PC freezes when uTorrent starts to DL

adamthemute · November 23, 2006

Hey..

This didn't happen when I started to use torrents recently, but all of a sudden started. Happens with Azureus as well. Basically I can download things, sometimes, but most times it goes for about 30 seconds then my PC freezes. I've limited my download speed to 50 kbps and upload to 100. It's never froze when I've been only uploading.

Some potentially useful info:

- Use only Windows Firewall

- AMD Athlon 3200+ XP

- 2 gigs RAM

- Wireless DSL, use D-Link Router/card

I appreciate any help and let me know if there's any more info you need.

Cheers.

Switeck · November 24, 2006

Run Speed Guide (CTRL+G) and do a speed test.

You may not be able to upload at 100 KB/sec.

Other settings may not be right for your connection either.

adamthemute · November 24, 2006

Which other settings should I check? I'm currently uploading at 50 kbps and no issues. I can lower the upload speed because I've never actually seen it much higher than 50 anyways.

Speed test I scored a bit lower than others on my ISP, but that's probably due to being wireless.

Switeck · November 24, 2006

Well, what are the speed tests download and upload values?

I kinda need to know them to tell you what to do next.

Did you run them while absolutely nothing else was going on?

adamthemute · November 24, 2006

kiltman67 · November 24, 2006

You said it mostly happens after 30 seconds but does it also happen after longer amounts of time?

I'm having a problem that seems almost identical to yours except with µTorrent it usually happens within an hour (sometimes makes it to 2 hours though). With Azureus the problem doesn't occur as often and can last longer before it happens (if it even happens which it doesn't always).

adamthemute · November 24, 2006

It varies. Sometimes I can download a full torrent, but the next time I try my PC freezes right away. Sometimes it freezes at 90ish %, and will continue to download a couple % after restarting then freeze again. Sometimes I can't download at all without it happening.

kiltman67 · November 24, 2006

Sounds pretty familiar. I have a 6.83Gb torrent that's not particularly fast at the best of times and with µTorrent crashing every hour or so it may take me forever.

I'm glad (or at least as glad as I can be all things considered) that I've found someone else with a similar problem as it was all beginning to seem freakish.

Switeck · November 25, 2006

Wireless + D-Link router = trouble!

Wireless cannot handle lots of connections at once or high half-open rates.

D-Link routers simply crash or run terrible if using UPnP, DHT, or DMZ mode.

Together, you must disable a few of µTorrent's features and reduce your settings to more conservate values than even Speed Guide (CTRL+G) suggests.

So you need to disable UPnP on both the router and in µTorrent.

Don't use DMZ mode on the router. It is buggy in every D-Link router from what I've heard.

Disable DHT in µTorrent -- enable Peer Exchange in its place if you haven't already.

Global connections needs to be under 100, possibly even as low as 40...naturally this will mean fewer connections per torrent too. Each torrent could run with just 20 max connections and still do ok though.

Have you chosen the xx/512k or xx/640k Speed Guide (CTRL+G) setting? If not, post what settings you're using.

adamthemute · November 25, 2006

Hey Switeck.

I did everything you mentioned and it's still freezing currently as soon as it starts to download. =/

cyberaquarius · November 25, 2006

Same problem since I reinstalled xp.

kiltman67 · November 25, 2006

Since there's other people coming out with the same problem I thought I might as well give more information on my situation in hope that someone will find it helpful to finding a solution.

I'm using a Linksys WRT54G router, I'm aware that these routers are problematic but I believe it may not be the same issue for two reasons, firstly from what I can deduce those people are finding their clients alone crashing with their PCs surviving (though correct me if I'm wrong). Secondly, I know firmware ver 5.00.6 (I think) came with a fix for problems the router was having with BitTorrent, my router has ver 7.00.1 and from what Linksys have told me this should include all the previous fixes.

Like adamthemute Windows Firewall is the only software firewall I'm using. I'm using UPnP, though I've had the same problem with a Static IP and port forwarding.

If I get the chance tomorrow I'm planning to bypass the router and run my modem directly to this machine and see if the problem still exists. Secondly, on either Monday or Tuesday I'll be adding Ubuntu to my machine so I should be able to clarify if it's a problem with the OS or some other software conflicts (of course I'll never know which though).

Switeck · November 25, 2006

If you can at all, don't use UPnP...especially on a marginal/problematic router. Even a good router is put under an additional strain (as is your CPU) while using UPnP.

One problem I hear about with the marginal routers is they retain the connection info for connections that have broken 1 hour or even 1 DAY ago! That eventually overloads them, even quicker if you're trying to connect to a lot really quickly.

The more you slow down the connection rate, the slower the problems should occur.

If you're still having problems, then there's probably some underlying subtle software conflict...post process viewer (or hijackthis) logs showing what's in memory or loading on boot-up. You'll need to do research on them using GOOGLE and other things, but it may be the only way to discover why µTorrent doesn't work.

kiltman67 · November 25, 2006

When posting the process logs is it enough to simply post what is shown in Windows Task Manager under the Process tab or should I use the information from Process Explorer etc.

Switeck · November 25, 2006

Up to you, hard to get too much information when you're one of the few having the problem.

adamthemute · November 26, 2006

Should I post my log or just Google the suspicious looking ones?

kiltman67 · November 26, 2006

Here is the Process Explorer log from when I've booted up. I can't see anything that looks suspicious. AVG is my virus scanner and although it loads when I startup I close it before I open a client. Hopefully there'll be some software that all of us with that problem have in common.

adamthemute · November 26, 2006

Sorry for the spam.

Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1

Scan saved at 2:11:07 PM, on 11/26/2006

Platform: Windows XP SP2 (WinNT 5.01.2600)

MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP2 (6.00.2900.2180)

Running processes:

C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe

C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe

C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE

C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe

C:\WINDOWS\System32\CTSvcCDA.EXE

C:\WINDOWS\system32\nvsvc32.exe

C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe

C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_09\bin\jusched.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\DeltTray.exe

C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe

C:\Program Files\Google\GoogleToolbarNotifier\1.2.908.5008\GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe

C:\Program Files\D-Link AirPlus G\AirPlus.exe

C:\Program Files\Logitech\SetPoint\KEM.exe

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Works Shared\wkcalrem.exe

C:\Program Files\Logitech\SetPoint\KHALMNPR.EXE

C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe

C:\Program Files\uTorrent\utorrent.exe

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.google.ca/

O2 - BHO: Adobe PDF Reader Link Helper - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll

O2 - BHO: SSVHelper Class - {761497BB-D6F0-462C-B6EB-D4DAF1D92D43} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_09\bin\ssv.dll

O2 - BHO: Google Toolbar Helper - {AA58ED58-01DD-4d91-8333-CF10577473F7} - c:\program files\google\googletoolbar1.dll

O3 - Toolbar: &Google - {2318C2B1-4965-11d4-9B18-009027A5CD4F} - c:\program files\google\googletoolbar1.dll

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [screenPrint32] C:\Program Files\ScreenPrint32 v3\ScreenPrint32.exe -startup

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [symantec NetDriver Monitor] C:\PROGRA~1\SYMNET~1\SNDMon.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [sunJavaUpdateSched] "C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_09\bin\jusched.exe"

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NeroFilterCheck] C:\WINDOWS\system32\NeroCheck.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [sSC_UserPrompt] C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\Security Center\UsrPrmpt.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NvCplDaemon] RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\NvCpl.dll,NvStartup

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [DeltTray] DeltTray.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [iPHSend] C:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\IPHSend\IPHSend.exe

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [nwiz] nwiz.exe /install

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NvMediaCenter] RUNDLL32.EXE C:\WINDOWS\system32\NvMcTray.dll,NvTaskbarInit

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [ctfmon.exe] C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [MSKAGENTEXE] C:\PROGRA~1\McAfee\SPAMKI~1\MSKAgent.exe

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [swg] C:\Program Files\Google\GoogleToolbarNotifier\1.2.908.5008\GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe

O4 - Global Startup: Adobe Gamma Loader.lnk = C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Calibration\Adobe Gamma Loader.exe

O4 - Global Startup: Adobe Reader Speed Launch.lnk = C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader\reader_sl.exe

O4 - Global Startup: D-Link AirPlus G Configuration Utility.lnk = ?

O4 - Global Startup: Logitech SetPoint.lnk = C:\Program Files\Logitech\SetPoint\KEM.exe

O4 - Global Startup: Microsoft Works Calendar Reminders.lnk = ?

O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE/3000

O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_09\bin\ssv.dll

O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Sun Java Console - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_09\bin\ssv.dll

O9 - Extra button: Research - {92780B25-18CC-41C8-B9BE-3C9C571A8263} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\OFFICE11\REFIEBAR.DLL

O9 - Extra button: AIM - {AC9E2541-2814-11d5-BC6D-00B0D0A1DE45} - C:\Program Files\AIM\aim.exe

O9 - Extra button: Yahoo! Messenger - {E5D12C4E-7B4F-11D3-B5C9-0050045C3C96} - C:\PROGRA~1\Yahoo!\MESSEN~1\YPager.exe

O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Yahoo! Messenger - {E5D12C4E-7B4F-11D3-B5C9-0050045C3C96} - C:\PROGRA~1\Yahoo!\MESSEN~1\YPager.exe

O9 - Extra button: Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe

O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Windows Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe

O12 - Plugin for .spop: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Plugins\NPDocBox.dll

O16 - DPF: {0E5F0222-96B9-11D3-8997-00104BD12D94} (PCPitstop Utility) - http://www.pcpitstop.com/pcpitstop/PCPitStop.CAB

O16 - DPF: {17492023-C23A-453E-A040-C7C580BBF700} (Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool) - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=39204

O16 - DPF: {39B0684F-D7BF-4743-B050-FDC3F48F7E3B} - http://www.fileplanet.com/fpdlmgr/cabs/FPDC_2.1.2.76.cab

O16 - DPF: {41F17733-B041-4099-A042-B518BB6A408C} - http://a1540.g.akamai.net/7/1540/52/20030530/qtinstall.info.apple.com/bonnie/us/win/QuickTimeInstaller.exe

O16 - DPF: {6E32070A-766D-4EE6-879C-DC1FA91D2FC3} (MUWebControl Class) - http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/V5Controls/en/x86/client/muweb_site.cab?1138905896659

O16 - DPF: {E8F628B5-259A-4734-97EE-BA914D7BE941} (Driver Agent ActiveX Control) - http://driveragent.com/files/driveragent.cab

O16 - DPF: {EFAEF0E4-F044-4D57-9900-1C3FF18524C9} (AV Class) - http://pcpitstop.com/antivirus/PitPav.cab

O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\Tcpip\..\{8E9F297D-24C4-4EE5-968F-C20A87E66BA5}: NameServer = 192.168.0.1,4.2.2.2

O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\Tcpip\..\{C3F85BDC-0A62-412B-9655-EFD27A6F604D}: NameServer = 192.168.0.1

O18 - Protocol: msnim - {828030A1-22C1-4009-854F-8E305202313F} - "C:\PROGRA~1\MSNMES~1\msgrapp.dll" (file missing)

O20 - Winlogon Notify: WgaLogon - C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WgaLogon.dll

O21 - SSODL: WPDShServiceObj - {AAA288BA-9A4C-45B0-95D7-94D524869DB5} - C:\WINDOWS\system32\WPDShServiceObj.dll

O23 - Service: Creative Service for CDROM Access - Creative Technology Ltd - C:\WINDOWS\System32\CTSvcCDA.EXE

O23 - Service: InstallDriver Table Manager (IDriverT) - Macrovision Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Driver\11\Intel 32\IDriverT.exe

O23 - Service: MSCSPTISRV - Sony Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sony Shared\AVLib\MSCSPTISRV.exe

O23 - Service: NVIDIA Display Driver Service (NVSvc) - NVIDIA Corporation - C:\WINDOWS\system32\nvsvc32.exe

O23 - Service: PACSPTISVR - Sony Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sony Shared\AVLib\PACSPTISVR.exe

O23 - Service: Sony SPTI Service (SPTISRV) - Sony Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Sony Shared\AVLib\SPTISRV.exe

kiltman67 · November 26, 2006

adamthemute, I noticed you have some Logitech software running, did the problem begin around the time you installed it?

For a while I had suspicions that my problems began when I got a Logitech mouse and keyboard and installed what came with it.

adamthemute · November 26, 2006

Nah I had this keyboard software long before I started using uTorrent and Azureus. I can try to do without though. Will the keyboard/mouse still work?

Ultima · November 26, 2006

Depends, but Windows comes with generic drivers that should work.

Switeck · November 27, 2006

I personally think these entries might be problem-causers: