Jump to content

Troubles with uTorrent 3.3 .....


Axel49

Recommended Posts

I have been working with the uTorrent for a while (several releases) and I am mainly satisfied with it.

Some days I got updated with the uTorrent 3.3 (build 29625) and ran into a problem which probably is a configuration issue and concerns the disk cache overloaded 100% state.

This appeared even with earlier uTorrent releases, but was a minor problem as the uTorrent could recover automatically from this state and continue to process data after a while. An excellent feature, much appreciated.

But the uTorrent 3.3 has dropped this appreciated behavior. I have to shut down the uTorrent and restart with startup process from scratch. It takes some time because I have around 4500 uploads ongoing actively.

Sometimes the disk cache overload 100% state occurs even during startup, I have experimented a little with the configuration settings and found that a very low setting of the number of concurrent downloads seems to have positive effeckts. But the automatic configuration gives me a far to high value for concurrent active downloads - the uTorrent 3.3 quickly reaches the disk cache overload 100% state and remains there until shutdown and restart. But earlier releases could recover automatically from this state and continue processing. Why has this feature been removed? I don't want to have to restart the uTorrent, I want automatic recovery and continued processing!

The autoconfiguration gave me a suitable value of 15 concurrent downloads to be suitable, but it is not correct in my case. uTorrent runs into a deadlock when the critical overload occurs. I have decreased the setting downto 3 concurrent download sessions, but this solution is incomplete as I still runs into the critical disk cache overload 100% state although considerably more seldom.

Overload state can occur especially on high speed downloads - my Internet connection is fibre based and runs on 100 Mbps, effectively around 60-65 Mbps. This of course sets requirements on the local computer and the HDDs attached..My computer is a Dell Inspiron One 2310, Intel i3 processor, 8 MB internal RAM, running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 (however, the uTorrent 3.3 in use is x32) Internal system disk is a WD2002FAEX (2 GB) with 64MB disk cache, SATA attached. Via USB I have additional 3 extra 2 GB HDDs attached and two 1 GB HDDs (one of the latter is dedicated for system backup solely and not used by the uTorrent.

What do you think?

Can I get automatic recovery from the awkward deadlock appearing when I run into the disk cache overload 100% state?

Or is it possible to create a well-working high capacity configuration of the uTorrent 3.3 not entering that critical state "disk cache overload 100%" with no automatical recovery?

To upload data should not be a critical issue as physical limitations of the HDDs sets the limit för delivering data, the critical situation should be download as disk cache overload can occur if the incoming data stream is too strong to be well served by writing on local disk and therefore are stored in disk cache with sometimes overload 100% appearing.

I liked the excellent working automatic recovery from this critical state available in earlier uTorrent versions. What has happened an why is this feature not included in the uTorrent 3.3?

Alternatively, I have to tell that I recently added a new HDD to the system, a Samsung 1 GB HDD attached via USB. Can the problem be caused by this addition? .

Grateful for tips and tricks to get around this situation!

Kind regards,

Axel49

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many thanks - I'll check them!

Btw, I am a beginner on the forum - I registered a short while ago today. Not fully experienced with the tools yet ...

But you are right - FAQ and SEARCH should be used - and I'll do! My respect!

Axel49

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The 3.3.1 RC Announcement contained a short description of a fix concerning the "Disk Overload" state on June, 18th. Let's see if this fix is what I am looking for.

Axel49

EDIT 10:36:

I ran into the critical "Disk Overload" again with no "soft" recovery using uTorrent 3.3.1 (Build 29812). Increased the concurrent simultaneous parameters too much to test.

But as far as I understand (not fully aware about the uTorrent features yet, using only a minor part for up- and download) the RESUME works far better - restart and resume works far better now with 3.3.1!

Maybe testing 3.4 - but this release is not announced in RC state yet.

Axel49

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Indeed, I finally found out the reason for the "Disk overload 100%" cause, which stops uTorrent from up-and downloading.

This is an explanation, applicable to my case, not necessarily all cases. One need to investigate other causes more carefully to find out the reason. I have tried to scan for other comments and explanation, but there is a big volume of notices in the uTorrent Community containing the search string "Disk overload 100%". I am not able to check out such a volume manually.

But many authors suspect - like me - that it concerns the HDD disk cache being overloaded. Maybe this could be a correct assumption in some cases, I dunno. But a diagnostic characteristic is that no recovery exists from the observed state (at least in my case). The uTorrent stays "dead" regarding up- and download until shut down or restarted.

The reason is simple. One or more HDDs involved with uTorrent are physically overloaded. This is not a disk cache issue, but is hard to diagnose as you don't see the cause as it appeared with FAT16/FAT32 file system. In these file systems "100%" means that the logical disk really is full - no space remains.

But here we use the NTFS file system. The Microsoft recommends never to fill a NTFS wolume with more than 90% with files, A recommendation I have followed for long time without problems and thus never before considered what happens when exceeding this recommendation. Now I have earned what happens, the NTFS file system doesn't work well beyond this limit. But In my case the consequences became obvious at 96-97% volume load (a 2TB volume, 3-4% means that about 60-80 GB remains unused).

The recommendation, "don't exceed 90% load", has some excess, it is with a marginal to be safe. Maybe you can exceed it with additional 5% (for a 2TB volume this is about 100GB).

The solution is simple: move the excess beyond 90% to another volume with more free space, buy a new, bigger volume or simply delete some files to get below the 90% volume load.

The uTorrent status message, "Disk overload 100%", is somewhat misleading, many users belive that it concerns HDD disk cache - and this can of course be correct in some cases. I don't know. What I am describing is one cause, not excluding all other causes. But check HDD disk space and act when load status tends to be close to 90% for a NTFS based volume to ensure that this limit not will be exceeded.

I don't know about how to diagnose HDD status more precisely in program code, "disk cache full" is one thing (should slow down processing) and "disk overload" is another thing (must be acted on in some way to prevetnt data loss).

But I hope that these considerations and notifications could help someone! Hopefully it is a contribution to improve the uTorrent!

Kind regards,

Axel49

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The uTorrent status message, "Disk overload 100%", is somewhat misleading,

"Disk drive interface is too busy" would be a more accurate description

many users belive that it concerns HDD disk cache - and this can of course be correct in some cases

Can't really do anything about the users, they are what they are. Actually it is unlikely to be correct in any cases. Disk overloading is more likely to happen when using interfaces that are slower on write cycles such as NAS devices, mapped network drives, external USB 1.1/2.0, SSDs etc and nothing to do with the "on drive cache".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice proposals about what to do. I see several ways to deal with the problem I have noticed, Indeed I used an internal mapping, and you had good explanations, Also, cloud devices would of course fall into the category with slow device interface which can cause troubles of this type.

Thus, I agree upon the idea to focus on device interfaces, in general not the device and its equipment as is,

Axel49

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Indeed, it seems that I found the problem source (in my case) .....

But, indeed I wonder what the indication causing the uTorrent to stop up/downloading with the message "Disk overload 100%"? Can it simply be read/write error with a number of retries, all failing and then the uTorrent gives up?

I don't check my HDD very often as HDD errors occurs very seldom and in general are reported by the manufacturer's indicators. But when I ran the old tool "chkdsk /F" it found a number of file catalog error and repaired them (a correspondence can be found inside the Windows (HDD properties -> Tools -> Error-checking).

I repaired the suspected HDD giving "Disk overload 100%" message via uTorrent.

After the repair I haven't got this message again (yet).

To be honest, this HDD has had "power loss" failures a number of times, obviously while writing, but I didn't checked for defects until now as I haven't seen such problems for more than twenty years. Not even thinking of such causes today.

But a defective file catalog and failing block writes due to power loss can have consequences even with the NTFS file system as I could detect now.

As Ciaobavy said, this is a interface problem even when it concerns defective data on the HDD disk surface caused by or causing read/write failures.

But I still wonder what conditions are raising the "Disk overload 100%" message in uTorrent - how is this situation defined?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Regarding the "Disk overload 100%" failure .....

I've read some notices about "freezing" and other applications "disturbing" the uTorrent. Interesting notifications.

As I still had the "Disk overload 100%" failure I was suspecting hardware errors etc, but when I saw the pointouts regarding how Roxio and other 3rd party software could disturb the system cache management to the uTorrent causing the file spooling problem. For example Roxio and other programs using exclusive file control in the system cache while examing association/content - indeed locking the file.

I took a look.

The file in use by uTorrent is simply locked "too long time" by a 3rd party process and thus the uTorrent enters that "Disk overload 100%" as well as the spooling "deadlock" state (frozen) in these cases.

In the forum threads this is mentioned as that the 3rd party software is "incompatible" and recommended to be "uninstalled". This is to simplify the problem description as the failure indeed is that the uTorrent fails to lock a resource for its exclusive use when needed (or to wait for this resource to become available when locked by another process).

This is not related to the 3rd party software being pointed out as being "incompatible". The matter is due to that normal system functions are being used for exclusive resource control by a process while uTorrent fails to check this and fails to manage the state properly with these confusing error notifications appearing and improperly stops working in some way.

It is within the uTorrent body to solve these issues so that the uTorrent can cooperate with other processes requesting and releasing exclusive resource controls - a very common system function used for example when file blocks are written - this is an operation requiring exclusive control while reading is an action which can be shared between mutliple processes - no locking for update is required. These system functions are commonly used in multiprocessing system and should be wellknown to the experienced system programmer.

Many of the problem issues reported here can be related to this key feature although confusing error messages.

Check it out, please, and correct the failures who are related to the sad management of exclusive resource nanagement. The customer should not need to untinstall any wellknown 3rd party software because it is said to be "incompatible" - this explanation is far too simple and doesn't explain what the matter concerns.

Myself, I have uninstalled the Roxio (originally from computer vendor at delivery, I don't use it and use licensed Nero instead). Now everything works fine........ No crasches, no "Disk load 100%", no file spooling deadlocks ..... They are all gone.

But uninstalling the Roxio is not a solution - it is a workaround! Terrible enough.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...