Cache 0 issues

[gquiring]

I am having issues where NB stops downloading when the cache hits zero. I don't know why it's constantly going there. I have Win7 x64, SandyBridge i7 system, 8gig of ram, m4 Crucial SSD for my C drive and my download drive and unrar destination drive are different spindles. It typically goes to zero when unraring.

[Quade]

How fast are you downloading? I can typically keep up without hitting the cache to about 200 Mbps. On a good day, 400. What it's telling you is that Newsbin can't write to the disk as fast as the download is happening.

[gquiring]

My pipe is about 46Mbps down. Without any unraring going on the cache is 84/100 while downloading.

[gquiring]

I watching an unrar right now, the cache is bouncing from 84 to 30 to 0. It sits at zero until the unrar is complete.

[Quade]

- AHCI on the drive interfaces.
- Might want to disable V scanner for the source and destination drive.
- Might want to try "Run as Administrator" and see what happens when you enable "Instant File Create Mode". You have to "Run as Administrator" to give Newsbin permission to turn on "Instant File Create".
- Defrag the destination drive maybe?

I think that it sounds like something is slowing your drives down, like the V scanner. Your machine should be close to as fast as mine but, isn't.

[gquiring]

I use MS security essentials for scanning. Both hard drives are AHCI and one has a 6gb transfer rate, the other is 3gb. Download drive is 1% frag, unrar drive is 0% frag.

I will try the admin mode, the "instant file create", do I have to enable this somewhere?

[gquiring]

What should the approximate cache be when just downloading at 46Mbps? I am always 83-84/100.

Running as admin, same issue unrar starts, cache goes to zero.

[Quade]

One chunk is used per connection so, that tells me you're running 16 connections. It's only an issue when it hits zero. The whole point of the cache is to give some breathing room so, if the disk is slowed by something the download can continue at full speed. It's when you hit zero, that Newsbin can't download any more. Because it's got no place else to store the data.

It starts at 100 and there's one chunk per connection so, 84 is normal. It's normal all the way down to zero, that's when the download has to stall.

[gquiring]

What is the cache size? Can it be increased in the settings file?

[Quade]

Default size is 100

[SETTINGS]
ChunkCacheSize=N

In the NBI. You'll want to exit Newsbin before you tweek the value. Keep in mind that chunks use between 600K and 1 Meg of space each.

[gquiring]

The problem was solved by increasing the cache. I increased it to 400 to not have any issues. WIth a 400 setting i generally hit around 250 while unraring large files.

[Quade]

Sounds good. What that tells you is that the disks are falling behind and the RAM buffers is just tiding you over. Which is fine and why the cache is there.

[windy]

I did this but the result remains the same, at default 100. How can I change it now?

[DThor]

You haven't been clear about what your problem is. Are you saying the cache keeps going to zero and Newsbin stops downloading? Did you try any of Quade's suggestions?

DT

[Quade]

Do you have any active servers? It'll sit at 100 if you don't have an active news servers.

[windy]

It goes to 0 cache very frequently for me, and that is why I want to increase it, otherwise it won't download at all. The settings did not change despite having it manually changed. I do have active servers, and I am downloading at 13.8MB/sec.

I am using 6.40B4 if it matters.

[itimpi]

Where in the nbi file do you have the setting for cache size? With the 6.40 beta releases it now has to be in the (new) Performance section. The old location under [Settings] will no longer work.

[Quade]

[Performance]
ChunkCacheSize=N


N defaults to 100. Keep in mind that each chunk represents 600K to 1 megs of buffer space.

[gquiring]

Its working for me, v6.34. My cache size shows 400.

[Quade]

1 - In low power mode, it's supposed to zero out the cache. It stops writing the downloads to disk and uses RAM instead when unraring or repairing.

2 - If you're RAM constrained you might want to turn the cache size down from 100.

3 - There are no miracles. If your machine is slow or you have slow disks no amount of buffering will help.

4 - If the cache number doesn't go up then you're doing it wrong.

- Exit
- Edit
- Restart

Is the sequence you have to follow. You have to edit the correct NBI file too. The variable changed places in the NBI. It was in [SETTINGS] before the performance options.