Spybot repeatedly becoming corrupted (shows a bitdefender error when shutting down).

[dmburkus]

This problem began somewhere around the middle of last year. After installing Spybot (which I have been using for many years), it runs nicely for a week or two. Then, suddenly, I get a bitdefender error when shutting down. The online advice I have found was to uninstall Spybot and then reinstall it. But this is becoming very annoying. I have yet to see an actual explanation of what is causing the software to become corrupted. Any help would be deeply appreciated.

I use this PC only to refer to online dictionaries and make posts to my blog. No web surfing, no downloading. No problems with any other software. Obviously the issue is coming from somewhere (malware of some sort?); and if there is a way to prevent this from happening, I would like to know, so I can take the appropriate steps. Obviously, it is not helpful to continue using a software that is continually becoming corrupted.

Any help that anyone can give will be deeply appreciated.

-- dmburkus

[Zenobia]

Hello, dmburkus. :)
Is the error you're seeing this one?
https://www.safer-networking.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Bitdefender-Error.jpg

[rabhrab]

Hello, dmburkus. :)
Is the error you're seeing this one?
https://www.safer-networking.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Bitdefender-Error.jpg
I also repeatedly receive this error message, causing SpyBot to freeze.

Yes this is the exact error I receive. Please help resolve this.

[dmburkus]

Thank you very much, Zenobia, for your reply. Yes, that is the error message, which appears when the PC is in the process of shutting down.

Also, another thing: when this issue appears, the mouse also starts to act strangely. For example, when I try to highlight something (in order to copy and paste a piece of text, or change the font to italic script, or something of the sort), the mouse keeps cutting out. The two things are certainly connected. (After running a number of malware scans, the mouse behaves normally; and, if I then reinstall SpyBot, it has no problems for a week or two, or longer. But when the mouse starts to act crazy, not too long afterward SpyBot also gives that error message.

Last Summer, this SpyBot issue interacted with the antivirus that I was using at that time (ESET, the paid version), and the result was that my hard drive was destroyed. ESET -- which I no longer use -- stated that it was a malware attack, possibly mediated by SpyBot. Their technician, who failed to report anything to me until I indicated I was going to discontinue using their service, got back to me about 2 months after the PC was destroyed (when the SpyBot symptoms began to appear again); and he stated that it was his belief that SpyBot was involved, though, as I said, I have used SpyBot for many years, with a different antivirus, and this specific issue only appeared with ESET. The problem is that numerous malware scans always are negative, though after running them, the problem (with the mouse) seems to clear up, and the PC acts normally for a while.

As I said, because of these issues, I have been especially careful with that PC, never using it to surf the web or download anything, and the fact that this SpyBot issue is beginning to manifest itself yet again is disquieting -- to say the least.

Any advice regarding concrete steps that I can take will be appreciated.

Thank you all for your time, and help.

[Zenobia]

You're welcome. :)

Please see this page:
https://www.safer-networking.org/faq/bitdefender-threat-scanner-dmp/
This issue has been resolved in a newer version of Spybot, so if you have an older version then uninstalling and then installing the newer version should fix it. The page says Spybot version 2.7, but Spybot 2.8 would be the correct version now.

Please let me know how it goes, dmburkus and rabhrab.

[dmburkus]

Thank you for taking the time to reply, Zenobia.

The thing is, I am (and have always been) using the latest version of the software. Indeed, even though the version is usually the same, whenever I have had this issue, I always redownload the program from SpyBot's own server before reinstalling it. So, unless this change was made within the past couple of days or so (the version that was installed and had this issue is marked 2.8.68.0)...the issue apparently still remains.

I note that the page you mentioned (<https://www.safer-networking.org/faq/bitdefender-threat-scanner-dmp/>) features a download for the version marked 2.7, so it appears that the version that most recently gave this error is the one that superseded the version mentioned on that page. (The file that I downloaded at the beginning of this week, but have not yet installed, is also 2.8.68.0....)

Anyway, thank you for your effort! Please have a good day.

[Zenobia]

You're welcome. :)

In that case, could you please contact Team Spybot? There's a contact form here, they should be able to help:
https://www.safer-networking.org/support/#contactform
You could link to this thread along with describing what's going on if you like.