Bitdefender Services Are Not Responding. Please Restart...

Might be that BD is still not stable on windows 7 because mine is working without any problems or glitches.

I'm using BD on XP. I have it installed on two XP machines and one Vista machine. I was going to have it installed on my son's Vista machine by buying another license but not now. I'm going to wait and perhaps get something else for his machine.

I'm not going to get too excited just yet, .... but, ... I'd been having ''vsserv.exe not responding'' EVERY day recently. Needed to restart the service repeatedly in the same day on numerous occasions.

My PC was also responding very slowly when accessing Windows Explorer & programs. Even trying to open BD was a slow process, waiting for it to show itself.

On the 30th Dec', I decided to reinstall BD. I used the BitDefender_Uninstall_Tool.exe, then rebooted. I then used a Third party registry cleaner, and it found more BD left-overs !! I backed up these files, then allowed the program to delete them, then carried out a fresh install & update of BD.

Well, ... so far, 48 hours later, ..... NO vsserv.exe lock-ups; Windows Explorer opens like it should (quickly); programs, .... including BD, show themselves how they used to a while back - quickly. I'm not holding my breath, ... but it's been a while since the PC and BD behaved themselves. I'm hoping the pre-reinstall clean up of the Registry might have cleaned out something that was hindering things?

I'll post here IF, and as soon as BD greys out again.

Google search ''freeware system optimization'' for the cleanup tool I used for the Registry clean.

Its the TEMPORARY grey out that annoys me so much! Nothing opens when I try to browse and if I am working on something, it locks up. Why can't it update in the background as other programmes do? I just have to sit and wait - its not good enough.

Hi all.

I am a new BD user. I used Kaspersky before this(BD IS 2010). I new about contaminated past AV and did a through clean up and removal of Kaspersky.

I thought I did the proper thing and used the trial for a little less then 30 days and all was well and I was satisfied enough to make the purchase.

My machine is xp sp3, e6400, 2 gig ddr2. I have verizon FIOS.

During the trial I did online gaming, P2P and various apps I was happy about full screen and auto game mode etc. I poked around quite a few feature and was happy.

I had put most features to test and I read and understood the functions. I never saw the grey icon.

BUT>>>>> I did not turn on home network. Other machine is xp and wifey's and was to remain as is while testing.

I purchased the software and felt good about it. It was simple and complete for the present machine I was using. I then installed on my wifes machine and locally it was fine.

To assist my wife I figured I woould try the home network feature. I turned it on and all seemed well.

To my dismay the missing service and greyed icon started, along with white/blank pages on IE (drudge report was really bad).

My previous experience with Kaspersky tech support was to run repair and try to clean up the install. I took that to heart with BD IS2010 and did a repair.

All seemed well but I noticed it had removed the home network settings.

I am going to run without Home network and see how it goes.

I am not complaing, I am posting to increase the data and I hope it helps someone else.

Have a good day.

i was running bitdefender 2009 on my windows xp main pc and windows vista laptop with no problems at all. Licence was due for renewal and my daughter got a netbook with windows 7 on it for christmas. So idiot here bought three 2010 bitdefender keys for 2 years. Managed to install on laptop and main pc but couldnt even get it onto netbook. Main PC now locks up and bitdefender icon is permanently grey, laptop not much better. Wish i had never bothered what a waste of £54 quid. I now have software which is useless and a netbook which i need to protect with something else.

I wish I had read this before I handed out the cash.

just an update...

It is looking good with no home network. No service or grey icon so far.

Taking input from other posts regarding internet settings has made IE snappier and no white page etc.

All in all working as intended. Various scan performed over nite with no problems and various gaming and internet viewing.

Have a good day.

edit to add settings..

Please open BitDefender in Expert Mode, click on the Firewall module then on the Network tab, under the "Network Configuration" - Adapter, select your network adapter and change the Trust Level to "Trusted Local", Stealth to No and Generic to Yes .

Although I have a home network, I do NOT have it enabled in BD. I have the correct settings for Network under Firewall and that works OK but it still does not stop BD getting greyed out and freezing the computer when it is (I assume) updating. I have my updating set for every hour so you can imagine how annoying it is when this happens constantly.

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

I am only trying to convey my expierence so it may help others.

I too have hourly updating.

Have you tried to repair your BD. Start/program/bd/repair remove

I also had a similar problem with kaspersky, regarding the use of other spyware programs like Spybot or superantispyware. The updating was considered a spy routine (web contact) and blocked by the spyware programs.

Try to make sure they are not running in the background and for testing purposes, exit/disable them. You may want to carefully check your processes that are running.

Have a good day.

Hi vlar

No, haven't tried repair. Will give it a go. Have no other anti-spyware stuff at all.

Thanks!

Hi, here is what I found after suffereing all the maladies described above. I had the constant stopping of services, failure of services to load, slow internet, lockups etc. etc. etc.

The root of my evil was McAfee which I had been running for years on my laptop and desktop. Last Christmas I bought some mini laptops for my grandchildren and when I did I purchased a multi-license for Bit Defender based on the trial and internet ratings. I was very happy with it, no problems, no resource problems. Unlike McAfee which is like an octovirus populating all corners of my machines.

Anyhow back to what I found. I had uninstalled McAfee apps and used their McAfee Removal Tools to clean my machine before loading BD Total Security. After a couple of weeks of problems with BD services etc. I decided to look for McAfee crap on my own. Found lots of McAfee stuff in the registry that my registry cleaner and McAfee removal tool just left sitting there. Also found a McAfee service in Scheduled Tasks that was causing problems and a lot of McAfee apps and files that had not been deleted in my C; drive by searching for McAfee in My Computer. I even found some old Norton AV crap that originally came with the system in the registry.

Deleted everything manually and have not had a problem since on either my laptop or my desktop.

Finding and deleting files in MY Computer is no big deal. But be careful with the registry. Back it up first by using a registry cleaner app or by running regedit and clicking on file/export. This will backup your registry to a file on your machine that you select.

To see if you have old anti virus registry crap just click edit/find and enter McAfee, Norton or whatever. Every time you find an entry delete it. If you can not delete it because you don't have permissions right click on the folder and change permissions in properties. Long, tedious process but it works.

Bit Defender should write an app to help folks do this, it would go a long way toward smooth transitions from one AV product to theirs and would get them a lot of good will.

Good luck all.

This is sad, i put 2 tickets for support an no reply yet, i have the issue for VISTA and 7 it just turns Grey after a while.

IMPORTANT!!!

So this bug has been resolved all you have to do is update BitDefender. Thank you for your patience.

My reaserch shows that there has been problem with vsserv.exe - Windows Service with is responsible for starting BD antivirus shield with is somehow merged with BD seciurity centre GUI - so the main problem here is that even when your shield is not started by Windows after reboot ... you are left with no option of restarting shiled manualy using BD GUI.

However I found the way of bypassing this problem (this is not a FIX it is more like a temporary solution) and I'm in process of troubleshooting why BD shield is crashing.

TEMP FIX:

- reboot your PC

- after boot screen press F8

- select Safe Mode with console

- wait

- login as Administrator

- in console type services.msc and press Enter

- in services windows shearch forBitDefender Virus Shield service ( in properties it should say vsserv.exe )

- in properties of this service go to Log ON tab

- select option "This account" and Browse

- in text field type in name of Administrator account ... usualy it is Administrator and then find

- it should find and Administrator account in this syntax: COMPUTER_NAME\Administrator

- click OK and you will be droped to previous window

- type in Administrator password, retype Administrator password and press Apply

- now go to Recovery tab

- Select Action when service fails to start :

a_ First Failure: Restart Service

b_ Secound Failure: Restart Service

c_ Subsequent Failures: Restart Computer

- in field restart service after select 0 sec

In restart computer options set time to 10 sec ( to be able to close your programs ), just in case select option to send message to all computers on the network.

- press OK

- Apply, OK

from now it should run without crashing

tested on Windows 7 64bit BD IS2010

Good Luck

Please let me know your feedback

My reaserch shows that there has been problem with vsserv.exe - Windows Service with is responsible for starting BD antivirus shield with is somehow merged with BD seciurity centre GUI - so the main problem here is that even when your shield is not started by Windows after reboot ... you are left with no option of restarting shiled manualy using BD GUI.

However I found the way of bypassing this problem (this is not a FIX it is more like a temporary solution) and I'm in process of troubleshooting why BD shield is crashing.

TEMP FIX:

- reboot your PC

- after boot screen press F8

- select Safe Mode with console

- wait

- login as Administrator

- in console type services.msc and press Enter

- in services windows shearch forBitDefender Virus Shield service ( in properties it should say vsserv.exe )

- in properties of this service go to Log ON tab

- select option "This account" and Browse

- in text field type in name of Administrator account ... usualy it is Administrator and then find

- it should find and Administrator account in this syntax: COMPUTER_NAME\Administrator

- click OK and you will be droped to previous window

- type in Administrator password, retype Administrator password and press Apply

- now go to Recovery tab

- Select Action when service fails to start :

a_ First Failure: Restart Service

b_ Secound Failure: Restart Service

c_ Subsequent Failures: Restart Computer

- in field restart service after select 0 sec

In restart computer options set time to 10 sec ( to be able to close your programs ), just in case select option to send message to all computers on the network.

- press OK

- Apply, OK

from now it should run without crashing

tested on Windows 7 64bit BD IS2010

Good Luck

Please let me know your feedback

I'm having the same issue, bitdefender not responding on every boot. I can manually go in an start it, but a virus agent that doesn't start with windows is not much of a protection!

I'll try to tips in your post, setting the service up to use the local admin account. This is a not a fix like you said though

Alright used the above work around and seems to work, it seems antiphishing isn't working when the service uses the local admin account. That's not such a big issue for me, but does make it less functional.

Any news on when this issue will be fixed for good?

Best Regards,

Tegner

no clue ... I'm BitDefender user just like you.

Just to let you know that I'm using the lattest Mozzila Firefox (3.5.7) and AntiPhishing seems to work ok ... also BD Antispam plugin in Outlook works fine ... just checked today.

...

There's another problem ... o'doh vsserv.exe is now forced to run under admin account Firewall is crashing from time to time and it says that is 'disabled' ... I'm quite sure this is last time I'm investing money in this software

Hello all,

In order to solve this issue please be so kind as to make sure you uninstalled any other security solution you might have on the same computer (any spyware removal, Ad Aware, Spybot or another antivirus).

Having more then one security product installed on the same PC can degrade performance and cause system instability. Even if they are turned off, there are some active processes running in the background. We recommend you to uninstall all the other security solutions in order for BitDefender to work properly. We also recommend you to run a registry cleaner on your computer in order to improve the system performance.

If the issue still persists please be so kind as to follow the steps from this link in order to provide us with the reports we need for further investigation.

The reports will be sent directly to our Technical Support Team and you will receive an automatic reply shortly. Please send me a PM with the ticket ID from the Subject of the e-mail so that I may analyze the reports and send you a solution as soon as possible.

Thank you.

With all due respect, I didn't pay 80 bucks for the privilege of being on your beta testing team. I paid 80 bucks to get a fully functional piece of software. I don't have that. I shouldn't have to play IS administrator with my machine, fixing my registry, debugging software, and restarting my machine 14 times a day to insure I have virus protection. I want my money back, plain and simple. Your product does not work. It needs further testing. If it was a car it would be recalled. I know that the likelihood of that happening is about zero, but I have lost all faith in BitDefender and am contemplating just waving goodbye to my money and finding a replacement. I am just hoping that my hard drive isn't crashed by some virus that your malfunctioning software failed to detect because it is unstable. Thanks for nothing.

Have fun with my 80 bucks, but it is the last dime you will see from me. You have lost a customer.

I still now and then keep getting this error.

A disappointed Customer

Regards

I have had the same bogus issues as many others. The dreaded gray icon in the task bar. But mine only happens during BD updates (which is once an hour). It used to happen all the time until I removed other spyware programs, deleted BD and did registry cleaner, then reinstalled it. Now at least it works 80% of the time. The other 20% of the time it is updating and things become horribly slow. After turning off antiphishing, most of the internet lag stopped, which is good.

I have been using BD for the last few years and I loved the 07 and 08 version. Since mid 09 I have been having gray icon issues and the 2010 did nothing to correct it. All I can tell you is to delete BD, all other antispyware software, then do registry cleaner and delete everything on there. Reinstall BD and pray that it works more consistently.

After some more research, I un-installed Ad-Adware from one of my machines and BD seems to be working better. I noticed that when Ad-Aware was installed, BD updates were very slow, although they seemed to complete. Shortly after an update that required a reboot, the tray icon would grey out and become unresponsive. Since I removed Ad-Aware, BD updates are much faster.

I will keep a watch out over the next week or so and report back if my problems are resolved (or not).

When I click the Bit Defender icon, it says bit defender services are not responding. And it also says the bit defender security services (vsserv.exe) is unavailable at the moment. How do I fix that without restarting my PC. And I am kinda new to this forum. I don't know where to post so I post here. Please help me fix that problem. Thanks in advance.

Hi Myint Thi H,

Maybe you could give more details on your system just to inform BD tech people.

What is your bitdefender? with which OS?

I suppose you installed BD without problems?

Since how long do you have these problems?

I suppose you do not have another Firewall + antivirus - only one FW AV per computer, you can add antispyware without too much trouble but no other firewall antivirus.

Is your system freshly installed or not?

I suppose you deactivated the windows firewall before installing BD? (It should be)

An example: My system: windows XP Home or Pro, SP3, 2.2 or 3 Ghz proc, 2Go memory.

I often have your problems on my oldest computer that I have not formatted for several years, and very rarely on my most recent computer with fewer software as well.

My solution is to reboot the computer if I can't see the activation icone (due to Windows Live messenger as far as I'm concerned) or, worse, to repair Bitdefender through the action:

Start program BD... and "repair or remove" repair... and so on...

Not very clean, true.

Maybe a technician from BD will answer you soon, but you could check maybe too in the forum the similar problems. BD 2010 (but do you have 2010?) seems to have trouble with some other software.

Good luck!

L.

So far so good. Both my XP SP3 machines have been running perfectly with BitDefender IS 2010 after the removal of Ad-Adware. No grayed out icon or problems updating...

I just upgraded to Windows 7 a few days ago, and since then BDIS has stopped working several times a day. Restarting the computer gets it going again for a while, but then it dies again. Sometimes I get an error message that asks me to send BD a report (I always include my email address, but never get any email explaining what went wrong or how to fix it); other times the icon just turns grey.

I have never seen such fragile software! Every month or two there's a new problem.

I've also been having a lot of trouble getting updates, which I assume has to do with overloaded servers at BD, since I'm having no other internet/download problems.

BitDefender is charging us for a continuing service, not just a product. That means the company needs to take care of its present customers and not oversell its capacity. It's charging us for a security service, which is supposed to provide peace of mind, not cause constant frustration and worry because the program keeps failing. How much confidence can we have in BD's ability to protect us from viruses and malware if it can't produce an application that will go for two months without a major problem?

I've been very patient, and even renewed my subscription after a year of crashes, patches, and hotfixes; but there comes a point. I've lost confidence in BD to the extent that I've installed Prevx as a back-up. (And no, Prevx is not causing BD to crash--they've co-existed peaceably on my computer for several months.) If BD doesn't clean up its act, I won't be renewing my subscription again.

Anyway, this wasn't supposed to be a rant. Can anybody help with the "services are not responding" problem?

I feel your "pain ", know exactly how you feel.

I have a 3 User "Subscription" but use only 1 ? ,As its not woth the frustation to work on my daily Pc with so many Errors/Bugs.

I do Nothing with the other 2 Licenses, I dont want to give them away and give other people the frustration

Would advise you to do the same and take your loss as its not worth the frustration.

It is quite unbelievable: asked for my money back and got the sort of email I have had before asking me to do all sorts of things, run tests, very time consuming, which produced no results at all the last time I did them. Included was the request: 6. Open BitDefender and reproduce the issue a couple of times.

Am I supposed to sit around and wait for the automatic update to grey out the icon and freeze my computer? Do they even understand what the problem is?

Applications such as this are supposed to be finished, capable of doing what they promise and working away in the background with no interference from me.

I too have 3 licenses - what a waste!

I like having three licenses--I have three computers! And three licenses don't cost any more than one for most other antivirus programs (those that aren't free). But licenses for a program that doesn't work all the time aren't much of a bargain. :0/

On the (slightly) bright side, I may have some new insight into the trouble we're all having (or at least my version of it): it appears that the "services are not responding" problem may have to do with Windows Update. The last time my icon went grey, I went to restart and noticed that I had a whole bunch of updates pending a reboot. I rebooted, the updates installed themselves, and the BD icon has stayed red for a couple of hours now. Since I've been reinstalling all my software after upgrading the OS to Win7, it's to be expected that there will be a lot of updates to install in the first few days, so I'm hoping that as soon as all my apps finish updating themselves the latest problem with BD will be taken care of, too. Fingers crossed.

Of course, if that turns out to be the source of the problem, (a) it shouldn't happen, and ( BD should tell me that's what the problem is. We'll see.

I have just installed Windows 7 Pro 32bit and I have the same problem...except on mine neither the BD threat scanner or the desktop update service start. I can start the services manually and everything works fine but if I reboot the services will start 1 out of 5 times by themselves... On top of that when I try to use the support tool to report the problem through the BD interface...it hangs at stage two "Running the gathering tool, this process may take a few minutes. Please wait...." Well it's been an hour... Help!

I re-started the computer and this time the scanner service started but the update service did not...and the reporting tool still hangs at stage two. I have uninstalled using the uninstall tool 2 times now...to no avail... Fortunately I am running XP on a separate drive where BD works fine...since I have learned over many years that when MS releases a new OS, always wait until SP2 before you consider making a permanent switch...

This seems like it would be considered a pretty major issue by BD... It's surprising it's been re-occurring for so long without a definitive fix.