Downloads often stop at 50KB.

30 Oct 2007 4:34 AM

Robbie Hatley

I've been having a problem recently on no less than two different
computers, both running Windows 2000 Professional: when downloading
files from the Internet, the download often stops at 50KB, with
Windows thinking that the download is complete, even if the actual
file size was 1.38MB or 11.85MB or whatever. Once this happens
once, it can take anywhere from 10 to 100 further attempts to get
the download to actually complete.

I did find a partial work-around, by accident: if I empty
the temporary Internet files, the next attempt to download
the file usually succeeds. It's as if Windows sees a 50KB
file named "Fred.zip" in it's cache, says "ah-ha, the user is
attempting to download "Fred.zip", and I've already cached
that file, so I'll just give the user the cached version!"
Windows doesn't bother to check that the cached version is
COMPLETE.

So, what would cause Windows to think that a 50KB partial
download of an 11MB file is "complete"? (Seems like a bug.)
And why does it keep offering-up the same 50KB piece of trash
as being an 11MB file? (Seems like a second bug.)

Are there any workarounds for these bugs, other than emptying
the cache and trying again? That is, is there some way to
keep downloads from cutting off at the 50KB mark (it's always
almost exactly 50KB) in the first place?

And why 50KB? If downloads are going to fail, why not at
11.7KB or 1.53MB or whatever?

--
Puzzled,
Robbie Hatley
lone wolf aatt well dott com
www dott well dott comm slant user slant lonewolf slant

2 Nov 2007 2:55 AM

Ushnell

Hey Robbie. I am not sure but I think your problem has to do with Internet
Explorers settings where you tell it how much space of the hard disk cached
files
must use such in the Temp folder were as I have noticed installers use to
store there temporary files. So try raising the amount of space is utilized
and see if that will work.

Best Regards,

--
Ushnell

Show quoteHide quote

"Robbie Hatley" wrote:

>
> I've been having a problem recently on no less than two different
> computers, both running Windows 2000 Professional: when downloading
> files from the Internet, the download often stops at 50KB, with
> Windows thinking that the download is complete, even if the actual
> file size was 1.38MB or 11.85MB or whatever. Once this happens
> once, it can take anywhere from 10 to 100 further attempts to get
> the download to actually complete.
>
> I did find a partial work-around, by accident: if I empty
> the temporary Internet files, the next attempt to download
> the file usually succeeds. It's as if Windows sees a 50KB
> file named "Fred.zip" in it's cache, says "ah-ha, the user is
> attempting to download "Fred.zip", and I've already cached
> that file, so I'll just give the user the cached version!"
> Windows doesn't bother to check that the cached version is
> COMPLETE.
>
> So, what would cause Windows to think that a 50KB partial
> download of an 11MB file is "complete"? (Seems like a bug.)
> And why does it keep offering-up the same 50KB piece of trash
> as being an 11MB file? (Seems like a second bug.)
>
> Are there any workarounds for these bugs, other than emptying
> the cache and trying again? That is, is there some way to
> keep downloads from cutting off at the 50KB mark (it's always
> almost exactly 50KB) in the first place?
>
> And why 50KB? If downloads are going to fail, why not at
> 11.7KB or 1.53MB or whatever?
>
> --
> Puzzled,
> Robbie Hatley
> lone wolf aatt well dott com
> www dott well dott comm slant user slant lonewolf slant
>
>
>

17 Nov 2007 7:25 AM

Robbie Hatley

I'd written:

Show quoteHide quote

> > I've been having a problem recently on no less than two different
> > computers, both running Windows 2000 Professional: when downloading
> > files from the Internet, the download often stops at 50KB, with
> > Windows thinking that the download is complete, even if the actual
> > file size was 1.38MB or 11.85MB or whatever. Once this happens
> > once, it can take anywhere from 10 to 100 further attempts to get
> > the download to actually complete.
> >
> > I did find a partial work-around, by accident: if I empty
> > the temporary Internet files, the next attempt to download
> > the file usually succeeds. It's as if Windows sees a 50KB
> > file named "Fred.zip" in it's cache, says "ah-ha, the user is
> > attempting to download "Fred.zip", and I've already cached
> > that file, so I'll just give the user the cached version!"
> > Windows doesn't bother to check that the cached version is
> > COMPLETE.
> >
> > So, what would cause Windows to think that a 50KB partial
> > download of an 11MB file is "complete"? (Seems like a bug.)
> > And why does it keep offering-up the same 50KB piece of trash
> > as being an 11MB file? (Seems like a second bug.)
> >
> > Are there any workarounds for these bugs, other than emptying
> > the cache and trying again? That is, is there some way to
> > keep downloads from cutting off at the 50KB mark (it's always
> > almost exactly 50KB) in the first place?
> >
> > And why 50KB? If downloads are going to fail, why not at
> > 11.7KB or 1.53MB or whatever?

and "Ushnell" <Ushn***@discussions.microsoft.com> replied:

> Hey Robbie. I am not sure but I think your problem has to do with Internet
> Explorers settings where you tell it how much space of the hard disk cached
> files
> must use such in the Temp folder were as I have noticed installers use to
> store there temporary files. So try raising the amount of space is utilized
> and see if that will work.

I'm startled to see that there was only one reply, and it was basically
irrelevant. I'm nowhere near stupid enough to set cache size at 50KB,
if that's what you're implying. Perhaps if my IQ was 100 points less.
No, the I keep temporary-Internet-files cache size at around 1 to 2 GB on
most computers I work with, so that's not an issue. (If any OS needs more
than 1 GB of space to download a 10MB file, it's broken to the point where
it should be scrapped and replaced with a different OS.)

SInce no one made a relevant reply, even after several days, I'll try again,
in a new thread. (Hmmm... here, and also in one or two of the IE groups,
since this is possibly more on-topic there.)

--
Cheers,
Robbie Hatley
lonewolf aatt well dott com
www dott well dott com slant user slant lonewolf slant