Azureus problems on my Mac

February 10, 2005 8:23 PM

Recently, Azureus 2.2.0.2 has started freezing up my Mac. My processor (or something inside my machine) makes rhythmic, sick-sounding whirring noises. This only happens with Azureus, not any of the other taxing programs I use. Uninstalling/reinstalling didn't seem to work. Any suggestions?
posted by Item to computers & internet (10 comments total)

After Azureus kernel-panicked my machine twice in a row, it got uninstalled and will not be back. As far as I'm concerned, a dev team that acknowledges "occasional kernel panics" and has the nerve to version their software anything higher than 0.09alpha doesn't get to execute their code on my computer.
posted by ikkyu2 at 8:57 PM on February 10, 2005

Try TomatoTorrent.
posted by kindall at 9:04 PM on February 10, 2005

Your processor is pretty much incapable of making noise. Maybe if it lit on fire or exploded, but nothing that would allow you to keep using the computer.

Things that make noises in computers are limited to drives and fans. In your case, probably the hard drive. See if your CD drive is spinning and clicking, just to be sure there's no weird bug in Azureus, but it is probably the hard drive.

BitTorrent can put a mess of strain on hard drives, especially if you have big files like straight DVD rips. First off, depending on the settings, it might immediately try to write that many gigabytes of "0" repeated. If you have a big file partially downloaded, it may have to process every part of the file to determine where to begin again. I think recent versions of Azureus try to handle this better, but if something went wrong it might still have to thrash your hard drive for a few minutes.

Try deleting all the torrents that Azureus is loading on startup. That would prevent it from checksumming multiple-gigabyte files.

Anyway, though, if your computer is really freezing, not just going really slow or not responding for a while, and the noises go on forever, it sounds like your hard drive is failing, with the failure for now being triggered by the high load BitTorrent puts on it. It could be overheating, it could be a manufacturing defect, or it could be overheating caused by a manufacturing defect. Backup your files and run some disk utilities to see if maybe they find something wrong.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 10:42 PM on February 10, 2005

Is your disk full?

That would freeze you up (pretty badly, too) and make clicking noises, potentially.

I had that problem a lot with my 30GB iBook. The processor just wasn't up to Azureus either. I eventually got a PowerGook G4, which hums on Azureus all night long with nary a neck pain.

I know. Not what you wanted to hear.

Don't try Tomato Torrent, unless it has recently incorporated the magical ability to track more than one torrent in a single window, and the very very nice to have ability to throttle torrents as a group.
posted by scarabic at 11:13 PM on February 10, 2005

Azureus did the same thing to me. I thought I was having some kind of hardware failure - I got a weird broken apple icon on startup and it would freeze before the login screen, something made a weird rhythmic clicking noise inside, the fan would accelerate and then die, over and over again, producing a high-pitched whine. I finally started up from CD, killed every single file associated with Azureus, and everything seems fine now. I had 30 gigs free at the same, so it wasn't a full HD.
posted by luriete at 11:29 PM on February 10, 2005

I hate to say this but: Kernel panics and random freezers are known issues with Azureus on OS X. Yeah the OS shouldn't KP, but Azureus is really, really badly behaved.
posted by nathan_teske at 11:47 PM on February 10, 2005

Not OS X I know but I had several issues with Azureus crashing my PC (windows xp)

Turned out the cable modem was failing but the error was attributed to Azureus. Updated the cable modem drivers and all was well again.

Might be something to look into?
posted by snowgoon at 4:57 AM on February 11, 2005

nathan_teske, I'm not too sure about your assumption. Azureus may not be the main problem. Example.
posted by gsb at 5:32 AM on February 11, 2005

Azureus on OS X has known kernel panics (as stated on the Azureus website), but that has supposedly been fixed in recent versions, which item is using. Being Java-based, it's still a bit hinky--too bad, because it has some nice features. (on preview: Hmm, gsb)

There's no question that torrents can really thrash your hard drive, especially when you're both DLing and ULing.

I just discovered bits on wheels, which has nowhere near the feature depth of Azureus, but is OS X native and is pretty cool.
posted by adamrice at 7:42 AM on February 11, 2005

item do you have a G5 with 10.3.8? There are stories circulating that it causes the fans to rev up unexpectedly.
posted by lilnemo at 1:38 PM on February 11, 2005