Any Answer To Our Problems?

Their silence is deafening on this one.

You'd think they could just execute an "Undo" and go back to square 1 - reversing all the damage they have caused.

Simply release an update that removes all the things that started this debacle and instead of a major update, only do one thing at a time.

Someone likened this to using current paying customers as beta testers, and I would have to agree with them on this point.

This is nothing short of a public relations nightmare, and the harm they have caused as well as the damage to the good will and loyalty of past users of Bitdefender may end up costing them dearly.

I'm willing to give them time to fix this, but they're going to have to make it right and put a lot more thought into the concept of product updates.

It's one thing to improve the graphics or ease of use of the program - but to start tampering with fundamental processes and create instability with what was once a stable product is inexcusable.

Let's hope that something good comes out of all of this...

Their silence is deafening on this one.

You'd think they could just execute an "Undo" and go back to square 1 - reversing all the damage they have caused.

Fred: I have been posting on the 3-pager dealing with the problem of "Can not connect" to do updates. But I started reading some other posts last night and in the post entitled "Major update causes sound problem" I found a fix, if you are willing to go to the trouble. I had to uninstall and reinstall to use it, but it was worth it. At least I can keep my virus signatures updated now and I'm assuming anyone with problems related to this major update can probably solve their problems the same way, unless the major update has permanently damaged something else. The fix deals with changing your update settings so that you are given the option to select which updates you want installed. It does require interaction, then, with the update process but that's a small price to pay as far as I'm concerned. Go read it if you are interested.

I've liked this product and like I've posted elsewhere, sometimes these things happen. I'm back to normal now and yes it was painful. Hopefully whatever SNAFU in

testing or whatever that caused the problems have or will be addressed.

After being a customer of some other AV products out there I still think this is the best one for my needs. I have horror stories that I can go on about

regarding some other products. Those are stories for the campfire..

I agree with you Will - to some extent. Actually, I chose Bitdefender precisely because I've had problems with some of the other big name products out there: Norton, Trend Micro, and Panda - and I'll venture to say, most people who've ended up with Bitdefender did so because it offered some great features: low resource use, and frequent virus definition updates.

But I've never had a security suite caused these kinds of problems before. From what I've read on other posts, some people's machines have really been messed up - perhaps for good - and you'd think they would do a lot more testing before they released such a potentially malicious update. I use the word malicious, because that's basically what it was.

A few months back I discovered some pesky malware on my computer that couldn't be removed by conventional means (Spybot, Malware Bytes, etc.). My only remedy was to go on the Hijack This forum where I was guided by a generous soul in the methods and programs required to finally rid my machine of this malware. But even the malware I had didn't do anything remotely as destructive as this last update from Bitdefender.

In my case, I was unable to connect to the Internet (among other things). This caused a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth - to the point where I was ready to haul my machine down to the computer repair shop and have them take a look at it.

Luckily, I was able to discover that disabling the Registry Control allowed me to connect. But just think of all the people who were unable or unwilling to discover how to fix their machines. Without a means to connect to the Internet, there was no way you could get on this forum and find out what was going on.

People who didn't have other computers, or a nearby library where they could get online were basically out of luck. No software out there should cause this kind of damage - it's just inexcusable in this day and age.

Granted, nothing out there is bug-free, but it just defies credulity that something like this could happen. Bitdefender has a lot of explaining to do, and every day that goes by without a solution just adds to the problem.

Put it this way: unless they make it up to the people who've been adversely affected, they aren't going to get a lot of repeat business - if any. A bad reputation is a terrible thing - especially on the Internet.

Thank you for letting me vent - I feel a lot better now...

What should we do in the meantime?

My BD taskbar icon shows as active (at the moment), WinPatrol services and tasks show BD agents/files as running or active but it won't update ("can't connect to server") -Should I believe the BD icon informing me my pc is: "PROTECTED. [...]" ?

I don't think so, but what to do? Another complete BD un-install and use a free program? Stay offline?

Oye...

I'm not sure if that explains the malfunctions. I've just looked at that registry key on my computer ... it says 13.0.15, not even 16. And things were working well enough before the Tuesday's update.

I'm not sure if that explains the malfunctions. I've just looked at that registry key on my computer ... it says 13.0.15, not even 16. And things were working well enough before the Tuesday's update.

Well things had been problematic for me,but as of the 29/10/2009 it started to work properly virtually everything worked for the first time since installing/re-installing it,(xpsp2x86) as for vista that had run ok from first install until this major update(03/11/2009 )

Since I un and reinstalled last night and have been blocking that major update, I haven't had one goofy error screen pop up and I was getting all kinds of them.

BD seems to be "working" on my system for now..

Though this was strange..a Warning (!) showed up on my taskbar-icon late last night, the window said my Auto-Update settings weren't enabled (as far I knew, they were!) and I should "fix this problem", which I did. Since then I've been periodically hitting the update button, which seems to be the only time it updates..

Here's the logfile notes from the first 4 lines from top to bottom, don't understand the first 2 same virus sig updates..(?)

*Virus Signatures: 4482193, Engine Version: 7.28794 -(11/7/09-9:16:27 am)

*Virus Signatures: 4482193, Engine Version: 7.28794 -(11/7/09-8:43:56 am)

*The following files were downloaded:

Plugins/emalware.200

Plugins/update.txt -(11/7/09-8:43:18 am)

*!Update error -update process canceled (11/7/09-8:35:37 am)

It seems at least on some level there is an up-swing happening..I suppose they are working hard to get these issues resolved.

Working hard? It's been 4 days and we haven't heard anything yet, except some insolent comment from one of their moderators.

I wouldn't get my hopes up, Northy. Here it is Saturday, and you can be pretty sure they've gone home for the weekend - postponing any action until at least Monday: assuming that they have anything in place to offer.

When a moderator insults a poster, it's not a good sign to say the least - not exactly the friendly customer service you'd expect from such a large company.

The fact that your system is functioning for now is probably just a fluke: I believe it is what is referred to as a "random occurrence."

Hang on tight to the rollercoaster - this is going to be a bumpy ride...

well said Fred5000, they could at least acknowledge customers on the current actions (if there is any) taken to fix this problem. This problem just making me think twice about using Bitdefender. Really thought i finally found the best anti-virus and i have tried many, you just name them. But at last i think i was wrong.

This problem just making me think twice(not only me the general public and that's a fact, just read the comments in the forum) about using Bitdefender. Really thought i finally found the best anti-virus and i have tried many, you just name them. But at last i think i was wrong.

No wonder why a lot of users are uninstalling Bitdefender due to this and as i have read, this same problem occurred with the 2009 versions. And you would think a major company as this would have testers for this sort of thing before releasing it to the public. They are just degrading their reputation as one of the best Anti-Virus in the world. Extremely Bad Financial Plan

Although I vaguely recall seeing an apology for the inconveniences somewhere in the mass of posts out there, I found an interesting reply from one of their "Evangelists" that speaks volumes:

'... you have no idea that there isn't such a thing as "perfect software".'

Not exactly re-assuring, is it? More like a cop-out to me. This is what we're dealing with folks.

We bought the ticket, and now we're just along for the ride - so I guess we should "just lie back and enjoy it."

Perhaps there is no such thing as perfect software, but there is such a thing as common courtesy and customer support and I think the whole BD support team better get together and put out a BIG, MAJOR update among themselves on that issue because that is a long-standing issue that goes way back before this 2010 uproar. Glitches are one thing; this 2010 and the update they put out is way above and beyond that term. The program wasn't ready for public use to start with and then they compounded it with this major update, combined with their usual lack of any decent support response.

Re-expressing a feeling made by another poster, I'm not so sure this program can even be trusted to provide decent security, updates or no updates. Not when you look at the posts and realize how totally this has messed up systems ... everything from not being able to update, to not being able to connect to the Internet, to losing your sound, to losing your ability to use USB connections, to computers not booting ... and on and on. This program doesn't have a "few" problems. It's messed up just about every area of a functioning computer it can mess with, and their support team doesn't even think it's necessary to respond and try to reassure people.

Hello all,

We assure you that we are aware of the issues that are discussed here and that they have a top priority . My colleagues from the Testing and Development team are working to fix these issues but as we stated in some other topics, there is no exact date when a resolution to these problems will be released . In case we need any other information's from your part, we will contact you through the email or in the topic were you have posted your replies.

Once again please accept our apologizes for any inconveniences this situation might have caused.

Thank you.

Will Wood: This is what has me puzzled -- why they can't just do some kind of rollback instead of leaving all their customers hanging out here in this kind of mess. I'm afraid Alex' answer just isn't good enough. Not when you've paid for a SECURITY program you CAN'T UPDATE. I'm not making light of all the other problems, not by a long shot. But the one thing that should be screaming at the Testing and Development team is that "We have a whole bunch of people out there who have paid us for this program and they can't safely be on their machines because they can't update the virus signatures."

And as far as someone commenting somewhere last Friday that we probably wouldn't hear anything now until Monday because everyone will be going home for the weekend ... When they have a problem like this they have no business going home for the weekend. They should be working round the clock to solve this until it's solved. When a snow storm knocks out all the electricity the electric crewmen don't go home for the weekend and get back to work early Monday morning to have a go at it. They stay on the job until the electricity is back on. They have to work in shifts, but there's no knocking off for the weekend.

I'm sure there are others who have chosen to uninstall BitDefender 2010 as I have. I purchased a two year license for three computers. Pretty much a waste of money for now. I'll monitor the forum to see when and if it becomes stable and maybe use it again. It's amazing that a company can release a product that appears to have been less than tested. I will not use a product that is designed to protect my computer that's having as many issues as this product has. Good luck to all of you who have chosen to help the BitDefender staff perform all of the testing that they should have done prior to releasing it. This product should be free! Later!