Hash Checking used an excessive amount of memory

[Endromada]

uTorrent v 1.6.1

I've checked the FAQs, I'm not running any firewalls reported to cause issues (I'm running ZoneAlarm) I also have a clean windows boot (I only open my virus scan, firewall, nVidia control panel (NOT FIREWALL), diskeeper scheduler, utorrent, and windows services at start up)

My problem: uTorrent takes it's sweet time performing hash checks, and consistently uses 33%+ of my cpu time, resulting in overall laggy performance at opening/closing programs, etc. Even entering text like I am doing right now is laggy. The letters are iconsistantly appearing 5-6 seconds after I type them.

My question: How do I reduce the processor time uTorrent will devour in it's unholy thirst for cpu time, sans setting it to *BelowNormal* or *Low* processor priority in task manager? (doing so has a nasty habit of causing uTorrent to freeze all together.)

It really is a bother having to hash check every time I restart my computer, which I often have to more than once daily (I realize it's nessecary to perform the hash checks, and why. (yeah, my computer is a 6 year old dell office pc, with a gig of ram and a pci card slapped in)

oh. Please don't tell me having an old, relatively slow processor is the problem. (no s*^#)

[Ultima]

1) Hash checking is inherently CPU-intensive

2) The devs optimized the hash checking a tad bit in µTorrent 1.7. It also has improved resiliency against resume.dat corruption, which should minimize/eliminate the repeated hash checks every time you start µTorrent up.

3) Start > Run > devmgmt.msc. Check the primary and secondary ATA/ATAPI IDE controllers' properties to see if any of the connected devices' current transfer modes are in PIO.

And um... what does this have to do with memory?

[Endromada]

eh, I was just describing how terrible my pc is in general.

thanks for the help, btw.

Checking transfer mode right now, will post what mode each controller is in

Uh. I looked in device manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller > Primary IDE Channel > Properties, from what I quickly googled, there should have been an 'Advanced' tab. There was only General, Driver, Details, Rescources. I looked under all of them and am certain that there is no listing of DMA or PIO transfer mode.

How do I find the mode of transfer if there is no 'Advanced' tab in properties?

For Clarification, I do NOT have this tab (http://www.portmac.com/modules/Check_Enable_DMA/primary.jpg)

all others are indeed there.

According to Microsoft Help - "The Advanced Settings tab might not appear for all IDE controller devices."

[Honeyfrog]

I run uTorrent on an 800mhz Pentium III laptop (XPpro,512ram) and save my files on a networked drive contained in a 600mhz celeron Pentium II tower (XPpro,256ram). I've never had hash-checking consume massive enough memory to be noticable. -- It's slow, but that's due to hardware I/O throughput of the drive and other hardware, not CPU or memory.

What's the CPU usage percentage of your machine before hash-checking begins? To hazard a guess, you have anti-virus software that pounces upon *any* data transmission, and it's bogging down your system.

[Endromada]

bounces between 15-20% as of right now, with uTorrent running, not hash-checking, everything else running as usual.

anti-virus software is AVG free edition

[Ultima]

Hard to say what the problem is without knowing the drive's current transfer mode :/