Troubleshoot.Lockups

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I Receive Errors, Blue Screens, Lockups, or Other Crashes While Running Shareaza

There are many reasons this could happen. It could be related to Shareaza's configuration, a bug in Shareaza, another program on your system, or even maybe a hardware problem with your system. The following are some ways that have fixed the problem.

Shareaza Problems

A lot of the time, the problem is in Shareaza, or Shareaza's configuration.

Turn off the Plugins and Disable Sharing Preview files Sometimes a plugin may lead to a crash. Turn off the plugins in the plugins section of the settings. If you don't see this section, change to power mode first from the View menu. Sharing of preview files can be disabled in the uploads section of the settings (uncheck Share Preview Files).

Download the Latest Version of Shareaza: The latest version of Shareaza includes numerous bug fixes, security enhancements and new features over many of the older versions. This should always be the first attempt in trying to fix a problem.

Do A Clean Install: This is the "last resort" option. It will reset your settings and give you a different user hash (erasing any eDonkey credits you have). It usually fixes any issues with corruption, setting misconfigurations, and most everything else.

• Uninstall Shareaza.
• Backup any needed files in your Shareaza folder (Downloads or Incompletes).
• Delete the Entire Shareaza Folder.
• Download a new version of Shareaza from [1] and install it.
• Reconfigure Shareaza, moving your downloads and incomplete files back to the Shareaza directory if necessary.

Computer Problems

If the problem wasn't fixed in the steps above, then the problem is probably something to do with Windows, or your hardware. Please note that we do not offer extended support for pre-release Operating Systems and the like, although you are free to try them. Shareaza only offically supports Windows, so it is doubtful that you can run it very well on other operating systems, but again, you are free to try it.

Windows 9x Users: Windows 95 and 98 run on outdated code which only allows them to have 100 simultaneous connections running - Shareaza can use up to a thousand or more, depending how it is configured. This can cause windows to do some odd things such as crash, lock up or disconnect the internet. We strongly reccomend that you upgrade to a more stable and recent operating system, but we realize that some users can't do that. This solution will solve crashes, but it will make a nagative impact on preformance. Note: Windows XP, 2000 and NT users are safe.

• Start Shareaza.
• Go into the Download Panel of the Settings (Tools > Shareaza Settings > Internet > Downloads)
• Change 'Maximum Transfers' to '40'
• Change 'Transfers Per File' to '10"
• Now go into the 'eDonkey 2000' panel
• Change the 'Client Link Connections' to '40'
• Restart Shareaza

Disable Auto Suspend/Standby and Hibernating Features For those of you who keep Shareaza running idle, Windows has a standby or a suspend mode which runs automatically after a set time to save power. Suspending a computer often disconnects it from the internet and may stop certain hardware from working correctly. If you're using Windows, go to:

Control Panel > Power Options

File:Power Option Properties.jpg

Set Turn off Hard Disks and System Standby to Never. You can set any value to your monitor's power settings as it will have no effect on Shareaza or the internet.

Router Users: Many Routers support a certain number of connections. If that amount is exceeded, they fail. Shareaza uses as many connections as your internet connection can handle, maximizing preformance. There are three things that you can do to prevent this:

• Configure Your Router - Some select few routers can take the heat, and others have different modes (ex. Gaming Mode) which will increase the number of connections it can handle. A good tip would be to upgrade your firmware, which can fix many problems such as this (see your manufacturer's website for help on this).
• Increase the Download Connection Throttle - This new setting was recently added to prevent router overloads. It delays the time of connection, and distributes them over a larger amount of time. To change it, go to Shareaza Settings > Advanced and changed Downloads.ConnectThrottle to 250 ms. You may need to change it to a higher amount if you still get lockups, peaking at about 500 ms. Note: you must be in Power Mode (View > Power Mode) to change this setting.
• Get a new router - If you've been looking for some reason to buy a new router, this could be it. A midrange router from DLink, Netgear or Linksys are good choices. This is a good fix, but it will put a dent in your wallet.
• Configure Shareaza- This is a easier option, but it will cause a hit in preformance.

Shareaza Configuration for Routers

• First, find the maximum number of connections your router can handle. There is no test for this, so I suggest contacting the router manufacturer for information. If you just can't, or don't want to, you'll have to guess (255 is a good estimate)
• Start Shareaza
• Go into the Download's Panel (Tools > Shareaza Settings > Internet > Downloads)
• Set Maximum Transfers to 40% of the Maximum Connections allowed by your router
• Set Transfers per File to half of the Maximum Transfers
• Go into the 'eDonkey2000 Panel'
• Set Client Link Connections to 40% of the Maximum Connections allowed by your router
• Restart Shareaza

Update/Replace your NIC Card: This is a very common source of blue screens. The NIC, for those who don't know, is the card that connects a DSL or Cable modem to a computer. If you have a Broadband Connection, chances are you have a NIC. Often times, one of them can have trouble handling a certain amount of connections or traffic and collapses under heavy stress. To update the drivers, you must first find out the model and manufacturer. You can do this by going into the Control Panel (Start > Control Panel) [Classic Mode for XP users], clicking on system, then going into the device manager from the Hardware tab. The NIC is under the "Network Adapters" tree. If you are new to driver updating, go into the Help & Support section of our forums and post your situation there. Be sure to include the Information you just collected (NIC Card Name, Operating System, etc.), along with info on your crash. A very common culprit is the Netgear FA311, which has been known to fail very often.

Update Your Operating System: Sometimes, it is not Shareaza that has the problem- it could be your computer itself. For example, a worm called MSBlaster managed to get in to millions of homes all over the world, and caused a lot of problems. This (and similar occurrences) could cause Shareaza and your computer to go down. Thankfully, there is Windows Update. It provides patches for Windows which could very well fix your bug, and maybe many others.

Check for a Virus/Hostile Program: Run a scan for any Viruses or Spyware that you may have on your system. Any of those things could cause a problem in Shareaza. To scan your system, we recommend AVG Anti-Virus, SpyBot S&D and Ad-Aware - all of which are free.

Fixing Winsock and Lsp's Some spyware and adware are known for messing up users' winsock and lsp configurations, here is what can be done about that. Download and run the fix, lsp fix. Sometimes frequent crashes and instability is caused by corrupted winsock settings and mangled lsp. Note that after running these fixes and rebooting, users of protowall will have to reinstall the protowall driver. Users should also make sure to restore thier system's 'HOSTS' (C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS in 2000/XP/2k3) file as it will be modified, which can cause general network connectivity loss.

Other Software: Sometimes Shareaza crashes because of other software that is installed on your PC. In some cases the problem could be solved by changing something in the settings of that software application. For instance, for some virusscanners the Shareaza Incomplete folder needs to be added to the excluded files/folders. An other option is to disable the software application while you are running Shareaza. However, in most cases the only solution is to completely uninstall the other application. Examples of applications where this seems to be the only solution are:

• ZoneAlarm 5 --> you can downgrade to the previous version
• Norman Antivirus
• Steganos' Internet Anonym Pro
• Ultra Network Sniffer
• NVidia Active Armor

Capture a Dr. Watson Log

If all else fails, then you may in fact have found a bug in Shareaza. They have been known to occur ;). To help fix the problem, try capturing a Dr. Watson log and posting it to the forum.

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