Peer to Peer (torrent) issues - freezing

I've been running Windows 7 x64 Professional on my system for the last month or so with little difficulties - except for a recurring issue whenever I try to use any Peer to Peer program. After two or three weeks of troubleshooting I am 99% sure I have nailed the problem down to peer to peer (torrent) software... however am open to other idea's if anyone else can suggest a possible cause of the problem.

I have tried various different programs (uTorrent, Vuze, Limewire to name a few) and all encounter the same problem.... a random freeze whilst downloading.... total system lock-up, requiring a hard reboot. Usually this occurs when the PC has been left for a little while to download, leaving me with two blank screens that wont wake up from any keyboard or mouse input. This initially lead me to believe there were possibly some power management issues with my graphics card on wake up.... but I have since had the freeze occur a few times whilst using the PC with the download operating in the background. It has never occured when not using any peer-to-peer. To rule out anything else I left the PC running for 5 days without doing any peer-to-peer downloading at all.... Regular use, Internet Browsing, Word Processing, Excel, Transferring files to/from camera, Photoshop.... nil issues, nil freeze, nil downtime. Turned on Vuze to download a file - 20 mins later, system lockup.

As already indicated, changing programs hasn't yeilded any results - same freeze no matter what the program.

It also seems pretty irregular - sometimes the PC has been on for a few hours, I start a download and I manage to download a 3 or 4gb file without any freeze.. other times I get 50mb in off a fresh boot-up and it locks up.

All drivers are latest available.

Anyone able to assist with possible causes? As apps are Java-based, possibly Java related maybe? I'm out of ideas!

System Specs (nothing overclocked):
MB: ASUS P5KPL-VM
CPU: Intel E6550
RAM: 4Gb Kingston 800
Graphics: ASUS 9800GT
Network Info: Using onboard ethernet CAT5plugged directly into Netgear DG834Gv4 router
Antivirus: AVG
Firewall: Standard Windows - permissions for file sharing checked and everything a-ok as far as I can see.

Any help would be appreciated!

DaveM said:

I've been running Windows 7 x64 Professional on my system for the last month or so with little difficulties - except for a recurring issue whenever I try to use any Peer to Peer program. After two or three weeks of troubleshooting I am 99% sure I have nailed the problem down to peer to peer (torrent) software... however am open to other idea's if anyone else can suggest a possible cause of the problem.

I have tried various different programs (uTorrent, Vuze, Limewire to name a few) and all encounter the same problem.... a random freeze whilst downloading.... total system lock-up, requiring a hard reboot. Usually this occurs when the PC has been left for a little while to download, leaving me with two blank screens that wont wake up from any keyboard or mouse input. This initially lead me to believe there were possibly some power management issues with my graphics card on wake up.... but I have since had the freeze occur a few times whilst using the PC with the download operating in the background. It has never occured when not using any peer-to-peer. To rule out anything else I left the PC running for 5 days without doing any peer-to-peer downloading at all.... Regular use, Internet Browsing, Word Processing, Excel, Transferring files to/from camera, Photoshop.... nil issues, nil freeze, nil downtime. Turned on Vuze to download a file - 20 mins later, system lockup.

As already indicated, changing programs hasn't yeilded any results - same freeze no matter what the program.

It also seems pretty irregular - sometimes the PC has been on for a few hours, I start a download and I manage to download a 3 or 4gb file without any freeze.. other times I get 50mb in off a fresh boot-up and it locks up.

All drivers are latest available.

Anyone able to assist with possible causes? As apps are Java-based, possibly Java related maybe? I'm out of ideas!

System Specs (nothing overclocked):
MB: ASUS P5KPL-VM
CPU: Intel E6550
RAM: 4Gb Kingston 800
Graphics: ASUS 9800GT
Network Info: Using onboard ethernet CAT5plugged directly into Netgear DG834Gv4 router
Antivirus: AVG
Firewall: Standard Windows - permissions for file sharing checked and everything a-ok as far as I can see.

Any help would be appreciated!

Hi dave

Are you using Homegroup for networking?

kenn J+

Hi.

It's AVG causing your issues. Completely uninstall that from the system as disabling will have no beneficial effect.

zigzag3143 said:

Hi dave

Are you using Homegroup for networking?

kenn J+

No, I'm not. This PC is the only Windows 7 PC in the network, the other two are XP. File sharing is achieved by standard methods, setting all to the same workgroup.

Your question did get me thinking though, as I do have a cheap MviX media centre that also shares files on the network. When I upgraded to Win 7 it wouldn't sucsessfully log into the network so in order to get it working correctly I had to do some tinkering, including changing some registry values. Exactly what I changed can be found here:
How do I Configure Sharing and Discovery in Windows Vista Home Basic or Premium? - Powered By Kayako eSupport

Maybe I inadventatly caused some issues with these peer to peer apps at the same time? I wouldn't think so though. I can't remember whether I had these issues or not prior to getting the MviX PVR working.

Hi.

It's AVG causing your issues. Completely uninstall that from the system as disabling will have no beneficial effect.

Sounds feasible, I'll give it a go. Able to shed any more light on why you think its AVG?

Yes. Because every pc I've ever seen with AVG and issues - issues caused by AVG.

100% and were talking 100s of machines.

I'd also test to see if this is a hardware problem. Over the years I've seen problems such as random lockups and BSOD's due to faulty ram. Couldn't hurt to run memtest for a few hrs. Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

I have EXACTLY the same problem, and i'm not using AVG, i use Microsoft Security Essentials.

What the hell is going on..

Dufraisne said:

I have EXACTLY the same problem, and i'm not using AVG, i use Microsoft Security Essentials.

What the hell is going on..

Just a heads up

You should start your own thread because

1-this is an old thread that no one will visit
2-Since you dont have AVG it is not the exact same problem

Actually wasn't AVG at all. Was issues with the onboard Atheros Ethernet Adaptor with my ASUS m/b.

Disabled Task Offload and works perfectly.

Answer found here:

Problems with atheros L1 ethernet adapter in Win7 x64