Trying to get an older laptop to work with windows 8.1 - Latency/SSD/C

[seanlosl]

Laptop in question a Toshiba L300D-11v (PLSC0E). It originally came with windows Vista 32bit a good 4 years ago.

I've recently upgraded the ram from 2GB, to 4GB, and installed Windows 8.1 on an SSD. First problem here was it was running in IDE mode - using AS SSD I was getting picide bad, and some slow results - thanks to some help from someone on the internet, and a modded bios unlocking more settings I was able to install Windows in AHCI.

Ram is: 2x2GB 200PIN DDR2 SODIMM UNBUFFPC2-6400 CL6

SSD: Kingston SSDNOW 300v

My graphics drivers are not supported in Windows 8, but up to Windows 7. I can install ATI Catalyst Control Center 9.2 (which is just before when they stopped supporting my onboard graphics, I think: ATI Radeon x1250) by installing Net Framework 2/3/3.5 and running in Windows 7 compatibility mode. Everything seems alright at this point, I get my 1920x1080 res on external monitor. I've not got this installed now, for testing purposes.

This is where I run into problems; I get stuttering, and skipping on my audio quite frequently, but not constantly. I installed LatencyMon and it was pointing to USBPORT.sys, so I disabled everything I could in device manager and turned them on/off one-by-one and it looks like it's my network adapter: Realtek RTL8187B Wireless 802.11b/g 54Mps USB 2.0 Network Adapter. The driver it's using is provided by Microsoft, dated 19/02/2013 (62.1187.318.2014).

Here's some LatencyMon stats (all ran for 30 seconds):

Adapater on:

USBPORT.sys - ISR Count: 1523, DPC Count: 8581, Highest execution (ms): 0.342524

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (us): 8891.912240

Page Faults: 59 @ 844126831317 (us) Highest.

Here's the complete stats: http://pastebin.com/H1BpfxtE[1]

Switched off on laptop, but still enabled in device manager:

USBPORT.sys - ISR Count: 548, DPC Count: 2432, Highest execution (ms): 0.114992

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (us): 145.688907

Page Faults: 73 @ 964715111713 (us) Highest.

Here's the complete stats: http://pastebin.com/Vfwg1DZc[2]

Switched off laptop/disabled device manager:

USBPORT.sys - ISR Count: 32, DPC Count: 337, Highest execution (ms): 0.096517

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (us): 158.400020

Page Faults: 62 @ 1021005109735.880(us) Highest.

Here's the complete stats: http://pastebin.com/KiQerbNX[3]

So I suppose my questions are, is it my wireless causing me problems? Could it be me SSD - I didn't have problems on HDD (32bit)? New Drivers (Can't find any new than the ones dated in device manager)? What are hard pagefaults, they don't seem to be causing me much hassle? Is there any way around this? I can't use LAN as I'm just too far away. I suppose I could use those ethernet things that plug into sockets, but I'd rather try any free options first.

I don't think I was having these problems in windows 8.1, when I was running 32bit on the HDD; never ran LatencyMon. I could check later on. I ran windows 8 (not 8.1) 32bit on it for quite a while without noticing any issues like this, but on my HDD.

Sorry if it's a bit long, but any help is really appreciated.

EDIT:

Don't know why I didn't test this earlier, but still getting a few crackles and skips, even when both the adapter and switch is off. Seems to happen when clicking, or doing something. Like using metro apps, or switching between start screen/all apps.

LatencyMon shows storport.sys with ISR and DPC is 1600, and usbport with a higher ISR than DPC this time: 2977:292. So is it not the adapter causing this?

Here's full stats: http://pastebin.com/F4nYrarV[4]

My CPU seems to hit high, up to 100% when doing some thing things (opening metro apps, loading webpages) but drops to around 10-30% when doing minimal tasks, and stays around 1-5% idle. It's only dual core, 1.9ghz.

Edited January 18, 2014 by seanlosl

[MagicAndre1981]

capture a xperf trace (use the 8.1 WPT!) and upload the zipped ETL file

[seanlosl]

capture a xperf trace (use the 8.1 WPT!) and upload the zipped ETL file

Attached the trace. It didn't happen on the desktop, but I opened the Weather app, then Mail and both were bad. CPU at 100% when video playing

(youtube).

trace.zip

Edited January 18, 2014 by seanlosl

[MagicAndre1981]

don't run LatencyMon at the same time.

[seanlosl]

don't run LatencyMon at the same time.

Totally forgot about that. Here's one with just Chrome, cmd and task manager. Plus Windows Weather, and Mail.

Edit/ just realised there was nothing in the trace for some reason. Uploading new one.

I was playing music with spotify this time, and it didn't seem to have the stuttering audio in either the desktop apps, or windows 8 apps. So I switched to streaming it on a browser, and I got stuttering. High CPU still, on either.

Here it is: http://www.sendspace.com/file/2tplaw

Edited January 19, 2014 by seanlosl

[seanlosl]

Can anybody take a look?

[MagicAndre1981]

DiagEasy doesn't capture all data that I need. Use the command that I posted here in the DPC guide.

[seanlosl]

DiagEasy doesn't capture all data that I need. Use the command that I posted here in the DPC guide.

Oops, sorry.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/164836

[MagicAndre1981]

the trace shows that the DPC values are still ok, but you have some high CPU usage in the Bing Weather and Mail app. The USBport usage seams to come from the rtl8187B.sys (USB WIFI) driver which is relaetd to the App activity. They seam to retrieve data which causes USB activity. So look for a driver update.

[seanlosl]

the trace shows that the DPC values are still ok, but you have some high CPU usage in the Bing Weather and Mail app. The USBport usage seams to come from the rtl8187B.sys (USB WIFI) driver which is relaetd to the App activity. They seam to retrieve data which causes USB activity. So look for a driver update.

Thanks for the reply, do you know how I would go about installing a windows 7 driver? It automatically chooses the driver that came with installation and says it's up to date if I try to manually point it to the older one.

[seanlosl]

the trace shows that the DPC values are still ok, but you have some high CPU usage in the Bing Weather and Mail app. The USBport usage seams to come from the rtl8187B.sys (USB WIFI) driver which is relaetd to the App activity. They seam to retrieve data which causes USB activity. So look for a driver update.

Thanks for the reply, do you know how I would go about installing a windows 7 driver? It automatically chooses the driver that came with installation and says it's up to date if I try to manually point it to the older one.

Uninstalling it via the device manager, then scanning for hard ware changes, it automatically picks a newer one.

[MagicAndre1981]

manually select the new driver and don't let Windows search for the drivers.

[seanlosl]

manually select the new driver and don't let Windows search for the drivers.

I've tried all the drivers I can, with no luck. So it sounds like the wireless adapter is just no good with windows 8?

If I uninstall it, maybe even disconnect it from the motherboard completely, and buy a usb adapter that's capable of windows 8, that should fix it right?

Found this little thing, which costs next to nothing (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edimax-EW-7811UN-150Mbps-Wireless-Adapter/dp/B003MTTJOY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390857265&sr=8-1&keywords=wireless+adapter) and looks like it has windows 8 drivers on their website. Should work with windows 8.1, too?

EW-7811Un, EW-7722UTn v2.0 802.11n Nano USB Driver for Win XP 32/64, Vista 32/64, Win 7 32/64, Win8 32//64

Also, I turned it off and uninstalled the drivers, then loaded a couple of web pages that I saved. My CPU still spikes to 60% when loading it, is that just expected from a laptop this old, running dual core 1.9ghz...

Edited January 27, 2014 by seanlosl

[MagicAndre1981]

I ave no experience with such Nano Adapters. I don't know how good they are.

[seanlosl]

I ave no experience with such Nano Adapters. I don't know how good they are.

It wasn't very good. Nowhere near the '150Mbps' advertised - slower than onboard actually - and still caused high cpu w/ jerky video. Is it possible it's my chipset/usb drivers, and no the wireless drivers themselves?

Edited January 29, 2014 by seanlosl