Ironically on what has become known as Safer Internet Day, users of Bitdefender Antivirus are reporting today that the security software has suddenly stopped working. After installing an update, Bitdefender users are seeing errors that state "Bitdefender Security Service has encountered a critical error!" or "The Bitdefender Security Service (vsserv.exe) is unavailable at the moment" .
Both of these errors appear to be caused by a new update pushed by Bitdefender that has caused the program to not be able to communicate in some manner with the vsserv.exe executable. This executable is part of the Windows service called Bitdefender Virus Shield.
User's on Bitdefender's forums have reported installing a routine update, which then caused an error to appear that stated "Bitdefender Security Service has encountered a critical error!".
On reboot, Bitdefender would then show the following "Bitdefender services are not responding" message, which further indicated that it was problem communicating or connecting to the vsserv.exe executable.
According to a statement provided by Bitdefender, this issue was caused by an update not being completely delivered by certain customers. This caused those who did not receive the complete update to have the problems described above, while those who were able to get the entire update were fine.
The full statement is below.
Earlier today a number of Bitdefender customers running consumer and GravityZone business products on Windows were presented with an error report regarding the unexpected stop of vsserv.exe.
An engines update (version 7.74880) scheduled earlier today was not completely delivered to some customers, which caused the engines to report the error. Our automated quality control mechanisms retired the update immediately and rolled back the engines to the previous good configuration (engines version 7.74879).
The update was online for 15 minutes and was received by a limited number of users.
During this window, no files were lost or removed from the devices. The rollback reverts the effects of the update and is delivered automatically. In order to expedite the rollback, you can manually force an update via the product’s user interface.
How to fix the Bitdefender Security Service error
For those affected by this bug there are two ways to potentially resolve this issue. The first method offered by Bitdefender is to install a new update and then reboot. Unfortunately, this method does not work for every and they have to uninstall and reinstall the software to get it to work properly again.
Method 1: Update Bitdefender
If you are receiving either of the two errors above, you need to install a new update that has recently been pushed out by Bitdefender. To do this, right click on the Bitdefender icon on your desktop's system tray and then select the Update Now as shown below.
After the update is installed, the BitDefender icon should turn from grey to red (
). Once it turns red, reboot your computer. Some people have reported that if your icon does not turn red after installing the update, you should reboot anyway.
Once you reboot and login, your Bitdefender icon should now be red and your screen should look like the one below.
Method 2: Uninstall and Reinstall Bitdefender
If the previous method does not get Bitdefender back up and running, then you will need to uninstall and then reinstall the program. This can be done from the Uninstall Programs control panel.
Once you have reinstalled the program, you will need to update so that it is using the latest definitions and updates. This process can take quite a while, so please be patient.
Once the update has finished, Bitdefender should be working as normal again.
Update 2/6/18 3:15 PM EST: Updated to include a statement from Bitdefender.
Update 2/6/18 9:46 PM EST: Fleshed out the fixes
Comments
JohnC_21 - 6 years ago
This happened to me on three computers with Bitdefender Free. Unfortunately right clicking the icon does nothing, only has a Show option and when the interface is up clicking the settings gear does nothing. Had to uninstall. Will be looking elsewhere for another AV.
LODConsulting - 6 years ago
I have 6 computers running Total Security 2018, and they have been working fine all day.
TeaHobs - 6 years ago
It isn't just crashing Bitdefender and giving me a ton of error messages, it's keeping me from saving any of my documents by telling me I don't have permission to save in my folders. Apparently Bitdefender is blocking the applications from saving and I can't get into the permissions on Bitdefender to change it because Bitdefender won't load. None of this was an issue before the botched update. The update fix is not working for me either. In fact after I tried it and rebooted I had more random error messages from unrelated programs telling me they can't load or connect to their servers. I wasted the whole day thinking I had a virus or something before Bitdefender finally answered me, but I still don't have a viable fix
SwingWing70 - 6 years ago
Had this problem when I opened my desktop machine tonight. Performed restart as requested by Bitdefender error screen, then have been getting constant looped BSOD/Repair PC/"Inaccessible boot device" message. Boot in safe mode hasn't worked so far. Not horribly computer savvy, any suggestions? I this laptop that'"s running fine, so it must have not received flawed update.
Ben64 - 6 years ago
"Had this problem when I opened my desktop machine tonight. Performed restart as requested by Bitdefender error screen, then have been getting constant looped BSOD/Repair PC/"Inaccessible boot device" message. Boot in safe mode hasn't worked so far. Not horribly computer savvy, any suggestions? I this laptop that'"s running fine, so it must have not received flawed update. "
I'm hitting this same issue after applying Windows patches 2 days ago. I reset Windows 10. It worked until I installed bitdefender Internet Security. Upon reboot, "Inaccessible boot device" message.
Last night I even reformatted the disk, reinstalled Windows 10 version 1709 from a USB drive and patched up to build 248. Everything was working. Then I installed bitdefender. I got error about the bitdefender services. Upon reboot, I got the "Inaccessible boot device" message again.
So, I think it's a bitdefender issue, not a Win 10 issue. I will contact bitdefender. Hopefully, they won't give me the runaround.
Lawrence Abrams - 6 years ago
You may need to uninstall Bitdefender completely and reinstall. Then do an update.
SwingWing70 - 6 years ago
Lawrence, I appreciate the prompt reply. Unfortunately, my computer will not boot into Windows. BSOD shows up just after the Windows logo as Win10 tries to boot. I thus can't do a reinstall of BD - unless there's some process I don't understand that would allow me to remove it without Windows running.
I can never get past the "Automatic Repair" options. I just tried booting with my USB recovery drive, and I'm at the same place. I have to believe that the system's failure to recognize either the hard drive or the USB as boot devices is some manifestation of the BD foulup. A coincidence of two major failures seems too much of a coincidence. It would also seem the failure to recognize both boot devices probably makes an hard drive failure less likely as a culprit.
I've sent a query to BD customer support, but heard nothing yet. Looks like next step is a system restore to about 1AM (CST) on 6Feb18. I do greatly appreciate your support and patience. I again apologize for my lack of in-depth computer knowledge.
Sega Dude - 6 years ago
The free version of Bitdefender has no "Update Now" option. The only option is "Show". I had to completely uninstall it and reinstall it. I uninstalled "Bitdefender Antivirus Free" and "Bitdefender Agent" in that order. MAKE SURE you restart after you do these uninstallations. Otherwise, Bitdefender won't install properly when you try to reinstall it.
SwingWing70 - 6 years ago
SD, I assume you're responding to my post. Tanks. If not, I apologize to everyone for jumping in. I have the paid version, but most importantly, I can't get into Windows to uninstall anything. Unless I can work from the DOS prompt available in the Win Repair Environment, I'm stuck.
As an update, I have had some feedback letters from BD CS people, but the last one was a reference to a WinCentral resolution to a problem with a Win update from 10 Oct 17. My problem machine was up-to-date on updates, including the one referenced. And my machine performed fine until the 6th.
There was a Win update on 6 Feb, but it was for Flash! And this laptop has this 6 Feb Win update and is seeing no problems. I frankly think BD did a search until they found something similar to my situation and just sent that to me to get me off their back. Maybe I'm wrong. If anyone is interested, here's the shortcut they sent: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-fix-update-causing-inaccessible-boot-device-error-windows-10 .