uTorrent causes CPU usage spikes every 10 seconds

[FuzzyL0gic]

I've been using uTorrent for many years but have never experienced this problem before.

If I open up my windows task manager and watch the CPU usage history there is a continuous pattern of random spikes every 7-10 seconds. During each spike if I switch over to the process window in T.M. and sort by CPU, uTorrent.exe always jumps up top and displays 100 for a split second under the CPU column then 55 for a second, after which it returns back to normal (CPU between 5-10) and the spike disappears.

I've read through forum posts but none really address my issue. All 3 of my HDDs are set to Ultra DMA mode (not PIO of course). The only thing I have changed on my windows XPSP3 machine recently is that I removed Zonealarm and installed Outpost Pro instead. I have a feeling this could be a factor but when the spikes occur acs.exe (Outpost's process) does not move so it does not seem active thus not playing an influence. I haven't made any adjustments to my a/v Nod32 so doubt that is the problem; IMON is even disabled and uT has an exclusion as well. I should say that these spikes do not seem to cause any harm on my torrent downloads/uploads, the only downside is the cpu usage and fans increasing every 10 seconds which is annoying.

I've tried the last three versions of uT and the problem is still the same. I've documented some screenshots during the spikes below. Sorry for the long post but I thought the more info/evidence the better. Hope you can help me out guys!

***EDIT: I forgot to say that no spikes occur when uT is closed and only Firefox, Nod32, Outpost and windows processes are running.***

Here's task manager's graph:

Here's Process Explorer's uTorrent graph:

Here's Process Explorer's uTorrent performance:

Here's Process Explorer's uTorrent threads:

Here's Process Explorer's list for uTorrent's DLLs:

Process PID CPU Description Company Name

System Idle Process 0 5.41

Interrupts n/a Hardware Interrupts

DPCs n/a Deferred Procedure Calls

System 4

explorer.exe 1772 Windows Explorer Microsoft Corporation

nod32kui.exe 436 NOD32 Control Center GUI Eset

op_mon.exe 448 Outpost User Interface Agnitum Ltd.

uTorrent.exe 792 81.98 µTorrent BitTorrent, Inc.

procexp.exe 2916 3.60 Sysinternals Process Explorer Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

taskmgr.exe 2716 2.70 Windows TaskManager Microsoft Corporation

notepad.exe 2464 Notepad Microsoft Corporation

Process: uTorrent.exe Pid: 792

Name Description Company Name Version

ACTIVEDS.dll ADs Router Layer DLL Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

adsldpc.dll ADs LDAP Provider C DLL Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

ADVAPI32.dll Advanced Windows 32 Base API Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

ATL.DLL ATL Module for Windows XP (Unicode) Microsoft Corporation 3.5.2284.1

COMCTL32.dll User Experience Controls Library Microsoft Corporation 6.0.2900.5512

comdlg32.dll Common Dialogs DLL Microsoft Corporation 6.0.2900.5512

CRYPT32.dll Crypto API32 Microsoft Corporation 5.131.2600.5512

ctype.nls

DnsApi.dll DNS Client API DLL Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5625

GDI32.dll GDI Client DLL Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5698

hnetcfg.dll Home Networking Configuration Manager Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

IMM32.DLL Windows XP IMM32 API Client DLL Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

imon.dll NOD32 IMON - Internet scanning support Eset 2.70.39.0

Iphlpapi.dll IP Helper API Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

kernel32.dll Windows NT BASE API Client DLL Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

locale.nls

MPRAPI.dll Windows NT MP Router Administration DLL Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

MSASN1.dll ASN.1 Runtime APIs Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

msctfime.ime Microsoft Text Frame Work Service IME Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

msvcrt.dll Windows NT CRT DLL Microsoft Corporation 7.0.2600.5512

mswsock.dll Microsoft Windows Sockets 2.0 Service Provider Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5625

netapi32.dll Net Win32 API DLL Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5694

ntdll.dll NT Layer DLL Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

ole32.dll Microsoft OLE for Windows Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

oleaut32.dll Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

rasadhlp.dll Remote Access AutoDial Helper Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

RPCRT4.dll Remote Procedure Call Runtime Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

rsaenh.dll Microsoft Enhanced Cryptographic Provider Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5507

rtutils.dll Routing Utilities Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

SAMLIB.dll SAM Library DLL Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

Secur32.dll Security Support Provider Interface Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

SETUPAPI.dll Windows Setup API Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

SHELL32.dll Windows Shell Common Dll Microsoft Corporation 6.0.2900.5512

shfolder.dll Shell Folder Service Microsoft Corporation 6.0.2900.5512

SHLWAPI.dll Shell Light-weight Utility Library Microsoft Corporation 6.0.2900.5512

sortkey.nls

sorttbls.nls

unicode.nls

USER32.dll Windows XP USER API Client DLL Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

USERENV.dll Userenv Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

uTorrent.exe µTorrent BitTorrent, Inc. 1.8.4.16381

uxtheme.dll Microsoft UxTheme Library Microsoft Corporation 6.0.2900.5512

wl_hook.dll Outpost Hooking Module Agnitum Ltd. 6.73.3063.11009

WLDAP32.dll Win32 LDAP API DLL Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

WS2_32.dll Windows Socket 2.0 32-Bit DLL Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

WS2HELP.dll Windows Socket 2.0 Helper for Windows NT Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

wshtcpip.dll Windows Sockets Helper DLL Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

WSOCK32.dll Windows Socket 32-Bit DLL Microsoft Corporation 5.1.2600.5512

uTorrent's handles:

Process PID CPU Description Company Name

System Idle Process 0

Interrupts n/a Hardware Interrupts

DPCs n/a Deferred Procedure Calls

System 4

explorer.exe 1772 0.77 Windows Explorer Microsoft Corporation

nod32kui.exe 436 NOD32 Control Center GUI Eset

op_mon.exe 448 0.77 Outpost User Interface Agnitum Ltd.

uTorrent.exe 792 71.54 µTorrent BitTorrent, Inc.

procexp.exe 2916 16.15 Sysinternals Process Explorer Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

taskmgr.exe 2716 5.38 Windows TaskManager Microsoft Corporation

notepad.exe 2464 Notepad Microsoft Corporation

Process: uTorrent.exe Pid: 792

Type Name

Desktop \Default

Directory \KnownDlls

Directory \Windows

Directory \BaseNamedObjects

Event \BaseNamedObjects\userenv: User Profile setup event

Event \BaseNamedObjects\crypt32LogoffEvent

File C:\Documents and Settings\Username

File C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.2600.5512_x-ww_35d4ce83

File C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.2600.5512_x-ww_35d4ce83

File \Device\KsecDD

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Ip

File \Device\Ip

File \Device\Ip

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Udp

File \Device\RawIp

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File D:\TORRENT SEED FILE [***name replaced***]

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File D:\TORRENT SEED FILE [***name replaced***]

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File D:\TORRENT SEED FILE [***name replaced***]

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File D:\TORRENT SEED FILE [***name replaced***]

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File D:\TORRENT SEED FILE [***name replaced***]

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Udp

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Afd

File D:\TORRENT SEED FILE [***name replaced***]

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File D:\TORRENT SEED FILE [***name replaced***]

File \Device\Afd

File H:\TORRENT SEED FILE [***name replaced***]

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Afd

File \Device\Tcp

File \Device\Tcp

Key HKLM

Key HKCU

Key HKU

Key HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\WinSock2\Parameters\Protocol_Catalog9

Key HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\WinSock2\Parameters\NameSpace_Catalog5

Key HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Tcpip\Linkage

Key HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

Key HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\NetBT\Parameters\Interfaces

Key HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\NetBT\Parameters

KeyedEvent \KernelObjects\CritSecOutOfMemoryEvent

Mutant \BaseNamedObjects\µTorrent4823DF041B09

Mutant \BaseNamedObjects\ShimCacheMutex

Mutant \BaseNamedObjects\DBWinMutex

Section \BaseNamedObjects\ShimSharedMemory

Semaphore \BaseNamedObjects\shell.{A48F1A32-A340-11D1-BC6B-00A0C90312E1}

Semaphore \BaseNamedObjects\shell.{210A4BA0-3AEA-1069-A2D9-08002B30309D}

Thread uTorrent.exe(792): 864

Thread uTorrent.exe(792): 864

Thread uTorrent.exe(792): 1028

Thread uTorrent.exe(792): 1092

Thread uTorrent.exe(792): 1788

Thread uTorrent.exe(792): 1788

Thread uTorrent.exe(792): 1028

Thread uTorrent.exe(792): 1028

Thread uTorrent.exe(792): 1092

Thread uTorrent.exe(792): 1788

WindowStation \Windows\WindowStations\WinSta0

WindowStation \Windows\WindowStations\WinSta0

[Firon]

11% as a baseline CPU usage is pretty high, spikes excluded. Have you tried with NOD32 uninstalled altogether?

[FuzzyL0gic]

Thanks Firon for responding to my thread, I've spent ages troubleshooting trying to figure out a solution.

The spikes only occur when uTorrent is open and running. I've fully closed (and tried uninstalling) Outpost AND Nod32, removed windows firewall and run uTorrent just by itself; the task manager still throws up consistent recurring spikes.

This is the stack for the utorrent.exe start address that is using the most CPU at the time of each spike:

ntoskrnl.exe!ExReleaseResourceLite+0x1a3

ntoskrnl.exe!PsGetContextThread+0x329

ntoskrnl.exe!FsRtlInitializeFileLock+0x83f

hal.dll+0x6c0e

ntdll.dll!wcsncpy+0x8d5

msvcrt.dll!free+0x1ae

msvcrt.dll!free+0x1cc

msvcrt.dll!malloc+0x27

uTorrent.exe+0x34ab0

uTorrent.exe+0x2114

uTorrent.exe+0x228d

uTorrent.exe+0x349a6

uTorrent.exe+0xd624

uTorrent.exe+0x4ea54

uTorrent.exe+0x3e72e

uTorrent.exe+0x3d0ef

uTorrent.exe+0x3c764

USER32.dll!GetDC+0x14f

USER32.dll!GetWindowLongW+0x127

USER32.dll!DispatchMessageW+0xf

uTorrent.exe+0x3c6e0

uTorrent.exe+0x51aa8

msvcrt.dll!free+0xe5

As I mentioned in the other thread (http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=70480), FileMon shows uTorrent.exe doing the same open close query of resume.dat habitually during the spikes. The below sequence occurs consistently every 10 seconds when uT is open:

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 OPEN C:\Docs & settings\user\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat SUCCESS Options: Open Access: 00110080

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 OPEN C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat SUCCESS Options: Open Access: 00100080

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat SUCCESS FileInternalInformation

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 CLOSE C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat SUCCESS

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat SUCCESS FileAttributeTagInformation

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat SUCCESS FileNameInformation

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat SUCCESS FileStandardInformation

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat SUCCESS Attributes: A

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 OPEN C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat.old SUCCESS Options: Open Access: 00100002

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 OPEN C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat.old SUCCESS Options: Open Access: 00100080

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat.old SUCCESS FileInternalInformation

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 CLOSE C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat.old SUCCESS

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 SET INFORMATION C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat SUCCESS FileRenameInformation

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 CLOSE C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat.old SUCCESS

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 OPEN C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat.new SUCCESS Options: Open Access: 00110080

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 OPEN C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat.new SUCCESS Options: Open Access: 00100080

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat.new SUCCESS FileInternalInformation

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 CLOSE C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat.new SUCCESS 10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat.new SUCCESS FileAttributeTagInformation

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat.new SUCCESS FileNameInformation

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat.new SUCCESS FileStandardInformation

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 QUERY INFORMATION C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat.new SUCCESS Attributes: A

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 OPEN C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat SUCCESS Options: Open Access: 00100002

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 OPEN C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat NOT FOUND Options: Open Access: 00100080

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 SET INFORMATION C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat.new SUCCESS FileRenameInformation

10:21:25 uTorrent.exe:2984 CLOSE C:\Docs & settings\User\Application Data\uTorrent\resume.dat SUCCESS

It's the strangest thing I have experienced with uT! Do the above two pieces of info help?

[Firon]

So you uninstalled NOD32 and Outpost and you still get CPU spikes? How big is your resume file?

[FuzzyL0gic]

Resume.dat=2.15MB

In the Application Data\uTorrent folder, along with the above file, there are also these files:

Resume.dat.1.bad=805kb

Resume.dat.2.bad=851kb

Resume.dat.3.bad=907kb

Resume.dat.old=2.16MB

[GTHK]

What happens when you drop a blank settings.dat and uTorrent.exe by itself ("portable install" mode)? And then maybe copy in your settings and later resume+torrents (with client closed) and see what happens (make backups of all the original appdata first). Have you changed any advanced settings? Certain advanced setting tweaks that aren't supposed to actually do anything actually increase CPU usage.

[FuzzyL0gic]

Ok, I've done as you indicated GTHK. There are no spikes when I 'reinstall' uTorrent, so the app data folder is new and there are no .torrent files in there either. I just started it up and let it run (without any torrents) for about 10 minutes and registered no spikes whatsoever.

Then I closed it and copied over the settings.dat file from the folder that was causing the spikes and loaded up uTorrent again. No spikes again!

Next, I copied over the remaining .dat files (BUT none of the ".dat.old" or "dat.1.bad" files) and added a few .torrent files from the troublesome folder. Ran this again and saw no spikes.

So I finally copied over the entire troublesome folder and ran it. Within 10 seconds I started seeing the spikes again.

My %appdata% uTorrent folder contains about 2,900 .torrent files. I have about 500 active torrent seeds that are actually running in uT at any given time. I like keeping old ones in my uT list so I can see what I have previously added in the past.My max. number of active torrents is set to 3000 as I don't like queue seeding. Could any of these aspects be problematic?

There surely must be a reason why uT keeps accessing the resume.dat.new and resume.dat.old files?

Thank you again!

[Firon]

Because it writes them to disk often when there's any activity.

Have you tried deleting all the settings.dat*, then starting up like that? Keep the resume data, but start with fresh settings.

[Slider2k]

Thanks. Rebuilding resume.dat files seems to fix the problem.

[orengreen]

Hello,

I seem to have a similar problem.

What does "Rebuilding resume.dat files" mean and how do I do it?

Thanks!

[orengreen]

Any help appreciated

[Switeck]

Starting from scratch and following the migration guide.

http://www.utorrent.com/documentation/migrate

...I highly suggest backing up ALL of uTorrent's settings files AND your old .torrent files before you begin.