Vista 32-bit, uTorrent. ffp & md5 fail to verify

[RichardStarlight]

Hello,

I have tried verifying the flac fingerprint and md5 files I have downloaded with utorrent 1.7.7 on my Vista 32-bit OS. All my torrent downloads fail. When I remove the torrent from the list and reload (i.e. to reseed), I find I have only around 96% of most files, though utorrent has registered the torrents complete. With some DVD files, I have much less than 90%. Even after reloading a certain video torrent three times, I cannot get it to complete. I try to burn what I have to DVD, but there is not enough of the file to decode.

When decoding the audio files from flac (or shn) to wav, only certain tracks decode. And they are not necessarily the tracks that have failed md5 or ffp! And comparing the md5 and ffp track failures also shows discrepancies in which tracks fail.

After trying to complete the partial audio files, I check again, and DIFFERENT TRACKS fail to verify on md5! I finally got a whole fileset to the point where it would convert to .wav, but even after I have the wavs sitting there on a hard drive, I rechecked the ffp in Traders Little Helper, AND TWO TRACKS STILL FAILED TO VERIFY!

These sorts of problems obviously have my head spinning. I never had this kind of trouble on XP. I have no plans to downgrade, but I wonder if these problems have a solution I don't know about (or if one is in the works somehow)

Thanks for listening,

RS

[jewelisheaven]

... MD5 is not as robust a check as the bittorrent protocol provides. While it shows whether a file was equal to the source, bittorrent .torrent files show WHAT PARTS of the file (piece size shown in the General tab) are valid and what parts aren't.

You have some buggy software or bad RAM most likely... this is of course if you've already tried chkdsk /f X:

Heck actually read through this other helpful user's experience with LMA http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?pid=301624#p301624

Sorry it's late :/

[RichardStarlight]

jewelisheaven, thanks for replying. The post you linked is helpful in a general sort of way, but I'd also like to ask what chkdsk /f X will do (and how to do it). In other words, no, I have not tried that and would be interested to find out what it is.

Edit: actually, i just tried typing in that command on the black cmd screen, and it says it will only do that in "elevated mode," which I am not sure how to access.

I'd also like to understand how utorrent can do a more precise job of checking packets than than the tool (Trader's Little Helper) i use to verify md5 or ffp. On utorrent itself, is the process to do with "Force Re-Check"? It's embarrassing to be this far behind the curve, but I would like to understand.

RS

[jewelisheaven]

:/ Yeah X: is your volume, whatever that is, default being C:

As far as elevation, I don't have the foggiest how to obtain it, but it means it wants Administrator privileges. Someone more experienced with Vista should be able to help you out though.

[Saribro]

To run command line tools with elevated levels in Vista:

Open the start menu and browse to the "cmd" program (probably somewhere in accessories), rightclick and pick "run as administrator". The command line, and programs started from it, will now run elevated.

[RichardStarlight]

OK, ran it elevated. Checked two external drives that way. One had only two or three little probs and finished checking very quickly. The other did not finish checking. . .hung up at 97% complete, and then gave me another prompt. . . I waited ten min, ran the command again, this time it hung up at 64%. Weird. I just stopped testing the second drive.

Then I asked it to run the same test on the C: drive. It said it would when the next restart took place. I restarted. Where is the info it said it would provide? Do I have to access the cmd line again to find out what the test of C: yielded?

And by the way, I am not very sure what these tests are going to tell me if/when I get their results. Could anyone illuminate?

Thanks for your posts, Saribro & jewelisheaven

RS

PS: I took three "completed" torrents at random which were uploading, stopped them, forced recheck, and they all wind up somewhere between 90-95%. They are not too big, so I just open them up again to download and top them off in the swarm. Again they read 100% and begin uploading. Again I stop and force recheck. But they are not really any closer to 100%. I think I could repeat this process endlessly and never complete. What sort of problem is this, do you think?

I have heard it said elsewhere that registry cleaning programs are a bunch of snake oil. But I wonder if this is a registry problem? If it is, I am in way over my head, as I don't even fully understand what is at stake here or what would qualify as success. Some say, reinstall the OS. Try adding things and isolating the problem. This seems like a good idea, but how do I not lose any data if I reinstall?

Thanks again.

[jewelisheaven]

After a recheck you can see for yourself the parts which failed verification. They show up as red in the Files tab.

[Firon]

I think you've got defective memory.

[RichardStarlight]

Would the defective memory be in the external hard drive to which these torrents are being saved? Or the C: drive where the utorrent program is housed? Remember, you're dealing with a beginner here

There are two external harddrives, actually. I get problems with flacs and shns stored in both. I have not run any tests yet from flacs or shns on archived DVDs that I know have verified in the past. So would defective memory still be an issue? Or is it more like compatitbility? I have also yet to check the external HDs on the XP machine to which I have limited access. I wonder what tests like these are going to tell me.

[Firon]

Defective RAM sticks in your computer.

[RichardStarlight]

Context is everything, and I understand precious little about the context surrounding basic issues of memory in a computer.

How would I test for defective RAM sticks in my computer? and what's involved with replacing them if they are, in fact, found defective? Does that sink the whole ship, etc.?

P.S. I ran a small test: I checked a show from an archived DVD that I made last year when I ran XP before that machine died. On my wife's computer, which alsor runs XP, the flac fingerprint file of this one show I am talking about verifies that all the files of that show are complete on that archived media. I take the same archived disc to my Vista machine, check the ffp file on trader's little helper, and it fails. It fails according to the same general pattern as all the other failures to verify described above.

So even with files that I know are good from a trustworthy source, my machine can't read them from a DVD. Is that why the RAM sticks are suspect? Would they be implicated in the problem as I describe it here?

[Firon]

The fact that you see random corruption on different drives and optical media means you have some sort of serious problem. The most likely culprit is defective RAM. It's also possible that it's the motherboard itself, but less likely since it's affecting both external and optical drives.

[RichardStarlight]

Thank you, Firon, for helping me understand more about your diagnosis. Is there any way I can check to see if RAM sticks are defective?

[Firon]

You can use memtest86+ on your memory for 12-24 hours to verify. It's correct almost all the time.

[RichardStarlight]

I would very much like to try this program to test your very helpful input, Firon. "memtest86+" looks like a powerful tool, and there are three ways to access it from their website.

It is unclear to me, however, which method I should use to obtain the program, or even how to operate the program once I have it.

Wikipedia says "Memtest86+ is designed to run from a bootable floppy disk, CD-ROM, USB Drive, or from a suitable bootloader without an operating system present." How would I use the program from any of these methods? It is not transparent to me what to do from merely reading the descriptions on their homepage. Do I save it to my C: drive, copy it to a cd, and run it from the CD in a DVD drive?

Edit: I am searching around on their forums and FAQ page, but still I'd take any extra guidance I can get. Thanks for your help thus far.

[Firon]

download the iso and burn it to dvd as an image

[RichardStarlight]

Thanks, Firon. I got memtest89+ running last night, and its on its 16th pass. I plan to keep running it another 18 hrs, but the first 15 passes say NO ERRORS. Frankly, I am pretty surprised, but that's what it says!

Plan: try to identify driver conflicts? If memory is actually not an issue, probs with drivers or [other hardware, e.g. motherboard] may be behind prob., since utorrent does not implicate the registry too much in this problem set, right?

Question: is identifying driver conflicts something I can do myself? Updating drivers sounds like my own responsibility. I've heard tell of programs that sweep and provide info on whether all drivers are up to date.

Guess: i can determine myself if a driver conflict of some kind is affecting my hardware.

Let's say I inspect & update drivers myself. If utorrent still will not pass 100% when I force re-check of flac files utorrent itself has reported at 100% when downloaded the first time(and also after several attempts to rejoin the stream and top them off up from the typical 96% or so that utorrent reports back after re-check), then some other Hardware problem is at issue. At that point, take puter to tech is the only answer for problems that are truly beyond me.

Would using a program to inspect drivers and/or peripherals be the right next step?

[kwandrick]

I think you should consider driver incompatibility as a possible cause of your problem. I was having similar problems as you but with .shn files - md5s not verifying, files that were 100% complete in utorrent suddenly being 85%, 99%, etc. when I did re-check - and it ended up being my scanner. As soon as I unplugged it from my pc, everything was fine - files verified and were 100% complete again - so, I'm assuming it's the scanner driver. However, I had the most recent scanner driver installed so simply updating the driver did not solve my problem and may not solve yours. (For now, I just keep the scanner disconnected from my pc and only connect it when I use it.)

You may want to take a look at the devices you have connected to your pc and identify which are pre-Vista. Then disconnect them one by one and see if that has any effect. You may also want to check your network driver - I read online about an incompatibility w/ realtec network drivers and Vista causing similar issues w/ files appearing corrupt. To update your drivers (or verify you have the most recent) go to Control Panel, select Classic View, double click Device Manager, then select the device you want to check and right click. You can then select Update Driver Software or Properties (if you choose Properties, you can then select the driver tab and choose to see if there are updates for your driver).