Utorrent with realtek network card causing BSOD on Win 7

[touchmypenguinagain]

The latest version of utorrent when used with a realtek network card on win 7 was causing BSOD's for me. Unfortunately im not at my pc right now so cant provide further information on the exact network card and firmware (ill try to do this later) but i wanted to make the utorrent developers aware of the issue, i believe other people have had similar issues. I've been using utorrent for years and i've had the same setup with no changes for 6 months with no issues until dec, after looking at BS dumps and changing my bit torrent software to deluge i no longer have an issue.

[Firon]

Find new drivers. The problem is with the Realtek drivers. It is Realtek's problem, and Realtek's only. We cannot fix it.

[touchmypenguinagain]

Hmm fair enough, i have the latest driver however and i didn't have this problem for 5 months of use with utorrent on this system, i think its since i updated utorrent that the issue started to occur. Like i said i've switched to deluge, but i still prefer utorrent as a piece of software so i was hoping there would be a fix.

[jaykay2PT]

Had exactly the same problem, even went so far as to disable the on motherboard realtek lan and fit a standalone lan card, still the same, then is found this solution, the culprit was my PC Tools anti spyware program, this has fixed the problem for me!!

Posted 09 January 2011 - 02:14 PM

Finally got a response. I followed this a few days ago and so far it looks like it did the trick:

Step 1: Turn off Automatic Smart Updates

_____________________________________

1. Launch Spyware Doctor

2. Click on Settings > General

3. Under Smart Update action: select. "Do not check for updates" and click on Apply

Step 2: Shut down Spyware Doctor

______________________________

To shut down Spyware Doctor, right click on the Spyware Doctor icon in the system task tray near the clock and select

Shutdown

Step 3: Copy the files to the System 32\Drivers directory

_______________________________________________

1. Click on the Windows Start Menu(Windows button) and select 'Run'

2. Copy and paste the command below in the text field .This will open up a ftp directory with five files.

======= For 32 bit systems =======

explorer ftp://bsod:bsod@css-...pctools.com/32/

======= For 64 bit systems =======

explorer ftp://bsod:bsod@css-...pctools.com/64/

3. Copy and paste the five files into the following directory

C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\

Step 4: Restart your computer

__________________________

Restart your computer and launch Spyware Doctor

Not sure when/if it will ever be okay to turn automatic updates on again, but it is working.

[clupus]

I'm having the exact same problem with the BSOD.

Have always used uTorrent with no problems whatsoever. Since my last update to version 2.2, I've been having this problem.

No, it's not a firewall problem (I use Windows firewall as I always have). No, it's not an anti-spyware software (I don't use any). It MIGHT be a problem with Realtek drivers (but I seriously doubt it). I'll try an download new drivers now.

So, don't be too hasty in saying this can't be a problem with the latest version of uTorrent.

[necrovamp]

The problem isnt the realtek drivers ^^ ...I'm having the same problem, after awhile or sometimes immediately get the BSOD with an error. I have a realtek NIC card. This exact same thing happened about a year ago, and then eventually you all fixed it with updates. .....For all those also having this problem, its only in the new Beta version that came out a few days ago, goto website, and download the latest regular version (you can tell cause after u install it and check for updates, there's a beta update rdy).....and it will work fine, and as for utorrent, dont push the blame on us, your beta update broke it, I hope its fixed when u make that beta the stable version

PS I notice this post is old, I'm saying that my BSOD started at either

Version 2.2.1 beta (build 24266)

or

-- 2011-01-19: Version 2.2.1 beta (build 24217)

I dont know which one though because I havent been on in awhile

[DreadWingKnight]

Bluescreens can't be directly caused by usermode applications (which uTorrent is).

It may not be the network adapter drivers, but it's not uTorrent. uTorrent is only a symptom of the problem, not the cause.

[clupus]

Mine isn't a beta version. It's 2.2 (build 23774). I've updated my Realtek drivers. uTorrent ran smoothly for about 3 hours (I even thought I'd fixed the problem) and then, bam! BSOD once again.

I'm gonna downgrade it to 2.0.4 and see if it solves the problem.

I'll post back.

[clupus]

Nope. uTorrent 2.0.4 ran for less than 30 minutos (while downloading a torrent) and crashed into a BSOD. Man, I'm ticked off. I really like uTorrent and wouldn't want to switch to another client. The thing is, the BSOD ONLY happens when uTorrent is running.

Question: could it be related to specific torrent files? Because before I downgraded to 2.0.4 I'd managed to download an entire torrent with no problems...

Anyone has any other ideas?

necrovamp, how did you manage to solve this? I guess your problem was just with the beta version, right?

Cheers

[ragevendetta]

I also have the same problem. It started about a week ago with BSOD occurring at max twice a day so I'd usually wake up in the morning with a restarted PC and no torrents downloading. I then decided to update win7 to sp1. I thought I had solved the problems until it started happening again so i removed all the torrents I had ( as one had been downloading for several months). I also decided to make utorrent start up with windows which resulted in me having 50+ BSOD last night alone.

I have no spyware software running and have rolled back the driver for the realtek FE NIC card. I also tried running the PC in safe mode and running utorrent which then did not crash. I then used the PC in safe mode with network and utorrent crashed the PC. I don't know why this has occurred recently.

All this must mean that its not the torrent files nor the spyware software and must bed something to do with utorrent. utorrent has been working with the same driver for months and months perfectly fine. my other PC also has a Realtek card and it uses utorrent fine. I've uploaded my minidump file if anyone thinks they can garner the truth from it.

im not running any antivirus software or spyware software.

http://www.mediafire.com/?goxp4hg8ave31th

[s1kb45trd]

Same problem here.

Right now I've got the latest driver for Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller. Running Windows XP SP3 with all the latest updates.

Using ZoneAlarm + Avast Antivirus, not sure which one is causing the problem though. I've been using the same hardware + drivers since 1-2 years, since I'm on a laptop (Asus, poor driver/updates support). Either way, I've looked up the hardware and got drivers straight from the manufacturers.

Still didn't fix the problem though.

I read somewhere that the problem could be a combination of things, so it's difficult to pinpoint what's causing the BSOD.

[s1kb45trd]

Oh and don't waste your time formatting your PC just yet. I've done it and it didn't help. Just a heads up guys!

[moogly]

ZA is known to be the source of BSOD and various issues.

[clupus]

Here's some more feedback, guys.

As strange as it may seem, I got to the conclusion the BSOD problem (in my case, at least) was directly related to the torrents I was downloading.

I deleted those, downloaded the stuff I wanted via HTTP, and so far, have not had any problems at all dowloading torrents. I even upgraded again to uTorrent 2.2, and it's running smooth.

Weird, but I can't explain it any other way...

Cheers

[kzahel]

I hadn't seen this problem for a long time, but I just upgraded my internet connection, and BAM blue screens again. :-(

Try rate limiting your downloads a little. Also perhaps reduce max connections. It seems like it's probably a buggy network driver that can't handle too much inflight from too many connections. Just a guess, but give it a shot.

[Mambo5]

I am just another unlucky bastard experiencing BSOD on Windows 7 x64 Ultimate Edition and my brand new computer.

DreadWingKnight and Firon are aboslutely right: uTorrent is a user mode program and cannot cause Blue Screens, while drivers and AV/Firewall SW can. Furthermore I only use Microsoft certified drivers and MS Security Essentials as my protection software, so we can all put the blame on Microsoft. Technically correct, but...

But if I can't use uTorrent on my computer with my copy of Microsoft Windows, and I only have BSODs when uTorrent is running, then I am forced to look for another program. Since I am obviously not alone, people working on uTorrent should report this problem to Microsoft and try to find the solution together with them.

After all, putting the blame on Zone Alarm, McAfee Antivirus, Realtek drivers as well as many other pieces of software leads me to following:

Zone Alarm (selected versions of it) is on Microsoft Windows 7 compatibility list (http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=2394)

McAfee has 50 different versions of products on the same compatibility list

My Realtek NIC is integrated on ASUS motherboard having Windows 7 logo (the model is V7-P8H67E)

And yes: the uTorrent is also there...

So we can all just go and complain to Microsoft. Well, I'll choose another way and find myself a torrent client compatible with my system.

[Mambo5]

To make myself more clear: I have tried all of the suggestions above: reinstall the Windows, remove all of the protection software (this is something I cannot use for a longer period of time), installed latest RealTek drivers, tried Microsoft drivers, having all updates for Windows, reduced the speed on uTorrent, limited number of connections, turned disk caching off, but nothing helps.

At early stages of system installation uTorrent works just fine, while later after installing other applications and Windows update, BSODs are starting to crash my computer.

[Firon]

Most of my machines have Realtek ethernet cards (technically onboard) and it works great. I'm just using the most recent drivers off their website and it works without a hitch.

[bt_holio]

BSOD is almost always bad memory or memory settings

lowering memory speed can increase stability

test with Memtest86+

http://www.memtest.org/

[techrocks]

Like many other users here I had the same problem.

Brand new hardware. Brand new machine.

Fresh format of drive.

Fresh installation of Windows 7.

Used my hardware disks and websites for other drivers.

Installed the stable version of uTorrent and BSOD's started speeding up from every 15 minutes of having uTorrent running to literally BSOD at startup of windows.

Having uTorrent set to open at startup started getting me BSOD'd before my windows could even finish booting up.

It became real frustrating.

What I did:

Killed uTorrent as soon as I booted up.

Uninstalled uTorrent

Updated my NIC RealTek driver via this download:

Win7 and WinServer 2008 R2 Driver 7.053 2012/3/22 740k

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=13&PFid=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

Then I installed the Beta version of uTorrent 3.2 and so far I haven't had any issues.

It had nothing to do with the torrents I was downloading, because after installation of beta version, my previous unfinished downloads finished without a hitch.

[rafi]

Updated my NIC RealTek driver

Maybe this updated/fixed driver is good with *any* uTorrent version ?...

[hellokidney]

Same problems. I've installed the newest uTorrent 3.2 Beta and it works like a charm =)

[rafi]