Interrupts and Strange ProcessExplorer Behaviour

[guguma]

Dear All,

I am running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit on an ASUS UL50VT laptop (I will write in detail why this laptop model is a little strange, please see information after the dash line).

Long story short process explorer reports and almost constant CPU usage by Interrupts/DPC's of 20%. For a snapshot of ProcessExplorer please see the image in the provided link:

PE Snapshot

So I ran xperf (for about 2 minutes), but to my surprise neither DPC's nor Interrupts show a CPU use close to 20%. Please see the etl file in the link provided:

Interrupts/DPC.etl

So what is going on here, I am utterly confused, and your help is greatly appreciated. If you are interested in the history of the issue and what I have tried before please see additional information below.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

----------------------------------------------------------------

I must confess that before posting here I have done these tests before, and in the etl files I could see my nvidia drivers being problematic. UL50VT has 2 display adapters One Intel and an NVIDIA G210M, and uses an ASUS proprietary technology to switch between the 2 and ASUS stopped driver support for these in 2009.

Some people managed to build custom driver packages and I was using one of those. When I had that driver package I did run the same routine tests and the nvidia drivers were problematic (it showed clearly in the etl file).

Now I have gone back to the official ASUS drivers, and when I saw process explorer reporting similar interrupt use I tried a billion things to fix the issue. I disabled usb ports from the bios, and network adapters and audio drivers, but to no awail. I tried a bunch of drivers for all components (all official ASUS drivers). A couple of full reinstalls of the system but this issue with interrupts was not resolved.

But now that xperf does not show any interrupt/dpc use but process explorer reporting almost constant %20 use I am seriously confused and your help is greatly appreciated.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Best,

-Guguma

[Tripredacus]

ASUS proprietary technology to switch between the 2

Asus merely gives it a name (Graphix Boost) but the technology isn't theirs. It is actually Intel's technology.

http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-031103.htm

[MagicAndre1981]

read me answer at sysinternals:

http://forum.sysinternals.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=29399&PID=139771&title=interrupts-and-strange-processexplorer-behaviour#139771

[guguma]

Dear MagicAndre1981 (replied at sysinternals as well),

I understand there are graphic issues, the problem is that this driver:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook-win8-win7-64bit-320.14-beta-driver.html

is not compatible with my computer.

As I said in the Additional Information, ASUS has a special controller between the intel and nvidia card, making official nvidia drivers not even install.

To overcome this issue some people did release supposedly stable 260.xx drivers, I have tried them and they make the issue even worse.

The strange thing is that I have been using this laptop for 3-4 years and did quite a lot of re-installs. ProcessExplorer was always a must in the system, and this is the first time I am seeing this issue.

Could it be a Directx update that is causing the issue? If so how can I use and older version of Directx?

Best,

Guguma

[guguma]

So I have Installed Service Pack 1 but there is absolutely no effect. Any more ideas?

[MagicAndre1981]

use this modded .inf file:

http://blog.komeil.com/2010/04/nvidia-driver-windows-7-notebook-laptop.html

or this: