Issue with SABnzbd in Vista x64

[leimrod]

My system specs are as follows.

OS: Vista x64 Ultimate
CPU: E8500 @ 4Ghz
RAM: 4GB Mushkin XP2-8000 @ 1Ghz
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage Formula
Graphics: AMD 4870x2 @ 770/1800
HDD (OS): 128GB OCZ SSD V1
HDD (media) 1TB Hitachi 32MB cache
PSU: Coolermaster 1kW PSU

I currently have SABnzbd 0.4.4 installed on the 1TB Media drive. Whenever I have SABnzbd running my whole system will slow down. When I try to click on My Computer it will hang opening the drive list. Most notably Firefox 3.0.3 will hang when opening up any pages. I've noticed that issue goes away once SABnzbd has completed downloading the file.

What could be causing this? Is it normal for SABnzbd to lock up the system when it is downloading?

[leimrod]

It's not normal.

How many nzbs do you have in your queue?

It doesn't seem to matter. The last time it  happened I had one nzb in the queue. The hanging and slow response times always stop immediately after SABnzbd has finished downloading

[shypike]

The only slowdown that is "normal" is when SABnzbd starts running par2 and unrar.
These programs tend to dominate the disk channel.
The downloading itself should be hardly noticeable on your kind of system.

One thing that will at least lessen the disk access is to enable the memory cache.
See Wiki: http://sabnzbd.wikidot.com/highspeed-downloading

Can you send your sabnzbd.ini file to [email protected] ?
Don't forget to remove usernames and passwords!

[sander]

If you open the Process Manager and sort on CPU usage, is SABnzbd the the top process? What's it's CPU usage?

[leimrod]

I've set the "Article Cache Limit" to "-1", it was previously at "0". Is this advisable? Is there any ill affects of letting SABnzbd use as much RAM as it wants?

I've also sent off my current sabnzbd.ini to [email protected]

Could it be the fact that I have sabnzbd running from a different drive to the OS? Could it be the fact that my OS drive is SSD?

[shypike]

Your INI file looks OK.
The -1 is OK too, it won't use much more than 50/60M (about twice the largest file to download).

I have no experience with SSD, but on my 64bit Vista with 4G memory it runs fine.
Try 0.4.5, it's just been released.

[leimrod]

Your INI file looks OK.
The -1 is OK too, it won't use much more than 50/60M (about twice the largest file to download).

I have no experience with SSD, but on my 64bit Vista with 4G memory it runs fine.
Try 0.4.5, it's just been released.

Is there any settings that I could try enabling in the ini?

The main slowdown is with browsers though. It affects firefox the worst but IE7 also seems unresponsive. Also my internet connection is 20Mb/s down, could that have anything to do with it?

I'll try using 0.4.5 anyway and see if that makes a difference

[shypike]

See if using localhost instead of 168.192.1.x makes a difference.

Do you use a software firewall?
Hopefully not ZoneAlarm, we've seen lots of problems with that one.

[leimrod]

hmm... seems to of settled down for the time being. I moved SABnzbd 0.4.5 onto the C drive but left the downloads folder on my media drive and set the cache to -1.

I've also disabled the built in Vista Firewall (I also use Avast and have defender disabled)

SABnzbd is using around 80MB's of RAM and very little CPU.

I'll queue up a few large archives tomorrow and see if I get it to slow down my system again.

[leimrod]

actually would clicking on the sabnzbd link more than once affect anything? I have it on my quicklaunch bar next to my firefox icon so I sometimes accidentally hit it, and I just hit it there. I've checked task manager and there is only one instance of sabnzbd running, however I've noticed my system is starting to get slow again now