Kaspersky free AV destroyed my PC [Solved][Closed]

[mkdr]

Hello, I just installed Kaspersky free AV, downloaded through your website (startup_14441.exe) an hour ago and it destroyed my laptop, latest Windows 10 64bit, default AV Windows 10 Defender + Malwarebytes free (manual mode scan). There is no malware on the laptop, I do daily scans with both Defender and Malwarebytes. The installation of your AV went through fine it seems, it asked me if I want to activate KSN, I said no. It then installed and then there was a popup asking me two things I dont remember, I think if I want the AV to auto remove known malware like dialers and such, and another question. I wanted to click ok/next, but nothing happened anymore. The dialog was frozen. I clicked start menu button, the animation of the button went down, but no start menu appeared. I had Chrome open in the background, and it had asked me to activate the Kaspersky addon, Chrome was still responding at this moment. I clicked yes enable, and at this time Chrome stopped responding too. More and more parts of the OS seemed to freeze/ crash every second. I tried ctrl+alt+del but no reaction. There was still animation going on on the start menu, I could still move the mouse cursor, I could still type with my bluetooth keyboard, but the entire OS seems to be freezing. After about 1 minute or so, I got a bluescreen of DPC_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT or something, system not responding anymore. PC restarted. Restarted Windows, logged in, all seemed to work. I opened the Kaspersky systray icon to look through the settings, then maybe after 30 seconds of login, everything started to freeze again. After 1 minute or so, watchdog bluescreen and reboot. Restarted Windows, logged in... same behavior. I am now stuck. Cant uninstall or do anything anymore, the PC is totally broken, because of your software. Tried to boot into safe mode, but pressing F8 during Windows boot manager doesnt do anything, it always boots into normal mode. Triggering safe mode out of Windows doesnt work obviously, because I have not enough time, the system starts to freeze after login maybe 20-30 seconds later.

[mkdr]

Minidump: BugCheck 14F, {22, 1, ffff9d098358f660, ffffed87487caa50} Probably caused by : pdc.sys ( pdc!PdcpNotificationWatchdog+198 ) Googling about it says other AV have the same issue, example: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfpronew-surfperf/microsoft-surface-pro-2017-bsod-pdcwatchdogtimeout/538d2fa1-3840-4c93-a8ab-c15dd9eaf4ce Nice. So it seems totally a bug with your software or incompatibility with Windows 10 (1809). I was able to reboot into safe mode and use the Kaspersky removal tool, removed this terrible software, and now everything is working again. Any words on this?

[Berny]

Welcome and thank you for your feedback !

[The Shield]

Any words on this?

Interesting. I will send this feedback to Technical Support, to see if there has been any incompatibility problem. Igor Kurzin

[Igor Kurzin]

Hi, sorry to hear about this experience. This seems to be some singular particular environment incompatibility issue. It is very hard to make any assumptions without a full memory dump and a GSI report. At least a GSI report is needed to search for ideas of why this could have happened.

[mkdr]

Just wanted to add that this issues totally seems to be the same issue as most other AV have since a Windows 10 update https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/windows-security-update-caused-recent-antivirus-conflicts-and-freezes/ https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Problem-Updates-zum-Windows-Patchday-Antiviren-Hersteller-bessern-nach-4408367.html Any comment on this? Any statement? This is not acceptable!

[Flood and Flood's wife]

Any comment on this?

Hello mkdr, Are you able to post a GSI report please?

[steevxx]

The same thing happened to me! After installing kaspersky everything started going wrong. I couldnt access system settings, I couldnt connect to the internet I couldnt uninstall anything... I couldnt even reinstall windows 10 with a recovery disk!

 

I ended up paying over $200 to fix my bios and my computer, all my personal data stored on the machine was totally lost! I will never use or recommend kaspersky software again.

[richbuff]

Welcome. If any unresolvable issues, please contact Tech Support. Link is at upper left of this webpage.  If you are using Kaspersky Free, if it is a Critical issue, Tech Support can opt to provide support. 

[meg1396]

The same thing happened to my computer just now. After trying to download Kaspersky antivirus my entire drive was wiped. Trying to contact support to fix the problem. Backup and Restore did not work either, it’s as though its a brand new computer, everything is gone.