Downloading torrents freezing my Vista64 Gaming Rig

[mathminded]

I have a solid gaming rig that has been stable and working well since I built it in late July of 2008. The only big problem it has is that whenever a torrent begins to download in uTorrent, bittorrent, or even Blizzard's download manager, the system locks up completely. The screen does not change, but the mouse freezes and there is no response from the keyboard (pressing the num, caps, and scroll lock keys will not even turn their corresponding lights on and off on the keyboard). I have attempted to open up ports, checked procmon as best as I know how prior to the freeze ups, etc without any success. If anyone has any suggestions regarding what might be causing this to happen, I'd really appreciate suggestions.

Here are some salient system specs:

* Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 with G0 stepping
* abit IP35 PRO (P35+ICH9R)
* 8 GB Corsair DDR2 PC2-6400 RAM
* Vista64 (Ultimate) SP1
* TRENDnet TEW-623PI Wireless N PCI Adapter
* 2 Western Digital 640 GB hard drives in a RAID1
* NOD32 Antivirus

If there's any other info that would help, please let me know. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

 

[mpilchfamily]

Try reinstalling the NIC drivers. Also you may want to try clearing the CMOS. There are some straing things that can happen if the CMOS is currupted.

 

[mechBgon]

You might also try a wired connection instead of wireless, as a fact-finding step.

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: mpilchfamily
Try reinstalling the NIC drivers.

And if that doesn't work flash the BIOS then reinstall Windows.

 

[mathminded]

Thanks guys for your replies. I attempted to reinstall the drivers, and the issue changed. (I also recalled after doing so that I had already attempted this awhile back with the same result.) The problem after reinstalling the drivers is that I am unable to connect to my working internet connection through my network. The network is detected accurately, along with all others in the area, and Vista requests my WEP code after I attempt to connect. Once connected, however, only have local access. Am I forgetting to do something here? I would imagine that this fix is the solution, given that the PCI card's full name actually appears correctly in the device manager after reinstallation, as opposed to "802.11 n Wireless LAN Card", but don't know how to proceed with the fix.

I would really prefer not having to reinstall windows if possible, but I'll definitely keep the idea in mind as an alternative.

Thanks again for your help!!

 

[oldcarts]

Hey,

I was having the exact same issue as you. My computer would frequently freeze while downloading torrents and at the WoW loading screen. I have essentially the same build as you except 4 GB Corsair DDR2 PC8000. I am also running Vistax64. I initially thought it was a issue related to the memory because reducing the amount of memory to just 2 GB fixed the problem even though memtest found no errors. I gave up on finding a solution, but since I wanted to run my computer with all the memory that I bought, I started putting more effort into finding a solution. Essentially, the problem is an issue with wireless cards using the Ralink chipset. It would lock up on computers running Vistax64 with >3GB of RAM. I updated to the new drivers, but that did not fix the issue (my wireless card is an Edimax 7128g). I am now using an extended ethernet cable, which fixed the issue. I can log onto WoW with no lock up using 4 GB of memory and no issue with torrents since. I will probably buy a new wireless adapter without the ralink chipset. You can find information about wireless adapters and what chipset they use at this website: http://linux-wless.passys.nl/query_alles.php

Here's a link to a website I found discussing this same issue: http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=28138&p=5

I also went through the WoW technical forums and saw several people with the same issue. Frequently, they had a wireless adapter with the Ralink chipset and running Vistax64. If you check the Newegg website and search for the Edimax 7128g wireless adapter, a few people mentioned the issue.

Hope this resolves your issue if you haven't found a solution yet. I just wanted to post this info because this thread helped to guide my search and led to to a solution.