Computer freezes randomly & completely only when uTorrent is running?!

[Switeck]

I'm running a rather messed-up Windows 98SE box...and uTorrent only "hoses" it royally when I try to make 100's of connections at once with a halfopen rate of 20 or more.

I'd say...it's your box!

[Fr0sty]

stop saying it is my hardware you know nothing...if you dont have any idea what it is then frankly stfu. I solved it myself. I uninstalled utorrent but I also did go thru the registry and deleted utorrent remains, then I reinstalled utorrent and voila it works again.

thanks for nothing...

[Switeck]

Your box = SOFTWARE as much as hardware.

So in your case, it was probably just a minor software glitch.

[TechnoHippy]

I've recently hit a similar problem. Whenever I ran uTorrent my computer started locking up after between 1and2 hours. Nothing for it but a hard reboot.

I still think it's my isp or line owner (BT). For months now they've tried slowing down my connection. A different way every week for about six months. And now all of a sudden my connection appears fine (a bit below previous avg.) but whenever I run uTorrent the PC locks up. I've replicated the result on two different PC's in the house. Both XP SP3 and using the same make of wifi-dongle. Maybe whatever is happening only effects certain hardware? My wifi-dongles are both EDIMAX EW-7318USg.

Anyway I've seriously limited (3/4 off most) the max connections, connected peers and upload slots and for over 3hours now I havn't had a problem.

Will post later if anything goes wrong......

Oh and frosty. When you reinstalled, did you leave the standard settings? did you tweak them in the past?

[nickthebloody]

Well, im having a similar issue. Im running with fairly new equipment that i have tested thoroughly and i have been running Windows 7 since it came out(my copy is real). Ive been running with absolutely no problems for a long time till recently. Whenever utorrent is on my computer will freeze at random in such a way that the only option is to hold down the power button till it shuts off. The only common thing is of course utorrent. I have changed absolutely nothing on this computer in months and i maintain it regularly. I know quite a lot about computers and this has me and everyone i have asked stumped. On a further note all also say that i am on Qwest DSL and have been for over a year, i hard line it to my computer. Tested all my computer equipment from the MB all the way to the router with absolutely no problems. I wont freeze up as long as i have utorrent off but once its on even(no matter what im downloading) it will lock up the whole computer at random. This may seem repetitive but im going over all the posts so far like a check list. Any ideas?

[Firon]

Security software?

[yorkman]

I registered just to concur, that the problem is only when uTorrent is running. Like the others, no hardware or software changes have been made since the last time uTorrent worked fine without causing any issues. That means nothing was installed or uninstalled.

I am running Symantec Antivirus Corp v10 with latest definitions and scanned entire system without finding anything. I also ran SpyBot without finding anything.

There's obviously some software, malware or not, that is causing this problem. It's not likely to be uTorrent since I've had the same version for a while without problems but now all of a suddent my pc freezes randomly and shortly after loading uTorrent. It's almost as if there's a virus that freezes your pc when uTorrent is detected to be running.

I also tried running KAV remotely on the pc with latest updates and it found no malware.

Like the original poster, I too am a pc tech and it's nothing like my nic, hardware or malware. Either an unknown virus or an incompatibility with some software...possibly Symantec Antivirus since that's the only other thing that's normally running with uTorrent, or any other software for that matter.

[KellenSunderland]

I have a friend with similar issues. I have the feeling it's a system IDE / SATA controller driver that's causing the problem. I'll try and verify with Xperf. What kind of chipset do you guys have?

[yorkman]

P965/ICHR9. P5E-VM HDMI. You? I seriously doubt it's a chipset driver issue though. Why would this "all of a sudden" start to occur when nothing on the system has changed other than maybe MS Updates? I didn't even update uTorrent until this problem started, and not even the latest version resolves this problem.

Are you also using Windows 7, Ultimate x64 like me? Do you have any other software installed that could cause something like this? Any Symantec products?

[Firon]

It's entirely possible it's a kernel bug, but I haven't seen it myself on any of my Windows 7 x64 machines.

[yorkman]

For it to be a kernel bug it'd have to come recently via a MS update since uTorrent was working fine on my W7 until recently.

[Firon]

No, it's been there since RTM.

[PiusX]

Well now that I updated to the most recent utorrent version 2.0.1 (build 19248) my computer locks up and freezes. I am currently running win7x64 with no changes in my software system beyond the software updates. And this setup worked on previous version 2.0.1 (build 19078) without any kinda of lockups or computer freezes. I only started to experience this problem with the latest release. Also my total torrent files inactive is at 277 but only 10 are active at any one time. So I haven't made any changes from the previous build that should caused this version to act any different.

Addition.

I think this relates to the problem as well is that when you load Utorrent 2.0.1 b19248 and load another browser the ut program becomes unresponsive and freeze the broswer itself and the computer preventing one from using the "Cntrl-Alt-Delete" function to kill the process of the broswer and or Ut. This sounds familiar to "Memory leakage" interfering with each process thus causing memory conflicts and confusing the O/S leading to frozen browser and unresponsive ut making one have to force shutdown power button or reset button to kill the problem. But if you just run any other program by themselves and no Ut the computer operation is just fine but when you load Ut that is when the problem occurs. I never had this problem with the last version of Ut 2.0.1 2.0.1 (build 19078). So it would be good to hear back from the programmers what kinda of memory function programming was changed that is cauing this "Memory leakage"????

[The Integral]

Registered just to share my experience with you because I have a similar problem and may have found the source of the problem. Forgive my unorganized thoughts since English is not my native tongue (:. Also, the post will be long so bear with me..

First of all, I'm pretty sure my problem is memory leakage. I have 6GB of RAM which is more than enough to handle anything let alone uTorrent. However, what's happening with opening uTorrent 2.0.1 is that the when I monitor the Memory in the Performance Tab in Windows Task Manager, the memory usage gradually increases until ALL the 6GB of RAM is used. The system then starts to slow and freeze a little and even the mouse pointer starts to slow down and stop for a couple of seconds.

Below, I will mention my configuration and how I managed to stop the problem for now.

1- I use Windows 7 (64-bit)

2- I use the stable version 2.0.1

3- I'm in a university and we have a local tracker where we exchange files using BitTorrent Protocol over the LOCAL NETWORK (It's a private tracker and files are transmitted in the dorms only using LAN)

4- I only upload most of the time and the upload speed reaches the very high speed of 100Mb/s (Since we're using LAN).

5- The torrents I upload can be very big which in some way can be the cause for the memory leakage. I also upload several files at once.

I don't know if this is the source of the problem but I checked "Disable Windows caching of disk reads" in the Disk Cache sub-menu under Advanced and the problem seems to be completely gone. The memory is almost constant and is under only 2GB of RAM.

I hope this helped a little (:

[Firon]

Yes, checking that solves the problem because it prevents Windows from being dumb.

[PiusX]

And here I thought the latest Win7x64 was smarter...guess I was wrong....well then I just have to go and do that adjustment and see what happens again. It was driving me crazy cause it stopped-froze and I couldn't do anything. I will go and redo that but funny thing is the previous version I didn't do uch changes and there were all the same settings??? Go figure.....

What your asking I already had those disabled. So no that by default is checked already. I think something else is the cause. Cause as I mentioned before the previous release didn't experience this problem at all. So the memory leakage bug continues. I think there is something else is wrong and that disable part has nothing to do with the problem that is causing the "Not responding" error.

[PiusX]

Reporting back I tried and tried and still memory leakage still happens. Now if I just run Ut it does at certain times go to "Not Responding" just by itself running. But if I use a browser the computer will again go Unresponsive on a massive scale and sometimes I have to force restart and sometimes it will release it but then I have to close either the browser or Ut to regain computer control. This is something that seems more rampant since I updated my Win7x64 with the latest updates.

[Firon]

I don't think you have the same problem.

[PiusX]

That is what I started to suspect so I started a new thread to try to address the problem...

[narnianoutlaw]

The Integral: Thank you for sharing your experience. Much of what you report is similar to what I've been experiencing as well. I also signed up simply to add my two cents and thank you for your post.

I have also been experiencing these uTorrent lockups and complete system failures only when uTorrent is active for a short amount of time. It seems I could sit here at my desktop for hours active and nothing strange will occur, but even after only 40 minutes or so, if the following things occur: I walk away, my screensaver (Seti@home) starts up, and/or Google Desktop starts indexing - I come back and poof, my system is toasted.

I am also running ZoneAlarm which I understand can cause problems. I might try this Disc Caching flag you speak of as well.

Thanks again for your post!

[moogly]

@narnianoutlaw: ZA is buggy especially if you're on Vista or 7. Uninstall it.

[PiusX]

I doubt this has anything to do with ZA but since you didn't tell which version your using it is hard to diagnosis the ZA problem. But I have ZA 9 and it isn't the problem with Ut. What I think I might have tracked it down to is the if you use a proxy server and it starts to puts out bad torrents links that might be why your Ut stops responding or working. This is what I noted in another thread I started I switched proxy server and so far the problem hasn't showed up. But I will leave Ut running throughout the day and see what happens.

[binaballerina]

And another user experiencing computer freezing only while using (rather, attempting to use) uTorrent. The programme runs for maybe 30 - 45 seconds before completely locking up my computer - mouse frozen, cannot clt-alt-del, must hard reboot using power button. Running Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit, malwarebytes and Panda. Happens whether or not I have other programmes/processes running simultaneously. This has happened with three different releases of uT, including the most recent stable release that I upgraded to last week (however, the first time that I ran uT after upgrading this last time, it ran just fine for about 24 hours until I had to shut the computer down, then the problems started again the next time I attempted to use uT). Went into preferences to make sure that I wasn't attempting to download/upload more than my connection can handle, and manually changed all the settings, which dropped my download speeds from upwards of 500kb/s to about 35kb/s (on Verizon, although not FIOS). Have changed my wireless card in the meantime - exchanged a really crummy NetGear one that really wasn't compatible with my system for a Rosewill, which has been running much more smoothly and much faster.

Not necessarily asking for someone to fix it; simply wanted to add another voice to the choir.

[kmad]

Same problem. About a week ago, for no reason, uTorrent started freezing my computer. My only workaround was a hard reboot. I have isolated the issue to only uTorrent.

Toshiba laptop, Windows Vista. AVG is my virus scanner, Spybot S&D is my spyware program.

I've uninstalled uTorrent and am trying Vuze with success so far. I would prefer to use uTorrent as Vuze is a piece of shit but the freezing kills it for me.

[kostadinova]

i have similar problem with utorrent but in my case each time i start windows 7 it freeses completely, but when i logged in safe mode and configured utorrent not to start with windows it worked. all i had to do is to start utorrent manualy, i am suspecting some sort of conflict with adslautoconnect that i am using to connect reconnect to internet but i'm not sure, i'll be very grateful if anybody casts any more light on the origin of my problem.