Bitdefender is becoming something of a sick joke now. What on earth are you playing at? I’ve said it before in my many, many, many, support tickets - how do you expect anyone to trust such a flaky, buggy poorly designed and implemented application, especially one that is meant to be protecting PCs?

Nothing has changed with Windows (no updates), and I can roll back, update and restart and it’s the same. I have tried uninstalling Bitdefender using the (incomplete) instructions on the Bitdefender site. After rebooting, I get the same issue.

I bought a licence from Amazon. Bitdefender is faulty so I’ll be asking for a refund.

ffs I’d rather have that free AV that keeps warning that the world will end if I don’t buy a licence and my PC has a virus that will eat my cat than this awful product.

I have been with Bitdefender for years and things have just got worse and worse. It’s the most buggy and poorly supported AV app I have ever experienced. 

Even website ‘security’ is poorly implemented. I can sign in on my iPad, but on my PC i am asked to do 2fa to my email address. The email for 2fa never arrives.

Why do you force 2fa on accounts and send the verification by email, but offer no other 2fa options?

Your mailimg system is too slow and email isn’t the most secure method, is it?

Thanks for the input.

The company turned 2fa on without my knowing.

i have just set up authy on my account. I can get in on my iapd but not my pc.

The pc is still sending emails f or 2fa.