Excessive Memory Utilization / Leak
I am seeing an excessive memory utilization that is exhausting all memory on my PC. The PC starts freezing and going unresponsive requiring a hard reset. Upon reviewing the system logs, memory is being exhausted and Windows is reporting out of memory and resource exhausted msgs all on the VSSERV.EXE process (Bitdefender Antivirus Shield).
I work with large video files, editing and moving them around my local network. I just had my PC lockup due to memory exhaustion this morning, had similar experiences over the last 2 days but only now have isolated it as Bitdefender doing it. I thought that maybe it was something with video editing toolset I was using that I upgraded a week or two ago... but that doesn't appear to be the case as I just tried copying some files from the network and Bitdefender used 10.4 GB of memory while that completed. It took 30 minutes for the Bitdefender process in Task Manager process list to show it dropping down to ~100 MB in use... but overall system memory did not come back.
As another test, I went into Bitdefender Shield and added an exclusion for a local folder on my primary PC. Went into Windows Explorer, highlighted (4) of the 4 GB .mkv video files (total of ~16 GB) on the network share (secondary Win10 PC) and did a drag'n'drop copy of them to my primary PC local drive (that I just created the exclusion on). As the copy was taking place, Bitdefender memory utilization started climbing to about 1.8 GB in use (as the first of the four files was finishing copying), to ~3 GB in use (as the second file was finishing copying) and after all four had finished copying... Bitdefender in use had reached 8.8 GB. Not only that, but on the performance tab... total Windows system memory in use had hit 19.9 GB with only 4 GB free, so this 8.8 plus the previous 10.4 GB in still holding and not being released. So there is definitely some kind of memory/resource leak in that the process seems to eventually show the memory no longer in use but it doesn't appear to be being made available again in the Windows total memory pool.
It has now been 30 minutes since the copy operation completed and Bitdefender process is still holding at 8.8 GB in use and Window available memory is still at 4 GB free (and note while the process use is 8.8 GB, less than the 10.4 GB in the previous pic... the total system memory use is 83% now up from the previous 59%... so there is a leak):
A simple file copy operation in the OS results in the same behavior... so that kinda shoots down the thought that it was related to my video editing tools.
So now it has been exactly 35 minutes since the copy operation ended and the Bitdefender process memory use is showing as dropped to a more reasonable level at ~700 MB in use, but the total system memory hasn't come back anywhere near as much (still showing 78% of all memory). Also, memory process utilization in Resource Monitor shows VSSERV.EXE as completely off the charts with a ~20 GB memory commit still:
So what the heck is going on?!? Granted I am working with large files, but Bitdefender is utilizing a lot of memory and not releasing in any within any reasonable amount of time (if at all)… and still even after setting an exclusion on my local folder that I copied the files to.
...and I must stress, this is very recent... I do this activity with large video files like this for the past 2 years (daily) and this memory exhaustion has only started happening very recently. This is also a BIG problem for me as I can't do the work now without a workaround (like excluding the folder) other than completely disabling Bitdefender.
Comments
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This forum/web software or whatever is extremely annoying... keeps blocking/rejecting my posting/edits due to "security reasons" so I am having issues getting this posted at all. Here are the initial screen cap after the first copy operation I referred to at the start of the post.
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Now after almost an hour and a half since the copy operation, Bitdefender process in the Task Manager process list shows it dropped down to 50 MB in use, but total system memory has not come back very much at all. The Resource Monitor still shows VSSERV.EXE as having a memory commit of 20 GB as illustrated in the pic in the original post.
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One last thought... this month's Microsoft updates for Windows 10 just installed within the last week also (wouldn't put it past Microsoft to have buggered something in their patches that you guys may need to account for)... other than that no changes to the system (Windows 10 Pro, v1803, OS Build 17134.523).0 -
You're not alone, i have (almost) the exact same problem.
The difference is that i don't experience the problem when copying/moving, see more below.
I've reported it a a bug through bitdefender.
These are my observations:
Working version:
Bitdefender version: 23.0.16.72
Engine Version: 7.78728
Faulty version (any versions newer than this also displays this behavior):
Bitdefender version: 23.0.16.72
Engine Version: 7.79111
I have an issue where Bitdefender is using excessive amounts of RAM when processing large files from a network.
The issue has begun after installing the latest update (see version numbers above).
My scenario: I have a number of large (4-7 GB) video files that i need to convert.
When i start the conversion process Bitdefender will eat up all available RAM (I have 8 GB), and when that happens everything (conversion and Windows UI) slows to a crawl, probably because Windows is swapping to disk.
When this happens all network drives becomes inaccessible and the conversion crashes.
Under normal circumstances Bitdefender uses anywhere from 300-500 MB of RAM, fairly constantly (no big movements up or down).
It then takes several minutes (3-5) for Bitdefender to release the used RAM, once that happens Windows becomes responsive again and network drives becomes available.
A few observations:
1)
It is only when processing files via an application that the problem arises.
It doesn't matter what application is used (i've tried two different applications)
If i just copy/move the files from a network drive to a local harddisk, there is no problem.
2)
It also seems to be specific to processing files from a network drive.
There are no problems, if i copy the same files to my local harddisk and run them through the same conversion procees.
3)
The memory usage when converting files from a network drive, seems to roughly correspond to the size of the files.
i.e. if i try to convert a 4 GB file, Bitdefender will eat up roughly 4 GB of RAM
4)
It is the "Bitdefender Security Service" that eats up the RAM
What i have done to try and fix the problem:
- I've unistalled/reinstalled twice; the first time i used the option to keep my settings, the other time i made a clean reinstall.
- If i uninstall and the go to Bitdefender Central and download the install file (Bitdefender version: 23.0.16.72/Engine Version: 7.78728) there are no problems
- After updating to the newest version (Bitdefender version: 23.0.16.72/Engine Version: 7.79111), the problem returns.
Further observations after looking a bit deeper into the problem:
It's not just limited to applications converting large files from the network.
Small files also shows this behavior, it's just harder to notice, since the memory usage climbs a lot slower, due to the smaller file sizes.
Examples:
- I listened to a couple of hours of music via WinAmp (all mp3 files are on the LAN) and before i closed winamp down i noticed that the BitDefender service had eaten a lot of memory
- After watching a few hours of video with the MPC-BE media player (all video files are on the LAN) i also saw high memory usage before shutting down my computer.
kind regards
LG0 -
Thanks LG for the feedback!
To go 24 hrs without so much as a peep from any support staff is just wrong, so to know that at least I'm not alone in this that was starting to make me question if my Windows installation was messed up... so again thanks for that.
I just got hammered again, completely locked up my system and barely recovered (free'd up ~1gb of memory) just enough for the screen to refresh/draw and for me to get Task Manager up and look at things. "Bitdefender Security Service" is what it lists on the main Processes tab of Task Manager, if you expand it... it specifically lists "Bitdefender Virus Shield"... but still just a label. Eventhough my memory total memory was showing 98% consumed, Bitdefender process had dropped back to 500 mb in use. Going to Task Manager's Performance tab, then go to the bottom of the window and click the link "Open Resource Monitor". Go to the Memory tab and right at the top of listing is the "VSSERV.EXE" process showing a "Commit (KB)" memory utilization of just over 20 GB.
Now this happened all while I had Bitdefender Shield DISABLED. So it's not just the file on access/demand functionality...
I'd like to revert to the previous engine version, but didn't think I could given it just pushes the latest down from the web. I just went in to Bitdefender Central and downloaded a single 10 MB installer, but how do you specify to only install an older engine?0 -
Ok, uninstalled/reinstalled. Saw that upon reinstall the engine is at 7.78728, so went in to settings and disabled auto update but best I can select is "until system restart" when I'd have to make sure to do it again before it updates the engine.0 -
I am not at my computer right now, so some details may be a little hazy.
What I did was flip an option called something like Disable Silent Update.
That way bitdefender will always show an update dialog that you can cancel.
LG0 -
Yep, found that 'disable silent' option and disabled it... thanks!
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Same problem for me. When I stream files with my mediaplayer from my computer the memory usage of vsserv.exe grows. It looks like the same rate as I stream (upload) from my pc to the mediaplayer. So for example if i stream a movie with 1mb/s, vsserv.exe memory usage grows with 1mb/s.
I recently updated Windows 10 pro to build 1809.
Bitdifenderinfo:
Hope they will fix it soon in the next update.
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Short version, I have the same problem. Clearly there is a serious bug. Although my testing is not complete, it already matches the original poster's description so closely that I feel compelled to chime in. Here is the scenario(s) for me.
Key message: Memory usage of vsserv.exe grows rapidly during large file copies to the point of memory exhaustion. A network drive is involved, but I suspect it happens local drive to local drive as well.
Original Issue - Windows 7 64 Bit (12 GB Physical RAM)
I have been using Bitdefender Internet Security 2019 for only about 1 month. My perception is that this started happening recently, say in the last week but I don't have exact dates. I copy large files under two scenarios for backup(s):
Nightly automated file copies including a nightly copy of a 25 GB file.
Occasional manual copy of complete drive/system images that go offsite that include an 880 GB file.
In the last 10 days or so I was completing manual copies of 880 GB files. I successfully completed a few and then started getting low memory errors from Windows and the file copy not completing. I considered it strange but ignored it and rebooted and restarted the copy. Sure enough it happened again. My recollection is that it happened both with Windows Explorer (OS) copies and replicator application copies (Karen's Replicator or Personal Backup).
At that point I used Task Manager and Resource Monitor to see that vsserv.exe had a commit size of about 20 GB of RAM.
I rebooted (vsserv.exe starts at about 500MB of RAM) and started a copy. Sure enough it started climbing rapidly. I stopped the copy when it got to about 3GB cause I could see the problem starting.
Sorry, I did not take screen shots or record version information at that time.
Re-Install
Yesterday I did not find this posting, but I saw mildly similar ones. There was a suggestion that a re-install might help. I un-installed using the Bitdefender un-install program (https://www.bitdefender.com/site/view/uninstall_consumer_paid.html) and then re-installed. Again, sorry, I did not record the version at the time of install.
However, I did start a manual copy immediately after the install. Although I did not let it finish, there was NO memory growth of vsserv.exe
I stopped my manual copies and let my automated copies (the 25 GB one) happen overnight. Although they completed, vsserv.exe grew to a commit size of say 6.5 GB (i.e. same problem). I do have a screen shot of that and my current version screen shot.
I suspect there was a "silent update" since my re-install.
Final Comments
The memory does not seem to be "released" over time (just like others have reported).
After a reboot, I cannot re-produce the issue at will. But clearly, based on my experience and others, there is an issue (memory leak) that should be triggered by large file copies or streaming.
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So still no info from anyone from Bitdefender tech support?!? Seriously?!?
What is the status of this issues? Has it been corrected and I can re-enable updates?
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Problem still there so don't update yet. And i also expected at least one reaction from tech support!?!
My latest info:
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2019
Product version: 23.0.16.72
Engine version: 7.79236
And bitdefender please help!!!!!0 -
Problem still exits for me although I have not rebooted since update.
Engine Version: 7.792370 -
Also, adding exceptions (Protection -> Antivirus -> Settings -> Exceptions -> Files & Folders) and/or (Protection -> Antivirus -> Settings -> Exceptions -> Extensions) does not help. On-Access and On-Demand both set to yes.
Rather puzzling that you set a directory on a shared drive to be exempt from "On-Access" Virus Scanning (i.e the vsserv.exe process), yet when you copy a file from said directory the vsserv.exe continues to exhibit the bug.
Also, I currently can re-produce this problem at will.0 -
Don't know if the issue is completely fixed, but decided to try and update to see... took a backup snapshot of my PC, then did the update:
It is showing engine v7.79268 now... and I have been doing media edits from my network share to the local PC drive for the last hour (processed a few dozen files, each 2 GB in size) with no issues. Memory utilization of the Bitdefender process never went over 350 MB in use, total memory utilization would go up about 400-600 MB on each file as it was being processed from the network share, then drop back down 400-600 MB after each file was done... so the process doesn't appear to be eating up memory in use and what is being used appears to be released back into the system pool. :-)
Still early yet so reserving judgment for now, but for the moment I think the issue might be addressed with today's v7.79268 engine update.
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Still early, but problem is not happening to me right now and I was previous able to reproduce with every large file copy from my NAS.
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Problem looks solved for me also. Stays stable around 300Mb and not more when streaming.0 -
Just adding to the other replys: I can confirm that the issue seems to be fixed in the latest update.0 -
Hello,
We have submitted the issue to our development team. We recommend you to contact us at bitsy@bitdefender.com as we will need some logs and to further look into this.
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On 1/31/2019 at 4:24 AM, lg66 said:
Just adding to the other replys: I can confirm that the issue seems to be fixed in the latest update.
On 1/30/2019 at 7:27 AM, thepauk said:
Problem looks solved for me also. Stays stable around 300Mb and not more when streaming.
I am wondering if you guys only looked at task manager processes bc processes is giving me a different reading then details under task manager
Also having high memory use by BD and it seems to look like a memory leak... I had this issue before with BD 2018 TS i recently uninstalled and reinstalled BD and had upgraded to 2019 and now the issue is back
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2 hours ago, BDneedsSUMwork said:
am wondering if you guys only looked at task manager processes bc processes is giving me a different reading then details under task manager
Also having high memory use by BD and it seems to look like a memory leak... I had this issue before with BD 2018 TS i recently uninstalled and reinstalled BD and had upgraded to 2019 and now the issue is back
I am no expert on this but I am confused by your post for three reasons:
You claim that Task Manager Process versus Details show different readings. However, the two screen shots you post show BD using 200MB in each case. In other words, basically no difference. Where to you see the difference?
This thread revolved around the BD process growing during network copies specifically and repeatedly. Is this happening to you?
Most importantly, the memory utilization you describe seems fine. You show screen shots using 200 MB of memory. Others in this thread have already suggested that things are operating as expected at 300MB. Just to put this in perspective, my current memory utilization for BD is 600MB (twice your level) and I consider fine in the context of this thread. More to the point, the memory leak we were describing got to 10 to 20 GB (like 100 times what you are seeing) and happening quickly and repeatedly.
Short version, your looks normal to me, but that's my 2 cents.0 -
59 minutes ago, Jimmy T said:
I am no expert on this but I am confused by your post for three reasons:
You claim that Task Manager Process versus Details show different readings. However, the two screen shots you post show BD using 200MB in each case. In other words, basically no difference. Where to you see the difference?
This thread revolved around the BD process growing during network copies specifically and repeatedly. Is this happening to you?
Most importantly, the memory utilization you describe seems fine. You show screen shots using 200 MB of memory. Others in this thread have already suggested that things are operating as expected at 300MB. Just to put this in perspective, my current memory utilization for BD is 600MB (twice your level) and I consider fine in the context of this thread. More to the point, the memory leak we were describing got to 10 to 20 GB (like 100 times what you are seeing) and happening quickly and repeatedly.
Short version, your looks normal to me, but that's my 2 cents.
there's a 5,000kb diffrence 206,000kb > 201mb
and here's how it looks now
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It has apparently not released ram and has grown in use0 -
It is not normal for a system to use 50% of its memory when only having 1 tab in chrome open and task manager with 16GB ram installed... Can you post a screen shot of both your processes and details in task manager? When i first boot BD uses way less then what it dose an hour or two later. Please look over what i have shown you there is clearly more in use in one section then the other on my screenshots. Also it reports differently in processes then it dose in details. A lil help instead of not looking over things correctly would have been awesome
1 hour ago, Jimmy T said:
I am no expert on this but I am confused by your post for three reasons:
You claim that Task Manager Process versus Details show different readings. However, the two screen shots you post show BD using 200MB in each case. In other words, basically no difference. Where to you see the difference?
This thread revolved around the BD process growing during network copies specifically and repeatedly. Is this happening to you?
Most importantly, the memory utilization you describe seems fine. You show screen shots using 200 MB of memory. Others in this thread have already suggested that things are operating as expected at 300MB. Just to put this in perspective, my current memory utilization for BD is 600MB (twice your level) and I consider fine in the context of this thread. More to the point, the memory leak we were describing got to 10 to 20 GB (like 100 times what you are seeing) and happening quickly and repeatedly.
Short version, your looks normal to me, but that's my 2 cents.
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12 hours ago, BDneedsSUMwork said:
It is not normal for a system to use 50% of its memory when only having 1 tab in chrome open and task manager with 16GB ram installed... Can you post a screen shot of both your processes and details in task manager? When i first boot BD uses way less then what it dose an hour or two later. Please look over what i have shown you there is clearly more in use in one section then the other on my screenshots. Also it reports differently in processes then it dose in details. A lil help instead of not looking over things correctly would have been awesome
Hello,
Can you please let us know how much memory is used when Bitdefender is not installed when you have only one tab of Chrome opened? For Bitdefender to use 300 Mb is normal. If you leave your PC opened for one day, does the usage grow? The fact that Task Manager is reporting different values on processes and details it a Windows problem and it is not related to Bitdefender, as Windows measures the percentage displayed in Task Manager.
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I ended up doing a re reinstall of BD after removing files that are left over after uninstallation and now my system is running a lot better i'm now using 24% with one tab open and taskman open it is not hitting the 50% it was after my first reinstall it is acting normal now... with out BD I was at something like 20% or so... but yeah not the 50+% it would eventually climb to before I did the work described above. but I had responed to your companies email and await response thank you guys for your help you have always provided...0 -
19 hours ago, BDneedsSUMwork said:
I ended up doing a re reinstall of BD after removing files that are left over after uninstallation and now my system is running a lot better i'm now using 24% with one tab open and taskman open it is not hitting the 50% it was after my first reinstall it is acting normal now... with out BD I was at something like 20% or so... but yeah not the 50+% it would eventually climb to before I did the work described above. but I had responed to your companies email and await response thank you guys for your help you have always provided...
Hello,
I am glad to hear that the system is running better now. In case you notice that the ram usage will increase or you will notice any other issue, let us know.0 -
Hello,
I still have the same issue on the last update of the free version.
The RAM usage goes up to 5Gb...
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Having this problem also. Can't believe I just paid money and spent all this time installing to discover this. Won't be able to work on music on my machine now.
Incredibly disappointing
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Same here. Excessive memory usage when streaming a lot of data in my browser (in this case watching the camera feed of my 3D printer / octopi).
It keeps stable for a while, then slowly creeps up (non paged pool) until it hits up to 20GB (32GB system ram). When I close the tab, it slowly goes down to about 1GB.
Using Bitdefender Total Security Build 25.0.14.58 / Engine-Version 7.87844.
Please tell me if you need more information. As this is a software development workstation, I have quite some debugging tools installed ;)
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Same here.... Issue still exists in latest version.
Bitdefender eats tons of memory..... this should be easy reproducible for the developers.
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Ditto. My Windows 10 PC has been the slowest computer I've ever had. Up until now I assumed it was Lenovo software, but when I look at the Task Manager memory, Bitdefender is a huge memory hog. This needs to be fixed. Will try a reinstall, but I should not have to do that.
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Seeing similar problems here on latest w10 build after a reinstall as well.
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Generate bitdefender support tool logs: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/1733/
Generate bitdefender connectivity logs: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/9689/
Share the logs & your query with bitdefender support team by dropping them an email at bitsy@bitdefender.com
The support team will reply back to your query within next 24-48 hours excluding weekends.
Regards
Life happens, Coffee helps!
Show your Attitude, when you reach that Altitude!
Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus (user)
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I faced the same problem today. I have 64 GB of ram and 2 minutes after turning on my computer, the "Bitdefender Network Helper" process took 51 GB of ram, so I could not use my other softwares. I immediately restarted the computer. I hope this issue is resolved.
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Generate bitdefender BDsysLog: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/1922/
Generate bitdefender support tool logs: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/1733/
Generate bitdefender connectivity logs: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/9689/
Share the logs & your query with bitdefender support team by dropping them an email at bitsy@bitdefender.com
If the generated logs are larger in size, you can upload the logs to google drive or we.tl (7days link validity for free users) or ask the support team to provide you with the online link & password of bitdefender cloud where you can upload the logs and share the upload link with the support team.
The support team will reply back to your query within next 24-48 hours excluding weekends.
Regards
Life happens, Coffee helps!
Show your Attitude, when you reach that Altitude!
Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus (user)
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I have just started to trial Bitdefender 27. All was looking ok until my machine became sluggish after being on for 18hours and a second user logging in. The bitdefender service had consumed all available ram and was causing memory hard faults, making windows continuously swap out RAM for swapstorage.
I knew what this looked like immediately (a memory leak) and am disappointed to find this problem has been going on since 2019.
Looks like I'll be uninstalling and looking around again. :/
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@camarie do you know what could be causing the behavior experienced by @dandybrian ? I know I've seen this before, but I think without logs from the affected device it's difficult to know for sure what's going on there.
Definitely not a general issue at this time and not something that has been going on since 2019, because although there have been reports in the past, this was fixed at some point, and for any new reports we must also take into account the usage context and what's being done on the machine. Camarie please correct me if I'm wrong.
Thanks
Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user
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@Alexandru_BD True. This is why I added Passive mode.
This is referring to the bdntwrk.exe (Network Helper), which brokers various traffic and devices generating traffic and this is intercepting and reading various such informations for protection purposes.
I would say either there is a large amount of such traffic or @dandybrian just hit a bug, and I would suggest to open the Bitdefender main interface, go in Protection > Firewall > Settings and check if Use passive detection mode is ON or OFF. I suspect the passive mode is ON, and this value should be used only if the user runs a DHCP server.
If this is the case, I suggest switching it to OFF. Either way, I would like to get more details on what that machine does in term of network (although this can be pretty vague, anything can help in terms of running programs, installed software etc) and if changing that setting from ON to OFF, if that was the case, solved the problem.2
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