Strange Sound / CPU problem...

[DazzaJay]

this has got to be the strangest problem i have ever had with an app, especially an app that doesnt use the sound card....

this problem is reproducible, as it happens to me and a mate all the time....

Basically, if i leave utorrent on for a while, (between a minute and a week) my pc will start to get one hell of a bad sound crackle from its sound card, and also the PC tends to get the same lag in everything (video, games) this is not the first ver of Utorrent to give this problem. it has happened on 1.6.1 and the previous version.

for some strange reason i think it may be related to Dual Core.....

my old PC never had this problem, but it was 32bit single core.

as soon as i upgraded to my

CPU: AMD 64bit AM2 Athalon 4600+ Dual Core

Mobo: Asus M2R32-MVP

Ram: 2GB Kingston DDRII (2X 1GB)

Vid: ATi X1950XTX

the problem began.

my mate has also started receiving this problem when he upgraded his CPU from a

2.8Ghz P4 Northwood (400MHz FSB, 512k L2) To a P4E (Prescott) 3.00GHz 1MB L2 800MHz FSB.

the P4E has HT and windows detects it as having 2 cores.

but yeah,

the problem can be summed up as this...

Utorrent runs for a short while fine, PC starts getting a little slowdown, sound crackle starts, sound crackle progressively gets worse, pc slowdown gets worse also, utorrents CPU usage starts shooting up, pc runs so slow its almost not usable, [Closes Utorrent] everything returns to normal.

anyone else with this odd problem?

[Firon]

It's not µT, it's something on your PC. The most likely thing is that your hard drives have reverted to PIO mode. Check the IDE controller in the device manager.

[DazzaJay]

i checked into your theory, and nope, its not that..... my Hard Disc Controller doesnt have the setting for PIO mode, nor does it even have the advanced settings tab, i checked with ASUS its completely automatic and always selects the fastest setting.

and from what i learnt from a mate, PIO mode should severely slow down said hard drive.... its still running very fast.... considering its sataII it should be fast.

and it cant be hardware related because the problem happens on 2 completely different PC's and it only happens when utorrent is running and goes away if i close utorrent.

here are the specs of the 2PC's that i know of that it happens on....

AMD AM2 Athalon 64 4600+ with an ATi X1950XTX, 2GB DDR2 Ram, Asus Mobo, SoundMAX Onboard Sound Card.

wich is completly different to a

Intel P4E 3GHZ Prescott, nVidia GeForce 6600, 1GB Corsair, ASRock Mobo, Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro.

Both computers suffer the same issue, which is fixed by Exiting utorrent.

bot computers get the same symptoms, Crackle in sound, CPU usage of Core 1 goes thru the roof alltho Core 2 stays down around 2.5% (idle time).

this is how i figured out that the problem IS utorrent ....

i loaded Winamp and played a song, and of course the sound crackle was hyper bad as it can get overnight, i loaded up up task manager, ended the Utorrent process, and wala, INSTANTLY, all my pc's speed returns and the sound stopped crackling...

so quite obviously it is not a hardware related problem. it IS a Utorrent problem.

[Switeck]

You've got something seriously attacking your computer's networking layers.

µTorrent merely uses the networking layers, exposing the weakness caused by that.

It could be a super stealth worm...like the kind that Windows Explorer CAN'T even show you the files for.

But my guess is it's something more organized than that...some hostile software made by Norton, McAfee, or Zone Alarm.

[Firon]

PIO mode will eat CPU like you wouldn't believe and cause horrible slowdowns. Windows can and often does step down UDMA to PIO mode. You have to uninstall any IDE or SATA controllers in the device manager, then reboot.

[Ultima]

my Hard Disc Controller doesnt have the setting for PIO mode, nor does it even have the advanced settings tab

??

Are you looking in the correct location? Start > Run > devmgmt.msc, the looking at the properties for both the primary and secondary IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers? And even if it's not set to PIO mode, do any of the devices listed in the properties for either controller show the current transfer mode to be PIO?

[DazzaJay]

here is a screene of my IDE controller..... as you can see, theres no advanced settings tab atall....

and not only that, i dont even use IDE.....

i use Sata.... heres a screenie of my Sata Controller

and sata controller 2

as you can see... everything is as it should be....

now, how many times are you all going to ignore the fact that the problem i am having ONLY happens when Utorrent is running, and goes away when utorrent is closed.

[Switeck]

Dang it! Another canary died in the coal mines! These birds are defective I tell ya!

No really, your system is compromised...µTorrent is just tripping the conditions that brings it to your attention. Either that, or µTorrent is exceeding the half open connection max limit of Windows...though I'd expect more bluescreens with strange error messages.

[DazzaJay]

Yet again it happend... left my PC on overnight, and when i woke up, same thing, sound lag, video lag MOUSE LAG, after 10 mins i got task manager open, and wouldent you know, utorrent using 100% of core 1, core 2 was only pushing idle times.... well, ive had enough, im switching to a different torrent client, as that is obviously the only way to solve the issue. as you guys have been about as much help as a sack full of dead cats.

[Firon]

It's not µTorrent. There's something wrong with your system, but it's a bit hard to figure out with NO INFO. We've got no idea what's running on your system.

A hijackthis log might help.

[kusma]

I'm experiencing the same issue, and I've monitored processes quite a bit. It seems that it's not the uTorrent-process itself that hogs the resources, but it sure is the triggering one - closing uTorrent makes the problem go away. I'm pretty sure I'm not under attack - I'm behind two different firewalls, and I haven't even enabled any port-forwarding to my computer. It also seems to me that the issue does not occur (or at least not as often) if I don't have Firefox open. Restarting Firefox does not make the problem go away, and neither does the Firefox process do anything unexpected.

I also have a dual-core cpu. My system is a brand new Dell XPS M1210, freshly installed Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2.

Edit: And no, my IDE controllers are not set to PIO mode.

[Switeck]

kusma,

What's µTorrent's settings as shown by Speed Guide (CTRL+G)?

Also, what's your half open limit set to by windows AND by µTorrent?

Lastly, what's the bandwidth max of your connection both up and down?

[kusma]

I have it set on "xx/2Mbit", and I haven't tampered with any open file limits. I don't know the bandwidth of the internet connection, as I'm stealing from an unencrypted close-by AP

I could try reducing the settings...

[Switeck]

That setting you're using is for 2 megabits/sec UPLOAD bandwidth...typically only found on Business broadband lines...and then only the faster ones of that!

You might want to use the xx/192k setting (or lower) instead.

[Firon]

If you're downloading at high speeds (1MiB/s or higher), the Windows system cache eats all the RAM and swaps everything out to disk, making the PC be unbearably slow.

This may help. http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/efa621bd-a031-4461-9e72-59197a7507b61033.mspx?mfr=true