Jump to content

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


Recommended Posts


Hello Andre

I read the first 15 pages of the thread, and couldn't find anything close to what I am experiencing - if a solution is in the second half I apologize for wasting your time.

It seems to me my numbers are very high, you said to watch out for usec values over 256... almost all of mine are over 100,000 =\

Here's screenshots of both DPC and Interrupt tables

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/8336/dpca.jpg

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/9877/interuupt.jpg

It seems multiple files are causing issues, even my lower ones seem to have higher values than I've seen other people post their highest ones have (if it's relative numbers that matter, and not absolute ones, I guess this is irrelevant though)

My etl file is 664mb but if you want me to upload it i can.

The specific issue i'm having is every 15 or so minutes, my CPU usage hits 100% for 5 - 10 minutes. If it helps this is after a dell tech came over and replaced my motherboard with a new one. All my drivers (webcam, chipset, video, network adapters, bios, card reader,etc.) are all up to date from the dell website. My machine is a Dell Studio XPS 16 laptop, running Vista SP1 64 bit

This has been driving me nuts, anything you can help with i'd greatly appreciate.

Edited by Gohan3k
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thing is, I have to wait for the spike to happen before I close the trace. It's random and not a consistent issue. It happens like every 10 minutes or so.

It's happened even with the western digital harddrive out.

I'll install SP2, remove every USB device and do another trace if you think that will help?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alright, updated to SP2, did a windows update, unplugged all USB devices and still getting the same issue. I even disabled my wireless adapter.

New DPC: http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/7034/dpc2.jpg

New Interupt: http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/5112/interupt2.jpg

And I've private messaged you the new ETL file

Thank you so much for your insight on this issue. Rarely do I ever get free help from someone I am a stranger to

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WoW and the Windows Update engine cause 80% of your CPU usage.

some spikes are only caused by DPCs:

Total = 32336 for module ndis.sys

Elapsed Time, > 4096 usecs AND <= 8192 usecs, 1, or 0.00%

Total = 14752 for module ataport.SYS

Elapsed Time, > 1024 usecs AND <= 2048 usecs, 2, or 0.01%

Total = 1353 for module acpi.sys

Elapsed Time, > 1024 usecs AND <= 2048 usecs, 13, or 0.96%

So ACPI causes the spikes which causes your issues. Try a different power plan and update the BIOS of your laptop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Before the motherboard switch, WoW did not cause any issues.

I've already updated the BIOS (The Dell website had the same version I had already installed though, but I installed it anyway) and switched from "dell recommended" power to "maximum power" or whatever it's called. This was prior to that last trace.

Do you have any other suggestions? I'm going to try reformatting and reinstalling windows but if it's a BIOS problem I don't think that will help :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very great, many thanks for this.

I even succeeded to run xperf under WinXP (this is something I wanted to share with the community to give something back):

- first I extracted "xperf.exe" and "xperfctl.dll" from the "wpt_x86.msi" (you can use 7zip to do this)

- i copied this to a temporary folder

- i started a dos box and changed to that folder

- i ran the xperf logging like described and stopped it like described

I did NOT succeed viewing/debugging the etl-file in WinXP, but: I just copied the "*.etl" to a Win7 computer (where I have a normal wpt-Installation running) and doubleclicked the *.etl-file to find results...

It seems to work and I could identify a troublemaker on the WinXP machine (see attachmed file, etl was created with xperf in WinXP and diagnose ran in xperfview@Win7, thats why there's the aero window style).

post-339221-0-79404700-1322595320_thumb.

So thank you for this thread and I hope someone could benefit from my WinXP-trials with this tool...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Magic Andre, Man you have put your soul into helping people on this thread. Massive Ups to you. There is a place in heaven reserved for people relieving computer rage.... I have the CPU spikes causing audio and video stuttering which is driving me up the wall! I would really appreciate your help to interpret the results of the xperf file. I have followed your initial instructions and have my report. Which is the result or column that indicates the driver at fault? On one occasion I ran it and got USBPORT at the top of the list. Then another time NDIS then another time TCPIP.sys (that was when I made it a very small duration centered on the actual spike.. I have updated my Realtek audio drivers off the website. Following the NDIS find I updated my WLAN drivers off the website also (Windows didn't seem to think they needed updating in device manager) my problem is still there. The longer I have it logged in the worse it gets although a restart will often cure it temporarily.

Would it be easier if I just PM you my scan to look at?

Many thanks for any help you can provide.

Edited by BearandNeets
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...