Issues with Bitdefender Total Security 2016

Status
Not open for further replies.

Dom_79

Honorable
Nov 4, 2012
14
0
10,560
I recently purchased Bitdefender Total Security 2016 and ran into some major issues and was wondering if any of the Tom's Users/Moderators that use/recommend that product could help.

As soon as I installed I noticed the time it took my browser(s) to load a webpage (tested sites several and used google.ca as a reference) went from immediate to taking between 10-15 seconds. I check forums and the Bitdefender site and applied some changes to the firewall (setting to "stealth" mode and un-checking port blocking). This seemed to reduce the time to 5-10 seconds for the next couple days.

A couple days later when the problem seemed to return (slow internet and connection to site speeds) I needed to re-download a game from Steam. While monitoring the download in the Steam App I noticed that my max speed was half my bandwidth. To verify whether this was hardware, software, my ISP, or the Steam servers I booted up my secondary PC which does not have Bitdenfender and tried downloading the same game from Steam and found I was getting my full speed. So not steam servers, not my ISP.

Going through the Bitdefender forums again, I found that running the Bitdefender "Repair" would be my next step. After following the instructions and restarting my computer to complete the repair the Bitdefender Firewall was not able to activate.

After some more consulting with Bitdefender support, it was determined that I should download the removal tool and re-install Bitdefender. Upon re-booting I noticed it took my PC an extra 30 sconds to reach my Windows desktop - quite a change from the normal 5 seconds. The problem persisted and Bitdefender was still unable to activate its firewall and all applications and processes were slowed noticeably.

The recommendation was to once again use the removal tool and re-install. Once completed this changed nothing and my PC was even slower to boot (over 45 seconds to desktop) and loading web pages took +/- 1 minute.

I contacted Bitdefender support by phone and they listened patiently as I explained the problems and the steps I had already taken. Unfortunately the support person could only offer to have a tech remote connect to my PC (for an additional fee) to see if they could resolve the problem. I'm far too paranoid to allow that and asked if their tech could talk my through what they would like to check and do over the phone as I'm not exactly computer illiterate. They said they were not able to do that and they were sorry but they had no other solutions to offer me.

I then tried to load a restore point but was met with the "System Restore did not complete successfully" message. I was not able to find an option do temporarily disable Bitdenfender so I used the removal tool again and uninstalled. After cycling through the re-boot process I then re-booted in safe mode and tried a system restore again but met with the same failure.

I contacted Microsoft support and after some back and forth of checking options and re-trying several steps they concluded that I would need to re-install Windows.

After re-installing Windows and activating the Windows Firewall and installing MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) I have zero issues with startup time or connection speed, which leads me to believe the problems all originated with the Bitdefender program.

I am reluctant to try re-installing the program again unless anyone else has some insight or steps to try and configure the program for proper function of features and speed of operation, so any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Sorry for the massive wall of text, I hope the paragraph breaks made it readable enough for some of you to get through ;)
 

Renaldo Xhahu

Honorable
May 13, 2013
11
0
10,560
You're just getting paranoid. Bitdefender is one of the best antivirus you can buy and has little to non existent affect on performance.

Yes, it does take your PC a little while longer to boot up, though its not that of a bummer but it happens. You can try every antivirus out there and you will notice the same. Your antivirus program needs to start as soon as you turn on your computer for it to actually prevent viruses and malwares. If you click that little arrow on the bottom right of your Taskbar as soon you get to your desktop you will notice that your antivirus is the first there. Its normal!

Also your internet speed gets slowed down a bit because data needs to pass though your antivirus firewall first, go to the server and then come back through your antivirus again. Though its rarely noticeable and you also need to factor in your ISP and how good their network is plus your modem might cause problems as well, if its not updated with the latest firmware. Again all this is normal.

Also the reason MSE doesn't affect performance is because its built in Windows, and that's probably the only good thing about MSE. I wouldn't recommend using it because it has low detection rate of viruses and also you need to open it for it to actually scan your PC. Which is really really bad.

Take my advice and install Bitdefender again, its the best protection money can buy.

Best of luck!
 

Dom_79

Honorable
Nov 4, 2012
14
0
10,560


Thanks for taking the time to read my extremely long post and reply :D

I understand that an antivirus program will slow down the startup time somewhat, although, when I first installed Bitdefender it did not take more than 5-10 seconds to boot and the slowdown didn't occur until after having problems with the firewall.

Also, previous to using Bitdefender I was using Kaspersky on this PC and had none of the boot up or internet slowdowns that I experienced with Bitdefender.

Again I checked that my router/modem and ISP were not the culprit to this slowdown by using a secondary PC (used for work)that has a different anti-virus and firewall (Kaspersky) and there was no issue at all with regards to download speed .

I don't believe that your statement about an anti-virus firewall slowing download speeds by half is correct, sorry to disagree but I can find no evidence anywhere to support that claim.

I also don't think that being disappointed with serious and very noticeable performance impacts are paranoid. I am dissatisfied and unhappy, not worried or scared.

Do you have any idea why Bitdefender was not able to initialize it's firewall after using the included Bitdefender "Repair" feature or after uninstalling (with the Bitdefender removal tool) and reinstalling?

Thanks in advance for any help!
 

Nonpossible

Estimable
Jan 3, 2015
7
0
4,510

I like using "malwarebytes." It's small, runs quietly at boot and in the background without taking up too many resouces.

More than anything, you can avoid malware by simply browsing smartly. I didn't have any form of protection for over 2 years with an older Windows machine and I never picked up anything malicious.

 

Renaldo Xhahu

Honorable
May 13, 2013
11
0
10,560


I didn't say it cuts them in half. I said it can slow your internet speeds "a bit" and that is "rarely noticeable" but you're right there is no evidence I can use to back that up, so I might be wrong, but anything can happen and it is possible for your antivirus firewall to slow down your speed.

Anyways I'm am not an Antivirus expert, I can only speak as a customer. I've tried many Antiviruses out there, Norton, Avira, Kaspersky, Avast but Bitdefender is the best in my opinion. I've been using it for 3 years and hasn't given me any problems.

Maybe yours was a one in a million chance of happening, who knows but I really hope you get a solution and I'm sorry I cant provide one :)

Also just out of curiosity can you post your specs.
 

Renaldo Xhahu

Honorable
May 13, 2013
11
0
10,560


Malwarebytes is an "ANTI-MALWARE" not "Anti VIRUS". Common misconception. Most Anitvirus software don't scan for malware so that's when Malwarebytes come in. You should still download an Antivirus even if you have Malwarebytes.
 

Dom_79

Honorable
Nov 4, 2012
14
0
10,560
@ Renaldo Xhahu

Thanks again for your help :)

My specs are available by scrolling your mouse cursor over my profile avatar but in case that's not working:

CPU: i5-4670k @ 4.4GHz
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i
RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro @ 1600MHz CL9
GPU(1): EVGA GTX 770 SC 2GB
GPU(2): EVGA GTX 650 ti SSC 1GB
Motherboard: GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK
PSU: Corsair TX750M
SSD(1): Samsung 850 EVO 250GB (OS Drive)
SSD(2): Crucial MX100 512GB (Secondary programs and games)
HDD: WD Black 1TB
OS: Win 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit
Mouse: Mionix NAOS 7000
Keyboard: Corsair K70 RGB

I know that normally the CPU Cooler, Mouse and Keyboard wouldn't make much of any difference but I list them because I'm wondering if maybe the drivers for those are not compatible with Bitdefender. Possibly that is what led to the issue
 

Renaldo Xhahu

Honorable
May 13, 2013
11
0
10,560


I thought maybe your PC doesn't meet Bitdefender's minimum requirements, but you have a great system!
Again, sorry I can't help you any further :)
 

BingoBrester

Commendable
Apr 11, 2016
1
0
1,510
I dont think you are paranoid. I am experiencing the same issues that I strongly suspect are due to Bitdefender 2016. I had to reinstall from 2015 a few days ago and am getting far too many connectivity problems for it to be a coincidence.



 

MissesB416

Commendable
Apr 26, 2016
4
0
1,510


 

MissesB416

Commendable
Apr 26, 2016
4
0
1,510
Have you noticed that there are multiple recent posts regarding windows 10 computers and Bitdefender total security 2016? My personal experience has been two of my laptops are recently unable to correctly play online videos. Problem has appeared only in the last several weeks. No changes or updates that I know of has precipitated this problem. The videos stutter and lag insanely. Problem effects my mouse as well. Days of searching for similar events and current posts on solutions has led me to experiment with turning off my Bitdefender firewall and... Voila! The videos play perfectly. But that isn't a solution is it? I can't run my laptops without a firewall.

BTW both laptops are less than a year old. They are both Asus and "gaming" quality as far as power and speed are concerned, although no games are played on either. (Sorry, I don't have the jargon to give exact deets).

I am not tech-savy and am desperately looking for answers. I believe the solution may be hidden somewhere in the configuration of Bitdefender. All of my experiences with opening a dialogue with Bitdefender have been negative and would rather find help from the community.
 

Dom_79

Honorable
Nov 4, 2012
14
0
10,560


The only suggestion I have for you to solve issues with Bitdefender is to do what I did - Buy a different Anti-Virus/Firewall program, uninstall Bitdefender, format your HDD/SDD, re-install windows and programs and your new AV program.

I was lucky enough to have asked for a refund within a week of purchasing the product and got my money back but even if I hadn't got a refund I would have bought something else. I actually bought and installed another AV before I even had confirmation from Bitdefender that I was approved for a refund.

I understand wanting to find something, some option or configuration setting to resolve this apparent conflict between Bitdefender and, well, everything else on a PC. I've looked through the available options and "settable" parameters of Bitdefender (2016) and could not find anything that would make any difference or help other than 1.Turning off the firewall (which afterwards would never turn back on in my case) 2. Uninstalling the Bitdefender program (and formatting the drive because Bitdefender leaves pieces of itself that continue to cause issues).

There seem to be only a very limited amount of settings available to the user and it is not always easy or direct to navigate to their menus/screens
 

phanpile

Commendable
Jun 23, 2016
1
0
1,510
Hello,

My system is Windows 10 and it ran without any problem before that with BitDefender Internet Security 2015 installed.

I experimented exactly the same type of problems 3 weeks ago when I installed BitDefender Total Security 2016.
There are often "time out" problems when surfing on the Web, mainly with formulars responses (but not all of course ...)

I thought it may be due to the new Partental Control feature which seems to be centralized somewhere which shoud work like a proxy but I didn't find any clear information on that (so, it's just an idee ...)

I now have to use another remote PC that I access throught a VPN for main Web uses !

If someone found a other solution than unistalling BD in the meantime, I'll be happy to know it ...

For example, when posting this answer on the impacted PC, I got this message:
"Request Timeout

The server timed out while waiting for the browser's request.
Reference #2.4d751002.1466670580.0
"

Then, I posted it again here on my "remote VPN PC" ...
 

shmu26

Estimable
Feb 18, 2014
117
0
4,660
if you have other security software installed, such as an anti-exploit of some type:
uninstall it, reboot, and reinstall it.
Also, you can disable SSL scan, in the web protection module.
If you want BD to scan secure connections, so install the bitdefender traffic light extension in your browser. It scans in the cloud, so it can scan secure connections without injecting a certificate (that is what breaks the connection)
 

MissesB416

Commendable
Apr 26, 2016
4
0
1,510
I fired Bitdefender. DELETED! I had about 2 years left with them and I walked away and bought Kaspersky. My problems were solved immediately. Bitdefender is without question the culprit. Responsible for all the issues AND they admitted it.
 

Rogue Leader

Distinguished
Moderator
Just want to jump in here as a Moderator as well, while we don't like to keep old threads coming back over and over it does look like we have a common issue. I as well am having big problems with Bitdefender but only on one of my 6 computers (my main gaming PC of course).

First yes I discovered I need to disable SSL scan in order for Firefox to work on my PC. On my mother's PC it works fine however, no idea why.

Yesterday however it all went to hell. I bought an RX 480, so I uninstalled my GPU drivers, ran DDU to clear em out, shut down. Installed the new card. When I rebooted while my system connected to my network and had an IP I could not access the internet at all (despite windows saying I had internet access), nor could I access anything on my network (server, netwrok drives, even the admin console of my router). I traced this to Bitdefender's firewall.

I first figured out that disabling "Block Port Scans On the Network" would at least give me Web Access and access to my shared drives, and other network devices (remote desktop to my server, etc). However I discovered internet connected programs such as Star Citizen, 3DMark, and even Windows own news service (the news tile on the start menu) would not work at all unless I completely disabled the firewall. Now I know what you are saying, put them on the allow list. Well thats the worst part, all these programs are on the allow list! Some stuff wouldn't even work unless I disabled the firewall and rebooted.

Needless to say I'm not too thrilled right now. I'm going to try deleting it completely and re-installing and see if that cures it. Made last night extremely frustrating as all I did was change a piece of hardware which had nothing to do with Bitdefender.
 

MissesB416

Commendable
Apr 26, 2016
4
0
1,510


Rogue Leader,

Look at the work you went thru and for what? And where is it written that messing with our firewall settings is a good idea?! Hours and HOURS have been wasted on this. You are clearly a very intelligent person. Patient too. But hear me when I say that all my problems were solved on BOTH our laptops within 30 minutes. We were experiencing everything you described: Not getting online even though it was reporting no trouble. Stutter-stopping all videos (that one was making me insane), slow downs whenever we were downloading... All of it was fixed as fast as you and say, Bitdefender sucks.

 

Rogue Leader

Distinguished
Moderator
Deleting, purging, and reinstalling Bitdefender seems to have cleared the issue.

Still ridiculous, I made a hardware change and spent more time jerking around with my AV software than needing to configure the hardware. Likely going back to Trend Micro when my licenses expire.
 

Goodgalz

Commendable
Aug 3, 2016
2
0
1,510
Hi, try this fix. It worked wonders for me:

Go to C:\Program Files\Bitdefender\Bitdefender 2016 and find the executables: bdwtxag.exe and bdagent.exe. Then, make shortcuts of each on your desktop. Next, go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp and move the shortcuts from your desktop to this folder. Reboot and you should see a pretty significant difference.

Hope it helps,
Vicky
 
Status
Not open for further replies.