LawLiner Posted January 24, 2014 Report Share Posted January 24, 2014 It's a problem that's plagued every computer I've installed uTorrent on over the years. It's by far my preferred client so I really would like to stay with it. But I've got a brand new machine and don't want this issue potentially damaging my machine. The Problem:Only when running UT, my computer will freeze for ~4 seconds (and gradually gets longer over time). When I say freezes, it becomes completely unresponsive. Whilst audio is playing, it'll just rapidly stutter throughout the freeze.Something I've just noticed today, directly after each freeze, UT's downstream bandiwdth consumption will leap to my maximum bandwidth (which is 1.1mb/s) for a few seconds. My settings restrict downstream to 500kb/s.Any suggestions? I've had this issue on multiple machines, it can't be just me!Many thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boomman Posted January 25, 2014 Report Share Posted January 25, 2014 Sounds like it's caused by hardware lockups, likely HDD.Check your system and application event logs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawLiner Posted January 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 Thanks for the reply. Maybe it is due to hardware lock ups. But this is a problem that occurs on all the many different systems I have tried from laptops to desktops. I guess that would suggest there may be some sort of conflict with some of the standard software I always install on all my machines.I checked the logs, nothing to report when the freezes happen.There seems to be a lot of other people with similar problems around the forums. Guess I'll try another client. Any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawLiner Posted January 31, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 Quick bump. Any help, anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kraig Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 Have you adjusted any settings in uTorrent or are they all set at defaults?What operating system are you using?Have you opened Task Manager while it is freezing to look at performance? Are your memory or hard drive being maxed out?Check your event logs (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/open-event-viewer#1TC=windows-7) to see if any errors are showing up.**Edit** What antivirus/security are you using and what exactly are you downloading (audio, video, software)? Also, what is the "standard software" you install on all of your machines? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawLiner Posted March 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 Thanks for the reply, it's been a while and I've still got the problem. Get's a little frustrating. This issue is definitely related to uTorrent, and I don't seem to be alone with this problem. uTorrent settings are factory Using Windows 7 64bit, but I've had the same issue previously on XP systems Have you opened Task Manager while it is freezing to look at performance? Are your memory or hard drive being maxed out? Yes, I've attached some images highlighting when the freeze happens, it only seems to affect CPU. Can't see anything in Event errors, see attached. What antivirus/security are you using and what exactly are you downloading (audio, video, software)? Also, what is the "standard software" you install on all of your machines? Using Microsoft Security Essentials, but I've had the same problem whilst using Comodo and Zonealarm, all on different systems. Usually downloading videos or music, but it happens regardless of what I'm downloading. Standard software I normally install is Netlimiter 3 (which I had a suspicison about so I killed the process. No luck), Dropbox, Drive, Firefox, Katmouse, Networx, Realtemp, A little further information, when I'm having the issue, if I close uTorrent my computer still stalls at least once, even though it is closed. Although it's a lot less intense. After that my computer returns to normal. Also, I did notice whilst hovering over a spike in the process explorer the text 'interrupts - Hardware Interrupts and DPCs', not sure if this is relevant. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawLiner Posted March 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 Ok, taking a closer look at process explorer, when I hover over the CPU spike it seems to be 'System:4' that is spiking it. A closer look at this process performance graph and it's definitely this. But I'm not sure what System:4 (System process (PID 4)) actually does. After a quick Google, someone her experiencing the exact same symptoms as me, related to System:4: http://www.sysopt.com/showthread.php?159125-System-4-Anyone-know-what-this-process-is There's some more information and a detailed post on it here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2008/04/07/3031251.aspx But this is beyond me really. I feel as though it's a driver issue, but then again that contradicts the fact I've had the same issue on all sorts of computers and different setups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawLiner Posted March 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2014 Going to take a look at this post on how to diagnose CPU spikes: http://rickteck.wordpress.com/2011/05/15/troubleshooting-the-system-process-cpu-spikes/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawLiner Posted April 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2014 And here's the culprit: ndis.sys!NetDmaAllocateChannel+0x440 After Googling, there seems to be others having the same issue, and it seems to relate to my Wireless card, which is the Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter. Now looking for some driver updates... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawLiner Posted April 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2014 Something interesting I also noted was the times it was locking up: 11:45:4011:49:4011:53:4011:57:4012:01:4012:05:40 Every four minutes.... strange Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawLiner Posted April 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2014 Driver now updated from: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&softwareitem=ob-105185-1 Let's see what happens.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawLiner Posted April 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2014 A driver I'll try failing this: http://www.atheros.cz/atheros-wireless-download.php?chipset=60&system=5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawLiner Posted April 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2014 PROBLEM SOLVED. Or so it seems for now anyway. Been an hour with no issues whilst running uTorrent. The fix was one of two things, unfortuantely I don't know which one. It's either the updated driver I downloaded from http://www.atheros.cz/atheros-wireless-download.php?chipset=60&system=5 Or it's the fact I stopped the Netlimiter 3 service, which was the other thread in the image above Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frenchiveruti Posted February 23, 2015 Report Share Posted February 23, 2015 Just to clarify the problem here, it was indeed Net Limiter 3.Why? I have no idea, but i stopped the service using an elevated command promp and writing:net stop "NetLimiter 3 service"and the freezing ceased, it was annoying, and it's ironic that i can't control uTorrent dl speed while using my PC, but whatever... at least i can use it...Thanks for your investigation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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