Large Downloads Freezing

[eggyuk]

I've been trying to download a patch for Rainbow 6 Vegas but it keeps freezing at 68mb. I tried different browsers, different download locations, firewalls on/off, antivirus on/off. Always sticks at 68mb (out of 236mb). I tried a different file which again got stuck (64.7mb out 230mb), tired that one from a different location and it froze at the exact same spot.

I tried downloading a file that was under 99.9mb and that completed fine. It can't be a storage issue because I have over 500gb free space.

Anybody got any ideas because I'm baffled.

 

[H2SO4]

It might be a buffering issue in some "inspection" driver that's installed on your machine. The way it allocates buffers results in an effective ceiling to the size of any downloaded file.

I'd suggest testing what happens in [safe mode + net]. If the same symptom is not observed, then a bit of MSCONFIG and/or Autoruns troubleshooting should help to fix it in normal mode too.

 

[eggyuk]

I don't understand what you mean by "MSCONFIG and/or Autoruns troubleshooting". All the running processes in MSCONFIG are what they normally are, nothing new. What autoruns? Sorry if I'm being a bit dense here.

Update: Wont download any further in safe mode. Tried a different comp on same network (running Vista HP x86) and that worked fine. Done full maintenance; virus scan, spyware, defrag.

 

[H2SO4]

"Autoruns" is a Sysinternals utility used for clean-boot troubleshooting. It's a bit like MSCONFIG on 'roids.

I realise that nothing seems to stand out in particular in your MSCONFIG output, but things rarely do - it's a matter of semi-blindly turning stuff off as a test until a difference in behaviour is detected.

Your problem is almost certainly caused by an "inspection" filter driver, probably of the kernel-mode variety. The quickest path to finding the culprit might be to start uninstalling 3rd-party firewalls, AV, anti-malware... one by one. Disabling them is not enough because that just stops their respective user-mode service(s) and you really don't know how the drivers will respond in turn. They may not fully disengage from the I/O stack. The only way to be certain is to fully uninstall the inspection utility.

 

[eggyuk]

I have uninstalled all A/V, firewalls and malware. The problem still exists though.

 

[H2SO4]

That's unfortunate. If I understand your description correctly, all large file downloads freeze somewhere between 60 and 70MB, irrespective of the download source, the browser used, and the file type. This also happens in safe mode + net.

If temporarily uninstalling all the "inspection" stuff hasn't helped, this could be an absolute _cow_ of a thing to troubleshoot. I can possibly help, but you might want to first check whether you've got pre-problem restore points available because that would be far easier.

 

[eggyuk]

I'm trying a restore point but the problem I have is that I don't know when the problem started. I've only just found it as I've just tried downloading a large file this weekend. I post the results of my restore when it's done and I've tested it out.

 

[eggyuk]

OK I've done a restore to a few days ago but problem is still there. I've found a 300mb file i downloaded on 10th April so I'm going to try roll back to before then and try it. I'm thinking if its a case of reinstalling Windows I might just take the leap to Windows 7 as my main OS. Either way I've got the pain of installing everything again and setting everything up.

 

[H2SO4]

It might take hours to troubleshoot this. If you're kinda leaning towards a Win7 install anyway, now's the time.

 

[eggyuk]

Ok, I thought I'd update you on my progress. I eventually rolled back around 10 days. The downloads are now working properly (completed one at 230mb and one at 310mb). During the restore my a/v and firewall broke. I had to manually remove them and reinstall them. Everything seems ok now. Wish I knew what it was that caused it in the first place.

 

[H2SO4]

Glad to hear you got it working. Those types of problems are rarely easy to troubleshoot and fix.