I'm using the latest UE. The programme locks my machine up randomly for unknown reasons. Sometimes it will work for a while. Sometimes it locks it up after a short time. It's the application that locks up and I cannot kill it. I have to power cycle the machine. Sometimes it is still possible to use elements of the machine but not to kill the programme or open the explorer. UE says "Not responding" in the title bar.
This occurs with headers, which I end up loosing, and when downloading from from .nzb's. It's been happening for many versions too.
UE and system lockups
Out of curiosity, do you have a clean system? By this I mean do you have anti-virus running and regularly check with things like Ad-Aware and/or Spybot? If not, would you try running those things to check your computer? If you already do this and your system is clean then forget this - it's just a hunch.
There are too many viruses and spywares out there to know them all but I've seen a few that are just clever enough to monitor which software is hogging all the bandwidth. These things will try to kill the processes that take bandwidth away from them so they can have it all for themselves so they can use your computer as a zombie. Others are just so badly written that they will misuse your TCP stack and clog it right up so nothing will work. Downloading headers is one thing but using NZBs isn't enough to make all but the slowest systems crawl.
What are your system specs so we can rule out yours being too old or slow? Unless you did get that computer you mentioned here. Also, how many threads do you allow while getting headers, downloading articles, etc. and do you get headers while downloading articles at the same time?
There are too many viruses and spywares out there to know them all but I've seen a few that are just clever enough to monitor which software is hogging all the bandwidth. These things will try to kill the processes that take bandwidth away from them so they can have it all for themselves so they can use your computer as a zombie. Others are just so badly written that they will misuse your TCP stack and clog it right up so nothing will work. Downloading headers is one thing but using NZBs isn't enough to make all but the slowest systems crawl.
What are your system specs so we can rule out yours being too old or slow? Unless you did get that computer you mentioned here. Also, how many threads do you allow while getting headers, downloading articles, etc. and do you get headers while downloading articles at the same time?
I have the latest McAfee SecurityCenter on.Josef K wrote:Out of curiosity, do you have a clean system? By this I mean do you have anti-virus running and regularly check with things like Ad-Aware and/or Spybot? If not, would you try running those things to check your computer? If you already do this and your system is clean then forget this - it's just a hunch.
I've got that machine (the P4 3.2) but 1Gb RAM instead of 4Gb. I took 3Gb out a while ago as part of a hardware problem solving exercise. The problem turned out to be duff hard drives which I replaced.There are too many viruses and spywares out there to know them all but I've seen a few that are just clever enough to monitor which software is hogging all the bandwidth. These things will try to kill the processes that take bandwidth away from them so they can have it all for themselves so they can use your computer as a zombie. Others are just so badly written that they will misuse your TCP stack and clog it right up so nothing will work. Downloading headers is one thing but using NZBs isn't enough to make all but the slowest systems crawl.
What are your system specs so we can rule out yours being too old or slow? Unless you did get that computer you mentioned here. Also, how many threads do you allow while getting headers, downloading articles, etc. and do you get headers while downloading articles at the same time?
UE is running on a RAID 5 array with 5.7Gb free. The C drive has 30Gb free.
UE locks up to the extent that when I try to do anything to it, the window turns white.
Tasks: Total 40, Articles 20 and for Headers, Max 20. Groups max 10. I have prevent overload limit to 25KB/sec.
Network tasks threads is below normal.
When UE locks up I have to hard reboot the machine via the power button.
if you cannot kill the program from the windows task manager it is a sign of some trouble on the system level (some driver maybe or hardware malfunction like something with hard drives).
killing process like UE is like killing e.g. Notepad, it is only a single executable.
mcfee may be a source of the problem as well, in the past i saw user crashes coming from inside winsock from mcfee dll - mclsp.dll. the crash i'm looking at now is dated from about 25 Dec 2005.
mclsp.dll Product Version = 4.0.0.0 File Version = 4.0.1.24
gdlsphlr.dll Product Version = 7.1.1.46 File Version = 7.1.1.46
these are product/file versions of these crashes, not me since i don't have mcfee, some user (check yours, look at system32 directory, dll properties).
mclsp.dll and gdlsphlr.dll are part of McFee according to web search "McAfee Privacy Service" (maybe just try to disable it? - i see it can be disabled - although it may not help since dlls may still remain active but it worth trying). here it is how (found it somewhere):
"Find the McAfee SecurityCenter icon (it’s a red and white M icon that sits in the System Tray). Right-click the icon and then click Privacy Service. Click Disable. Enter your password to finish the process."
they "put" the dll under winsock as tcp/ip provider, since it is on the system level nothing supposed to crash there and it may indicate a major problem with their software on the global system level.
try also to look on p2p forums maybe you'll find more info about the mcfee issue it should affect all network intensive applications so you should be able to find more info (if it is mcfee).
in the end if you will be able to terminate the process lockups should be gone too.
if disabling privacy service won't be enough, try to uninstall mcfee completely if it is not a big deal to instsall it later and check whether there is any problem then.
if all fails try to run it on a clean system install, maybe install a second system, it doesn't take much time. also check your hard drives for errors - the behaviour is also consistent with hard drive read errors when it tries to access damaged area (unless the problem always happens after UE network activity), and after system reinstall try to to run all on C: - non-raid hard drive to see whether it is not raid.
since the problem is so easily reproducible you should be able to resolve it.
killing process like UE is like killing e.g. Notepad, it is only a single executable.
mcfee may be a source of the problem as well, in the past i saw user crashes coming from inside winsock from mcfee dll - mclsp.dll. the crash i'm looking at now is dated from about 25 Dec 2005.
mclsp.dll Product Version = 4.0.0.0 File Version = 4.0.1.24
gdlsphlr.dll Product Version = 7.1.1.46 File Version = 7.1.1.46
these are product/file versions of these crashes, not me since i don't have mcfee, some user (check yours, look at system32 directory, dll properties).
mclsp.dll and gdlsphlr.dll are part of McFee according to web search "McAfee Privacy Service" (maybe just try to disable it? - i see it can be disabled - although it may not help since dlls may still remain active but it worth trying). here it is how (found it somewhere):
"Find the McAfee SecurityCenter icon (it’s a red and white M icon that sits in the System Tray). Right-click the icon and then click Privacy Service. Click Disable. Enter your password to finish the process."
they "put" the dll under winsock as tcp/ip provider, since it is on the system level nothing supposed to crash there and it may indicate a major problem with their software on the global system level.
try also to look on p2p forums maybe you'll find more info about the mcfee issue it should affect all network intensive applications so you should be able to find more info (if it is mcfee).
in the end if you will be able to terminate the process lockups should be gone too.
if disabling privacy service won't be enough, try to uninstall mcfee completely if it is not a big deal to instsall it later and check whether there is any problem then.
if all fails try to run it on a clean system install, maybe install a second system, it doesn't take much time. also check your hard drives for errors - the behaviour is also consistent with hard drive read errors when it tries to access damaged area (unless the problem always happens after UE network activity), and after system reinstall try to to run all on C: - non-raid hard drive to see whether it is not raid.
since the problem is so easily reproducible you should be able to resolve it.
I've updated my HighPoint-Tech RAID drivers to the latest version. Will see if that helps.alex wrote:if you cannot kill the program from the windows task manager it is a sign of some trouble on the system level (some driver maybe or hardware malfunction like something with hard drives).
I agree.killing process like UE is like killing e.g. Notepad, it is only a single executable.
I am happy to remove McAfee but I don't think this is the problem. I only installed that very recently and the problem had been occuring before this. I'll analyse the RAID array for disk errors and consider moving UE to the non RAID drive as well, in the near future.mcfee may be a source of the problem as well, in the past i saw user crashes coming from inside winsock from mcfee dll - mclsp.dll. the crash i'm looking at now is dated from about 25 Dec 2005.
mclsp.dll Product Version = 4.0.0.0 File Version = 4.0.1.24
gdlsphlr.dll Product Version = 7.1.1.46 File Version = 7.1.1.46
these are product/file versions of these crashes, not me since i don't have mcfee, some user (check yours, look at system32 directory, dll properties).
mclsp.dll and gdlsphlr.dll are part of McFee according to web search "McAfee Privacy Service" (maybe just try to disable it? - i see it can be disabled - although it may not help since dlls may still remain active but it worth trying). here it is how (found it somewhere):
"Find the McAfee SecurityCenter icon (it’s a red and white M icon that sits in the System Tray). Right-click the icon and then click Privacy Service. Click Disable. Enter your password to finish the process."
they "put" the dll under winsock as tcp/ip provider, since it is on the system level nothing supposed to crash there and it may indicate a major problem with their software on the global system level.
try also to look on p2p forums maybe you'll find more info about the mcfee issue it should affect all network intensive applications so you should be able to find more info (if it is mcfee).
in the end if you will be able to terminate the process lockups should be gone too.
if disabling privacy service won't be enough, try to uninstall mcfee completely if it is not a big deal to instsall it later and check whether there is any problem then.
if all fails try to run it on a clean system install, maybe install a second system, it doesn't take much time. also check your hard drives for errors - the behaviour is also consistent with hard drive read errors when it tries to access damaged area (unless the problem always happens after UE network activity), and after system reinstall try to to run all on C: - non-raid hard drive to see whether it is not raid.
since the problem is so easily reproducible you should be able to resolve it.
BTW I am accessing the computer with UE on via RDC, as it's only really used for UE.
as to raid maybe to switch the database to C:\ (you can copy only the settings directory) to find out whether it is the problem.
since it is specific to your system configuration it is very difficult to tell what it might be, the only thing for sure if indeed the system is affected so you have to reboot it is something in the system or hardware since UE doesn't have any drivers, so it cannot affect the system.
applications only may affect other running applications or system in Win95, Win98 and WinMe, since they have a different architecture, in WinNT, Win2K, WinXP etc. it cannot happen, it is one of basic principles of the WinNT family system architecture.
also if you manage to see task manager in the performance tab when the problem occurs check whether you have physical memory available, or something consumed memory and there is not enough RAM, then you should see a lot of page faults for some process, if there is intensive disk swapping the system becomes not responsive (but UE doesn't consume much RAM if you use compact binary newsgroup type or import through nzb).
since it is specific to your system configuration it is very difficult to tell what it might be, the only thing for sure if indeed the system is affected so you have to reboot it is something in the system or hardware since UE doesn't have any drivers, so it cannot affect the system.
applications only may affect other running applications or system in Win95, Win98 and WinMe, since they have a different architecture, in WinNT, Win2K, WinXP etc. it cannot happen, it is one of basic principles of the WinNT family system architecture.
also if you manage to see task manager in the performance tab when the problem occurs check whether you have physical memory available, or something consumed memory and there is not enough RAM, then you should see a lot of page faults for some process, if there is intensive disk swapping the system becomes not responsive (but UE doesn't consume much RAM if you use compact binary newsgroup type or import through nzb).
I can tell you that UE reveals any problem with software firewalls (which shows you how crappy most software firewalls are!). I run UE in a VMware machine with no firewall and have not had a single crash or hang _ever_.
UE is one of the most stable programs I have ever seen.
Try to throw off McAfee, use the simple Windows firewall. If you have a router you don't need any firewall. If you are directly connected, just use the Windows FW and this: http://www.dingens.org/
UE is one of the most stable programs I have ever seen.
Try to throw off McAfee, use the simple Windows firewall. If you have a router you don't need any firewall. If you are directly connected, just use the Windows FW and this: http://www.dingens.org/
Update
I have moved the UE directory off of my RAID5 array. This array is running using the latest drivers via a HighPoint Tech 1640 RAID adapter. Since moving it off the array, I have had no system lock ups. Thinking back to past times, I would sometimes find my RAID1 arrays would "break" when running either NewsPro or UE. However to be honest I cannot remember the specifics.
i don't know much about raids, the indexing server is running on a simple raid sacrificing reliability in the case a hard drive will fail in favor of performance (i just make database backup weekly).
but it is what i found about raid5:
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/rai ... el5-c.html
but it is what i found about raid5:
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/rai ... el5-c.html
so maybe these are not lockups but slow write speed due to parity calculations on the driver/hardware level? when ue saves attachments a lot of data is written, also e.g. there are other save operations like saving newsgroups, i mean we better have good performance on writes.Special Considerations: Due to the amount of parity calculating required, software RAID 5 can seriously slow down a system. Performance will depend to some extent upon the stripe size chosen.
Recommended Uses: RAID 5 is seen by many as the ideal combination of good performance, good fault tolerance and high capacity and storage efficiency. It is best suited for transaction processing and is often used for "general purpose" service, as well as for relational database applications, enterprise resource planning and other business systems. For write-intensive applications, RAID 1 or RAID 1+0 are probably better choices (albeit higher in terms of hardware cost), as the performance of RAID 5 will begin to substantially decrease in a write-heavy environment.