Can someone point me to a newbie guide for why BT doesn't work?

[Rekrul]

I'm not looking for a troubleshooting guide for uTorrent. uTorrent is configured properly. It works great on the Open Office torrent that's used as a test, and on RARE occasions I can even download a file I actually want. Unfortunately those are the exceptions, not the rule. I'm looking for a guide that explains why 80%-90% of what I try to download with BT just doesn't work.

To illustrate, here's what a typical BT session is like for me;

Go to search site like Mininova or ThePirateBay and search for something I want.

Download a torrent with 20 seeds and 12 peers.

Load it into uTorrent and get the errors "Invalid passkey" and "Unregistered torrent". Nothing downloads.

Delete that torrent and go back to the search sites.

Download a torrent with 9 seeds and 11 peers.

Load it into uTorrent and get the errors "Torrent not registered with tracker" and "Error 10061". Nothing downloads.

Delete that torrent and go back to the search sites.

Download a torrent with 5 seeds and 7 peers.

Get errors, but download starts. Connected to 2 of the seeds and 3 of the peers.

Download at an average speed of 5K per second until 75% then get "Invalid data". Download stops.

Use force Start. Download a little more, then get "Invalid parameter". Download stops.

Give up in disgust that I've just wasted an hour trying to download a file that is obviously never going to download, despite every BT search site saying the file is healthy.

I guess basically what I'm looking for is a clear explanation of why almost nothing I try to download works, even though the search sites claim there are seeds and that file is healthy. In one case, I tried about 5 different torrents (different file sizes) for the same file and none of them worked.

Is there any way to tell ahead of time which ones are in the 10%-20% that will actually work, rather than just using trial and error?

[Firon]

Are you on Windows 9x? Have you messed with any advanced options?

And invalid passkey/unregistered torrents are tracker errors (meaning you can't do anything but find another one).

[Rekrul]

Are you on Windows 9x? Have you messed with any advanced options?

Yes, I'm using Windows 98SE. No, I haven't changed any of the advanced options.

And invalid passkey/unregistered torrents are tracker errors (meaning you can't do anything but find another one).

Except that every single torrent for the file(s) generates the same errors. I can download 5 different torrents for 5 different copies of the same file and NONE of them work!

Don't get me wrong, I want to like Bittorrent. I've heard great things about it, and hoped it would be as good as people say. Unfortunately, for me, it has about a 15% success rate. Maybe it's because I'm not using it to download just-released, super-popular files (the kind that can't be discussed here), but rather slightly older, less popular files. I understand that older, more obscure files are going to have less seeds & peers, and bacause of that, they'll be harder to get. What I don't understand is why every search site says the torrents I search for are good and the files are healthy, but yet none of them work.

If this is the wrong board for discussing this, I apologize. This seemed like the most appropriate place to ask.

[Firon]

They're probably all the same torrent in reality. On Mininova, a P icon means it's from a private site.

For invalid parameter, just start the torrent a few times and it should go away.