When downloading a game on steam, my computer freezes.

[Overealness]

I have had this problem for some time now and I can't seem to find any actual solutions for it, so here is my problem:

I start downloading a game(in this case Deus Ex: HR but it happens with any game) and Steam begins to download it but every few seconds my computer locks up, preventing me from clicking anything or doing anything except move my mouse around. After being frozen for several moments it starts downloading again but stops after another few seconds. Rinse and Repeat. I have re-installed the Steam client, started as Administrator, and nothing I do seems to help. I am running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. As you can imagine this is very frustrating, especially while trying to download massive games, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Legendary old man]

Ok. I would try the driver from here.
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PFid=48&Level=5&Conn=4&ProdID=272&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false&Downloads=true

Make sure you scroll down until you see the model you listed, which ends in CE. That is the best driver. Uninstall your old driver before you install this.

If that does not fix it you might be running out of easy fixes. If it was my system and that driver did not help I would be tempted to wipe my drive and reinstall everything from scratch but that is not an option everyone can use.

[Overealness]

Ok, thanks for the help facedown.

[Overealness]

Alright I did that and no dice. So I tried downloading a torrent of ubuntu with Utorrent and it worked flawlessly and I got 6+ MB/s for the entire download. I think this rules out the wireless adapter. Could something be wrong with steam that it doesn't like my wifi connection? This is all I can think of because it works fine with the wired connection...

[Legendary old man]

It could be that indeed steam does not like your wireless adapter but if it works ok in Ubuntu that would indicate a driver issue or a security issue. You can download in Windows with utorrent ok?

At this point I feel as if the only way to fix or test the issue would be a total reinstall of Windows. Update windows and all the drivers and then install Steam before anything else and see what happens. You could try opening up a control prompt at an elevated level and type "sfc /scannow" no quotes. It checks your system files to make sure they are ok and repairs them if needed.

[Overealness]

I did that sfc scan last night for a different issue and it didn't detect anything wrong. I would like to avoid reinstalling everything from scratch so I think i'll just bite the bullet on this one and download Steam games while i'm hard wired. Hopefully a future Steam update will fix the problem! ...fat chance I guess.

[Legendary old man]

I have one more suggestion but it is not free. You could purchase a USB wireless NIC for around $20.00. Disable yours and try the USB wireless one. Hooking up to a wire is not the worse thing you could do though.

[Hughsy Mate]

Get a new computer (Y)

[Overealness]

Trust me Jordan, if I had the cash I would build myself a fire-breathing computer haha

[Lexrst]

Interestingly, I have a desktop PC that had this exact issue. High-bandwidth file transfers (LAN file copies, 6-7 MB/sec torrents, web browser downloads, etc) all worked fine but everytime Steam would download at high rates of speed, it would hard-lock Windows (x64 Ultimate). Here is the interesting part: the motherboard (EVGA X58) died and I just replaced it with an Asus Sabretooth (with an onboard RealTek Gigabit NIC (RTL8168/8111) while retaining the original processor, RAM and GPU -- and it still has the issue. This is immediately after a fresh Windows install; I installed, added MSE, updated drivers, ran WIndows Updates, and then installed Steam and it locked up 3.8 gigabytes into the very first Steam download. If I reboot and let the game continue downloading, it will inevitably lock up.

I am at a loss for explanation and it is exceedingly aggravating.

[Legendary old man]

Lexrst の投稿を引用：

Interestingly, I have a desktop PC that had this exact issue. High-bandwidth file transfers (LAN file copies, 6-7 MB/sec torrents, web browser downloads, etc) all worked fine but everytime Steam would download at high rates of speed, it would hard-lock Windows (x64 Ultimate). Here is the interesting part: the motherboard (EVGA X58) died and I just replaced it with an Asus Sabretooth (with an onboard RealTek Gigabit NIC (RTL8168/8111) while retaining the original processor, RAM and GPU -- and it still has the issue. This is immediately after a fresh Windows install; I installed, added MSE, updated drivers, ran WIndows Updates, and then installed Steam and it locked up 3.8 gigabytes into the very first Steam download. If I reboot and let the game continue downloading, it will inevitably lock up.

I am at a loss for explanation and it is exceedingly aggravating.

I think I would be testing the RAM.

[Lexrst]

facedown の投稿を引用：

I think I would be testing the RAM.

In progress... I will report the results upon completion.

[Lexrst]

I ran Memtest86 v4.3.0 overnight: 4 passes, 81 iterations. It reported 0 errors.

Back to the drawing board.

[Legendary old man]

Good lord. Lexrst, your system sounds pretty nice. For you it is a no brainer. Get a good Intel NIC and it will likely fix your issue. I have had to resort to this on a couple of my computers with glitchy network performance. Nobody makes a NIC as good as Intel.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100010064&IsNodeId=1&Description=intel%20pro&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20

As for OP he needs to try a fresh Windows install but I have a feeling he is not going have very good luck with his NIC ethier. I think Bigfoot might make an internal one for him.
http://www.amazon.com/Bigfoot-Networks-KillerN-1103-Notebook-Wireless/dp/B005GA1N7I

[Yagheez]

I had the very same problem, I tried to manually delete the game being downloaded (because when I enter Steam it freezes automatically due to download), then I switched Steam to Steam Beta. It works fine now I'm keeping downloading Skyrim Ultimate (works at least for me).

[TirithRR]

I remember back when I first got high speed internet, my computer had 128MB of RAM and an integrated network card. When ever I started downloading anything at any high speed the network card would rob the resources from the restof the system in order to handle the bandwidth. The faster the download, the worse the system operated. This was many years ago, I think I was still in High School at the time.