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Download speed will slow to nothing. Must continually manually pause and resume to force the connection to the download to complete. How to fix?

  • 7 replies
  • 37 have this problem
  • 12 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

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Have recently tried to download multiple files from multiple locations. These files will show up as downloading in the download manager. After 5-10 seconds, the download will slow to a crawl. In the window for the download manager, it will state that the download still has a download speed. When reviewing the time and progress, as well as monitoring my actual inbound/outbound internet traffic, I can conclude the download does not have any actual download speed remaining (that is, 0 kilobytes/sec).

To complete the download, I must manually click on the file being downloaded, force it to pause and then force it to resume. This will cause the download to actually download again for about 5-10 seconds before the download manager states that the download speed is slowing down (when in fact it goes back to 0 kilobytes/sec). This process must be repeated until the file is fully downloaded.

Also observed is that there will suddenly be more of a connection, downloading just a bit of the file, before going back to 0 kbps. This will happen every so often and is much slower than manually pausing/resuming. If left to its own devices for long, it also has a chance that it will decide that the file is complete and report that it has the full file size of the download. Review of the actual downloaded file shows that the file is incomplete for the supposed size of the download.

This should not be an issue with internet usage. There is no inbound/outbound traffic for my connection when the download speeds hit 0kbps. Loading webpages during this time load fine, only the download is unstable.

Have recently tried to download multiple files from multiple locations. These files will show up as downloading in the download manager. After 5-10 seconds, the download will slow to a crawl. In the window for the download manager, it will state that the download still has a download speed. When reviewing the time and progress, as well as monitoring my actual inbound/outbound internet traffic, I can conclude the download does not have any actual download speed remaining (that is, 0 kilobytes/sec). To complete the download, I must manually click on the file being downloaded, force it to pause and then force it to resume. This will cause the download to actually download again for about 5-10 seconds before the download manager states that the download speed is slowing down (when in fact it goes back to 0 kilobytes/sec). This process must be repeated until the file is fully downloaded. Also observed is that there will suddenly be more of a connection, downloading just a bit of the file, before going back to 0 kbps. This will happen every so often and is much slower than manually pausing/resuming. If left to its own devices for long, it also has a chance that it will decide that the file is complete and report that it has the full file size of the download. Review of the actual downloaded file shows that the file is incomplete for the supposed size of the download. This should not be an issue with internet usage. There is no inbound/outbound traffic for my connection when the download speeds hit 0kbps. Loading webpages during this time load fine, only the download is unstable.

All Replies (7)

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How many downloads are you trying to do? Try only one download and watch it using <Ctrl> J.

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I have the same problem....

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It is possible that anti-virus software is corrupting downloaded files or is interfering otherwise.

Try to disable the real-time (live) scanning of files in your anti-virus software temporarily to see if that makes downloading work.

See:

browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone

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I have no any AntiVirus Softwares running on my PC. I'm using Win XP and System is clean. (after a fresh install) :'(

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First, get an anti-virus program . . . . . . NOW ! ! ! !

This is to protect your computer from being turned into a pile of
junk by any of the TENS OF THOUSANDS of virus / malware / spy
programs that are out there. There are a few free programs available.
Second, do a FULL SYSTEM SCAN of your system. It could be a virus
is causing your problems. 
--------------------------------------------------
I notice that you have several downloading add-ons on your system.
Are you using one of them? Or Firefox built in downloader?
What ever one you are using, try a different one. You could also
try turning off those add-ons to see if anything changes.
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Problem Solved!!! :) No need Of Any AntiVirus ! Got back into Firefox 5.0.1 !!

Its Working Great!

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I'm glad you are happy. But v 5 is very old and may cause problems. At least get something from this year. As to the anti-virus, this to is your choice. BUT you leave yourself open to all kinds of malware.