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

[MagicAndre1981]

run a the xperf commadns and give me the ETL file. But stop LatencyMon before running xperf!

[doveman]

I've been having various problems with my system, even now I've got an SSD, so I've setup a clean Windows just for a few games (on the HDD as I don't have room on the SSD for two Windows installs as well as my games) and at least it doesn't crash like the SSD Windows but I'm having strange audio dropouts and stutters when playing games.

 

I checked with LatencyMon and that showed some spikes for highest measured latency but DPC Latency Checker doesn't show any problems, so I'm not sure if the problem's latency related. Should I run the game and start an xperf trace and then stop it after I see/hear the problems?

[Ninjah Tigah]

Hello,

 

First of all, thank you for the guide, I've spent over 20 hours solid trying to get my PC back to the way it was previously and recently directed towards this page. The main issue I'm having is that when I run the Administrator: Command Prompt and type the lines which you've instructed, like this:

 

http://i.imgur.com/BFdOtIs.png

 

Whenever I have done that, I then have this:

 

http://i.imgur.com/Ove8Foc.png

http://i.imgur.com/tM0GHoj.png

 

I believe you said in an above post that Kernel & DPC_Interrupt are supposed to have merged.

 

If there's any problems with that, I would greatly appreciate any help as I have run "xperf -d DPC_Interrupt.etl" as you instructed and it didn't merge.

Edited May 27, 2014 by Ninjah Tigah

[MagicAndre1981]

@Ninjah Tigah

 

Do you get any error message while running xperf -d DPC_Interrupt.etl?

[Ninjah Tigah]

@Ninjah Tigah

 

Do you get any error message while running xperf -d DPC_Interrupt.etl?

 

I get no error message sadly. On the bright side, using LatencyMon, I've found this:

 

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs):              2099.1250

Driver with highest ISR routine execution time:       dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%):          39.175276

Driver with highest ISR total time:                   dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%)                          39.256579

ISR count (execution time <250 µs):                   3597751

ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0

ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs):                1

ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              1

ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              1

ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

REPORTED DPCs

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs):              3929.740

Driver with highest DPC routine execution time:       nvlddmkm.sys - NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 337.88 , NVIDIA Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%):          6.961873

Driver with highest DPC total execution time:         USBPORT.SYS - USB 1.1 & 2.0 Port Driver, Microsoft Corporation

 

 

The Nvidia drivers have proved difficult beyond comprehension to eradicate.

 

So far,

 

I used the control panel to remove Nvidia's Drivers, followed by CCleaner, didn't work when I reinstalled (still conflicting I'd guess).

 

I then uninstalled the programs yet again, disabled my graphics card, uninstalled all the drivers from it, followed by CCleaner. Didn't work upon reinstalled.

 

I then reinstalled, using Advanced Uninstaller (Program which I used to fix my faulty drivers on my Razor Lachesis) again followed by CCleaner. Didn't work.

 

I saw a lot of people talking about "Display Driver Uninstaller" and couldn't use this because of a framwork error. Since Framework 3.5.1 is already installed on the base of Windows 7, it would be pretty ironic and pointless if I were to download Framework 3.5 (as suggested by DDU). So didn't bother trying that.

 

I'm pretty sure I completely eradicated all Nvidia drivers (This seemed to solve the lag) but then when I tried reinstalling the appropriate drivers, the System Interrupts began once again. Currently, I do not have any Nvidia drivers installed on my PC (that I know of) and it seems to be fine, however, this is not exactly a good situation as I cannot do anything other than browse the internet - Can't even run VLC.

 

I'm not sure do you have any advice or can make heads/tails out of the above information from LatencyMon?

 

Also, sorry for the quite late response, wasn't expecting such a quick response and thank you.

 

My Video Card seems to have drivers on it still - It came up with "VGA Controller" installing then lagged out, could this be the issue? Is there anyway to compeletely purge drivers from the graphics card? - This may be the reason there's a conflict. I have tried disabling the card and uninstalling drivers (as said above)

Edited May 27, 2014 by Ninjah Tigah

[doveman]

I've been having various problems with my system, even now I've got an SSD, so I've setup a clean Windows just for a few games (on the HDD as I don't have room on the SSD for two Windows installs as well as my games) and at least it doesn't crash like the SSD Windows but I'm having strange audio dropouts and stutters when playing games.

 

I checked with LatencyMon and that showed some spikes for highest measured latency but DPC Latency Checker doesn't show any problems, so I'm not sure if the problem's latency related. Should I run the game and start an xperf trace and then stop it after I see/hear the problems?

Hmm, seems to be OK (the clean HDD Windows install) tonight, no stuttering or audio cut-outs whilst playing the same game, although there was one cut-scene that played in it's entirety with no audio but that's a different problem I think. I'll keep an eye on it to see if it plays up again.

[MagicAndre1981]

@Ninjah Tigah

 

you already use the latest GPU driver. Try older ones and maek sure no other devices shares the same IRQ like the GPU.

[Ninjah Tigah]

@Ninjah Tigah

 

you already use the latest GPU driver. Try older ones and maek sure no other devices shares the same IRQ like the GPU.

 

I think the issue is fixed now, I installed drivers from last year and there was 3 different pieces of hardware with conflicting IRQ's. It seems to be going very well atm, no system interrupts. Thank you very much for your help!

Edited May 28, 2014 by Ninjah Tigah

[Truant]

Hi There,

I am really hoping someone can help me with my computer.  I has been working fine up until very recently when I have been getting occaisional spikes of really high latency that freeze the machine up for several seconds.  I use this computer to make music so latency is obviously not ideal!  I have followed the steps in the tutorial and have a dpc_interrupt file (and a dpc.txt file) however don't really know how to interpret them.  I would really appreciate it if any help / advice was available! 

Thanks in advace!

[MagicAndre1981]

upload the ETL file

[MagicAndre1981]

some DPC usage comes from the LEqdUsb.Sys/LHidFilt.Sys (Logitech driver).

[jobambo]

Hello MagicAndre1981, 

Thank you for this guide and all the help you have provided. I have been experiencing an issue for the past week that I can not seem to fix. My computer has stutters that is noticeable in all windows. This issue happened suddenly. I have PMed you a trace using one of your very old guides.

 

I have noticed HAL.DLL causing the majority of the systematic spikes. Also, in Process Monitor, I have noticed that there is a Regedit change that happens 100x a second that is possibly linked with the Steam program. The Regedits stop when Steam is closed but the spikes remain. HAL.DLL could be causing the steam issue.

Also, do you have the setup files for the old version of xperfview.exe? I have found a single source for Windows toolkit version 4.1.1 which includes xperfview.exe but it does not have the ability to assign symbols using an internet source as you have pointed in your guide.

 

Let me know if you can offer any advice. Thanks in advance. 

Edited June 11, 2014 by jobambo

[MagicAndre1981]

the cpu usage comes from the nVIDIA driver. Please try a different one and look if this improves it. Also try to put the GPU into a different PCIe slot, if this is possible.

[jobambo]

the cpu usage comes from the nVIDIA driver. Please try a different one and look if this improves it. Also try to put the GPU into a different PCIe slot, if this is possible.

 

Sorry for not replying earlier. The numerous times I tried to tinker with the PC to fix this issue caused me to spill water and short out my keyboard.

To clarify, the current issue is my computer's cpu is heartbeating to ~10% every second. This causes a small stutter on any application including the desktop. Videos are not being able to be played smoothly regardless of format or quality. This came out of nowhere as this is my main TV watching PC.

 

Thank you for the suggestion of moving the GPU, unfortunately moving the card to the 8x PCIE slot did not change the spikes. But, you were right about Nvidia. I did notice that the stock intel VGA drivers did not cause any spikes and idled my CPU at 0%. At this time I have pretty much done everything related to this issue and following every thread on google for the first 20 pages. Tried:

 

Updating and downgrading every driver on the machine. 

Tried 4 different Nvidia versions. 

Every possible scan has been preformed. (Memtest, Malewarebytes, Intel Processor Diag, Antivirus x5, ect...)

BIOS was up to date prior to the issue. 

Computer is fulled cleaned and dusted. 

Disconnected every USB port.

Disabled devices and services, one by one, with restarts. a very tedious experiment.

Clean boot - No stutter on Intel GPU drivers, otherwise remains the same.

 

This thread will be my last hope. I never have accepted defeat to a windows machine, but 50 hours later, I am considering it.

As always, a reformat fixes everything. 

 

Edit: should probably post some specs:

Operating System

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1

CPU

Intel Core i5 2500K @ 3.30GHz 42 °C

Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology

RAM

8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 1066MHz (11-11-11-30)

Motherboard

ASRock Z77 Extreme4 (CPUSocket) 40 °C

Graphics

Panasonic-TV (1920x1080@60Hz)

ELDFT501J (1920x1080@60Hz)

Intel HD Graphics 3000 (ASRock)

2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 (PNY) 40 °C

Storage

465GB MAXTOR STM3500630AS ATA Device (SATA) 50 °C

1397GB Western Digital WDC WD15EADS-00P8B0 ATA Device (SATA) 44 °C

111GB TOSHIBA MKNSSDCR120GB ATA Device (SSD) 42 °C

931GB Western Digital WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 ATA Device (SATA) 44 °C

Optical Drives

ATAPI iHAS124 B ATA Device

Edited June 13, 2014 by jobambo

[AteraK]

run a the xperf commadns and give me the ETL file. But stop LatencyMon before running xperf!

 

Sorry for sounding stupid, but this thing seems a bit too advanced for me. I don't really know how to run those commands even after reading your tutorial, nor how to get the ETL file. Could you possibly simplify it for me?