Solved Extremely Slow Performance After Utorrent Froze

[mikabomb]

Like the subject says, my pc first became slow when I was trying to open a torrent file and Utorrent never opened even though I saw it in the task manager. I rebooted my pc, but it was still the performance was still crawling. I decided to uninstall Utorrent in safe mode (because my pc couldn't do anything in normal mode). Unfortunately, that did absolutely nothing.

My pc in it's current state is totally unusable. It's so slow it takes more than 40 minutes to load my desktop shortcuts.

 

[mikabomb]

I'm just going to give up and reformat.

 

[Layback Bear]

A format and clean install of Windows 7 is a good start. Of course you will have to use the proper media and matching COA key.

I suggest that you keep all Utorrent like programs off your new install.
Many have problems using torrents because of all the garbage that they allow to download. Their are some torrents sites that are a exception but not many.

 

[Alejandro85]

I suggest that you keep all Utorrent like programs off your new install.
Many have problems using torrents because of all the garbage that they allow to download. Their are some torrents sites that are a exception but not many.

Under that criteria, you shouldn't be using a browser right now

It's very unlikely that a torrent program would crash a computer that way. Viruses, some broken configuration or a hardware failure are most probable offenders if I had to do a blind shot. In any case, a reformat would always greatly help.

 

[Layback Bear]

From post #4
Please explain. I don't understand.
I have two browsers installed that I use and have ZERO torrent programs installed and never have.

Under that criteria, you shouldn't be using a browser right now

The torrent program itself is not the problem in most cases but rather what is downloaded using the torrent program. Infection of one kind or the other sneak in.

 

[Alejandro85]

You have explained it yourself in your own post

The torrent program itself is not the problem in most cases but rather what is downloaded using the torrent program

A BitTorrent client is in itself nothing you should worry about (maybe if it happens to have a zero-day exploit, just like anything else). The important thing is what do you use it for.

But recommending that BitTorrent shouldn't be used makes no sense after considering that. It's a tool, not an inherent security menace. The very same happens with a browser, it could be used to download and run nasty things and go to troublesome sites, in the same way it can be used to zillions of useful and good sites. The tool itself isn't the problem, it's the use you make out of it what matters. Hence my (rather ridiculous, I know) comparison.

BTW, browsers happen to be a more attractive target that BitTorrent clients! Web pages have been specially crafted to exploit browsers problems, or trick users into something or to lure them into traps, while torrents are more often than not safe in that sense, only giving problems if the user explicitly downloads and runs something he should not.