How to get the cause of high CPU usage by DPC / Interrupt

[savagejw]

Andre,

Thanks for all the work on this post. I recently purchased a Gateway DX-4822 for use with a HDTV streaming media. Thought it would be a good fit, but it's brand new and I'm already having issues. I'm using the HDMI output into a receiver and then sending video to the TV. The computer output is only good for stereo though...when in 5.1 it mixes all the audio channels and doesn't work properly. Sadly none of the other media driver are compatible with my machine. I've tried every version of the media drivers for the Intel G35 and nothing works at all, so I go back to the original.

Anyways...a bigger problem. When I stream video for about 20 minutes I get big system interrupt problems. I ran a trace and this is the output:

Hoping it's not a driver issue with the media chipset driver because as I said, I tried all alternatives available at Intel and after install I get numerous video and audio issues.

hope you can help!!

Jonathan

Edited April 7, 2010 by savagejw

[VultureX]

I think it may be caused by the PowerSaving feature of your mobile Intel i3 CPU. Which powerplan do you use? Try changing to high performance and disable all power saving features. Does it help? Or do you still have spikes from the ACPI.sys driver?

Well, I disabled IntelSpeedstep and put it on high performance mode, disabled all sleep/screen/shutdown timers, but I still get the spikes...

I've been busy with this all day long without any results, reinstalling drivers and stuff, but I only seem to break things up.

I've kind of had it with this thing. Thanks for your help André, but it just seems this laptop is not carefully put together considering all kind of dependencies on software and faulty drivers... If you delete one thing all hell breaks loose and it'll cost you all day to fix it again.

I'm back where I started now. I've wasted a day and tons of Gigs on system restore.

[MagicAndre1981]

Andre,

Hoping it's not a driver issue with the media chipset driver because as I said, I tried all alternatives available at Intel and after install I get numerous video and audio issues.

hope you can help!!

Jonathan

Hi Jonathan, I saw your PM, I check the file later and post what I see.

Well, I disabled IntelSpeedstep and put it on high performance mode, disabled all sleep/screen/shutdown timers, but I still get the spikes...

I've been busy with this all day long without any results, reinstalling drivers and stuff, but I only seem to break things up.

I've kind of had it with this thing. Thanks for your help André, but it just seems this laptop is not carefully put together considering all kind of dependencies on software and faulty drivers... If you delete one thing all hell breaks loose and it'll cost you all day to fix it again.

I'm back where I started now. I've wasted a day and tons of Gigs on system restore.

Contact the MS support and create a new PSS for your issue.

[VultureX]

Hey,

I've finally found the causes(!) of the latency spikes.

The first one obviously was the WLAN card. With that disabled I still had 15 seconds spikes and a few random spikes and no internet. Then I disabled the Microsoft ACPI-compliant Control Method Battery and that took care of the 15 second spikes. Now I still had a few random high spikes and no internet and no information about my battery life. Then I switched from my HD5470 to my Intel Media accelerator and now FINALLY all latency spikes are gone.

But now there's no internet, no battery information, no highpeformance quality graphics.

Would you still recommend to contact microsoft support? What does PSS mean?

Edit:

About the WLAN: I tried using only my other NIC with an ethernet cable, but that still gave me DPC latency spikes. So I uninstalled Norton Internet Security and now I can browse the web, download and upload using my other NIC card without latency spikes. If I use my WLAN card, I still get a number of spikes just after downloading or uploading, similar to the images I posted earlier. Very weird:

Norton uninstalled and only the WLAN card causing DPC latency spikes just after internet usage:

Edited April 8, 2010 by VultureX

[MagicAndre1981]

the other NIC may have an integrated chip which processes some tasks in hardware, while the WLAN adapter uses the CPU more.

Because the ATI card causes the issue, contact the AMD/ATI support and tell them your results.

[VultureX]

the other NIC may have an integrated chip which processes some tasks in hardware, while the WLAN adapter uses the CPU more.

Because the ATI card causes the issue, contact the AMD/ATI support and tell them your results.

So basically I just have to accept that my WLAN card causes massive CPU load en DPC spikes

I'm still not happy with the Microsoft ACPI-compliant Control Method Battery device. It causes spikes like this:

What did you mean by "create a new PSS" ?

[MagicAndre1981]

I mean a Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) call, if you have an issue with Windows. But as you found out is was an issue with your WLAN/ graphics card.

[VultureX]

And what about the Microsoft ACPI-compliant Control Method Battery then?

I'm talking about this device:

It's causing the latency spikes I mentioned in my previous post. If I disable this device the spikes are gone, but then the battery icon in the task bar tray is also gone and I can't find out how much battery life I have got left.

[MagicAndre1981]

For the Microsoft ACPI-compliant Control Method Battery issue you should try to contact the MS support. I don't know why it causes the spikes.

[savagejw]

Andre,

You mentioned my system interrupts was a DirectX/video driver issue. I've tried every driver offered for my graphics card without any improvement. Should I try and change the version of DirectX used?

You also mentioned USBPort causing a lot of the problems, but the only USB port I'm using is for a wireless mouse/keyboard and the problem was occuring before I installed the wireless mouse/keyboard as well.

Thanks for the help,

Jonathan

[MagicAndre1981]

You can't change DirectX in Windows Vista/7. Those DirectX DLLs are used for Windows Aero Glass. Which driver are you using for your Intel® GMA X4500? A driver directly from Intel or a modified driver form your PC maker?

[savagejw]

You can't change DirectX in Windows Vista/7. Those DirectX DLLs are used for Windows Aero Glass. Which driver are you using for your Intel® GMA X4500? A driver directly from Intel or a modified driver form your PC maker?

Sorry for my lack of computer knowledge...didn't know u couldn't change DirectX version/drivers.

I am using the modified driver from the PC maker. I tried every driver available from Intel without luck. They only had multimedia driver updates available (not just video) and when I tried an update I lost all audio function from the chipset. However, I was looking for updates for the Intel G43 Chip...I think that's what is listed by Gateway as in my machine. But I think most drivers are the same for both these chips, but maybe I am wrong.

However today I just noticed this driver available when searching for the GMA X4500:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18902〈=eng

I'll give it a shot later today.

Thanks Andre, your input is much appreciated!

[MagicAndre1981]

Have you tried the latest driver from Intel? Does it solve the issue?

[chazzi]

I ran your guide and after some picking and poking I found out that is the ACPI.sys thats tearing my pc apart.

Could someone help me with the next step please :=)

[MagicAndre1981]

What's your hardware? Please make sure you're using the latest BIOS and chipset drivers.