Bitdefender Anitvirus 2009 Keeps Shutting Down
Comments
-
Okay, more info from a friend. In his history file I see a few different behaviors:
1) sometimes when the scan finishes, he still gets all the Update Errors: scan in progress errors that we get. But 2 minutes later, the very next event is a download update (NOT a virus signature update) and it is successful. Then the world is happy and good with no reboots needed.
2) A scan finishes and updates recover as above, but then many firewall enable/disable cycles occur followed by a load of update errors with a DIFFERENT error: "An error occurred during the update (Unknown error).If the problem persists, please contact BitDefender support (contact information available in About section)." Then a couple more firewall enable/disables and a download update is successful. The system has run without error for a day, but no scans were performed during that time.
So, it appears he has a very similar update error problem after scans, but his system was able to recover (sample size of 2 here) without his intervention within a few hours.
Wink: regarding brainwashing. Yes, the "high quality product" and "superior customer support" and the "you are the only one who has this problem" was thrown at me as FACT by a moderator in a PM yesterday. He doesn't even work for BD but continues to spout the same kind of brainwashing.
Hey - I recognize that some people have great experiences with BD - but HELLO - just because SOME people do, doesn't mean ALL people do. I just love the logic I received from a moderator "I personally checked on 3 different systems for what you described and NONE of them experienced your problem."
This is a *moderator* who said this. Well CLEARLY good behavior on THREE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS means that the entire world is happy.
Sigh. Generalizations like this from a moderator simply boggle my mind. I tried to be logical with him but clearly he took the Blue Pill.
So, for those of you still interested in this from a *debugging* point of view, let's carry on with logic and facts rather than brainwashing and denial, shall we? ;-)
Well, logic does not seem to be one of the tools in the arsenal of the moderators and support personnel here. Nor do honesty and forthrightness seem to be among their virtues. Had even one message of the like, "Hey, we've made some missteps with the latest version and are having some problems that are taking us a little while to fix. Please bear with us", etc, etc. come to me I would be inclined to appreciate the gravity of their situation and give them the benefit of my respect and patience (though, they have received much of my patience!).
No, it's only macho denial that anything is wrong and incessant parroting of managements call to "uninstall - reinstall" to solve any issue that's what I've gotten.
Truly, if there is to be a solution here it will come through the efforts of Invalid_key_queen and others here who tirelessly do the work that BD seems to not be able to even admit that they need to do.
Though I will now leave your ranks and take my refund money to another provider, I wish you all luck with this frustrating situation and again encourage you to save some grey hairs for those at BD and follow me elsewhere.0 -
Though I will now leave your ranks and take my refund money to another provider, I wish you all luck with this frustrating situation and again encourage you to save some grey hairs for those at BD and follow me elsewhere.
Wink - it was good to work with you. Good luck with your move to a more stable product and hopefully a company with actual customer support.
I think I already wrote about why I pursued this - my rationale for this is NOT to get BitDefender working...otherwise I would have abandoned BD a week ago.
My rationale is completely different - I wrote a book about problem-solving. About HOW to go about brainstorming - logical thinking, gathering facts, making hypothesis. I really DON'T CARE about the specific cause of the failures here. My GOAL is to apply a generic problem solving method to a specific real-life issue and illustrate by example ... and that often means dealing with customers and companies who are not helpful, and sometimes throw up walls on purpose. And with people who are insecure. BD just happens to be a very relevant and timely example for me to write on.
Hopefully I explained that correctly - my continuing work here is mainly fodder for my blog on debugging technology. It is one of a series of "Let's Debug It" posts that explore the debugging process for a wide range of actual bugs.
Good luck!
Lisa0 -
Softwin created a very good antivirus engine, but when Softwin left the building, so to speak, in late '07/early '08, BitDefender went right into the toilet.
Version 10 was the last decent/viable version of BitDefender. Everything since, has been little more than beta-ware and has been plagued with problems.
On top of that, BD, like many other AV companies, is foolishly attempting to create the BE ALL-END ALL, with their security suites. Anyone with half a modicum of intelligence knows that no single product can do all things well. The majority of security suites simply don't work!
BD has a wonderful AV engine and that is where their focus should be, IMHO.
If it weren't for the technical skills, customer service skills and extreme patience of Chris, Niels and a few other overly-dedicated BD fans, BD would have disappeared right after Softwin bailed.
Good luck with the debugging. You've got a huge playing field.
Don't drink the KoolAid that BD is trying to hand you! Ignore the propaganda! Read the security forums and learn which AV programs actually work.
I dumped BD in early '08 and I haven't had a single security problem or computer problem since.
Cheers
Orphan0 -
Good news and bad news for me. (SP2, Lenovo T60)
3. Bad news. BD failed during an update this morning, while I was away, leaving me a screen pop-up that "services have been temporarily switched off for an update". But the "temporarily" was an hour long. The "Fix Issues" button for "The update has never been performed" did not work. My Windows Event Viewer log and the BidDefender update log shows the sequence:
So,am I to assume that BitDefender was not really stopped? And I was really undefended for 60 or less minutes?
But the evidence seems to indicate that an update was sent down but never installed and that BitDefender just hung
Hmm. I didn't have anything with popups like you experienced. Or messages about a "running state." Your messages are different from mine - we are probably not running the same package but like most companies, the underlying engines are very similar. But the idea of being unprotected for 60 minutes makes sense perhaps if you have automatic updates running every hour, which I believe is the default time interval.0 -
Hmm. I didn't have anything with popups like you experienced. Or messages about a "running state." Your messages are different from mine - we are probably not running the same package but like most companies, the underlying engines are very similar. But the idea of being unprotected for 60 minutes makes sense perhaps if you have automatic updates running every hour, which I believe is the default time interval.
Yes, my BitDefender update interval is one hour.
The messages about "running state" come from Windows: Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Event Viewer/System0 -
Yes, my BitDefender update interval is one hour.
The messages about "running state" come from Windows: Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Event Viewer/System
Hi Ron - okay, I haven't seen the windows one. But, I am just one user and we are all seeing different symptoms. Sorry I can't help with that one.0 -
Folks,
My time debugging this is done. I and others still see this problem with variations, but BD has hidden the symptoms so it *appears* as if everything is working correctly. No one is monitoring this thread or providing information. Another thread I started to try and get attention was closed by a moderator who told me to come back here ... to post stuff on a thread that continues to be ignored.
Sigh.
I have posted the final debugging on my blog, with some concluding words about a moderator who has been PMing me personally insulting accusations. Sometimes when you try to chase technical problems, you step on the egos of people who are motivated by more than solving the problems.
Real Life Debugged: Giving up on BitDefender - Lisa, Your Claims are ABSURD
First post with humor:
Real Life Debugged: Let’s Debug It: My Internet Security Software HATES me, TOLERATES me, REVILES me. Evil BitDefender
Best of luck to you all.0 -
SOLUTION FOUND!
Clearly, BD has been making updates to address this problem, and with those, I have been able to identify the problem that prevents updates after scans are completed!!!
Here's the deal, verified several times.
1) Updates are occurring normally
2) Scan initiated (can be manual or scheduled)
3) When scan completed, window pops up with results (!!!!! THIS IS IT)
4) BD's confusion about if the scan is complete is caused because the USER HAS NOT CLOSED THE RESULTS WINDOW!!! BD doesn't consider the scan fully completed until you close the results window and therefore will not perform updates because the "scan is still in progress"!!!!!
5) Other parts of BD (notably the history window for Virus Scans) say the scan is done
5) As soon as you close the results window, updates are re-initiated and are successful.
!!!!!! BigDefender - this is it!
Attached pic - see BD thinks scan is still in progress while finish window is there. As soon as I clicked OK to close the window, the "Virus Scan" and "History and Events" module immediately updated to show scan finished and an update initiated and completed successfully!
0 -
Good stuff Lisa. It seems your persistence in trying to troubleshoot this issue - despite your logs being deleted (just... wow) - has finally paid off.
My overnight BD shutdown issues have been resolved since I reported in post #38.
However, this "close the dialog box before the app will do anything else" issue that Lisa describes has been annoying me for a while. My problem is that on "fileserver", I can easily go days or weeks without needing to log into the desktop, but find that I must every few days regardless because BD has to have attended input to click "close" on the scan dialog box.
I thought I might be able to use command-line Scheduled Tasks instead of the in-app scans. I've been too busy and haven't been able to get anything accomplished yet, but I was able to find the list of available switches in the command prompt help file:BDC/WIN32-Console v7.1 (build 2562) (i386) (Oct 28 2006 23:06:31)
Copyright © 1996-2003 SOFTWIN SRL. All rights reserved.
Usage: bdc.exe path [parameters]
Parameters:
/f, /files scan files *
/b, /boot scan boot sector and mbr
/r, /arc scan archives
/i, /mail scan mail databases
/k, /nopack don't scan packed programs
/h, /nohed no heuristics
/X, /xcl=ext1;ext2; exclude from scan this extensions
/G, /log[=file] create log file
/S, /cd scan cd-rom
/N, /fixed scan all fixed drives
/M, /floppy scan floppy
/I, /list display all files
/g, /prog scan only program files
/e, /app append to log file
/F, /infp=path set infected quarantine folder
/U, /susp=path set suspected quarantine folder
/R, /nor do not recurse into folders
/p, /prompt prompt for action
/O, /info information
/W, /nowarn no warnings
/V, /vlist display virus list
/d, /dis disinfect files
/o, /copy copy infected files in quarantine folder
/y, /copys copy suspect files in quarantine folder
/l, /del delete infected files
/noclean don't display clean files
/move move infected files in quarantine folder
/moves move suspect files in quarantine folder
/ren rename infected files
/infext=ext set rename extension
/alev[=n] set maximum archive depth level
/flev[=n] set maximum folder depth level
/update update
/?, /help this help
* = default option
The default path is
C:\Program Files\Common Files\BitDefender\BitDefender Threat Scanner\av32bit_11668\bdc.exe0
