High CPU usage?

[r21daureeawoo]

Hi all,

I'll be soon an IT Technician and i'm pretty much getting used to building pc's. Here's the problem i'm having with my build.

Basically the issue has been explained more than once on the forums but the solution just wasn't there for me, so here we go.

I've been using my pc for gaming mostly for 6 months very stable and everything until this happened.

Well like most of you, i've been trying the windows 7 (x32/x64) and other flavours of vista (x32/x64) for the last 6 months while gaming at HD res all the time and there was never an issue.

So the problem is that anytime i open up windows task manager or any other adjustable window and i try adjusting the window(includes maximising and minimising) the Cpu usuage just bursts up to roughly 45%. Like in many previous threads i'm already familiar with the red line showing kernel times in task manager and i did notice that 3/4 of the cpu usage bar (when it rises is red: meaning more kernel usage)

Also i hear a funny noise near the cpu area. It is definitely the CPU.

For some it might be that i'm too fussy or something but this did catch my attention specially while playing games like Racedriver GRID for example where it started to run slower specially at HD resolutions when it wasn't few months ago.

Here's what i've been trying:

1)I've re-installed windows(tried XP Pro x32,Vista Ultimate x32/64, 7 x32/64) and after each installation even before installing any drivers whatso ever the problem was there by going to task manager and trying the thing(ie holding corner of task manager and scrolling and seeing cpu/kernel usage go upto 40 % for nothing)

2)Reformatted and doing the above.
3) Used another power supply in case mine went wrong or something( Used HIPERPOWER | Type M | HPU-4M880)
4)Took all hardware out one by one in order of less importance and booting up to see if problem was still there. (took out DVD DRIVE since there were threads reporting it as the culprit, did also remove sound card etc..)
5)Used my old pc monitor in case it was the new one. Currently using Viewsonic one at 1920x1080; old one's spec was connected using VGA>DVI adaptor and 1280x1024)
6)Cleaned it up using compressed air in case it was dust or something that was bothering it somewhere but it wasn't.
7) Ran memtest 86+ and everything was fine with 1GB, 2GB and 4 GB onboard.
8) Also ran Prime 95 for 4-5 hours and nothing( temps were 60 C on average for all 4 cores)Is it too much?!
9) Tried disabling USB 1394 stuff and IEEE but none were the culprit!
10) Also applied the microsoft hotfix for ATI X2 cards to no avail!

Well i'll add more details to what i've done once I get a few replies i guess. Hope u guys will help me solve the mystery!

Thanks for listening.

Rameez

------------------------------------------------------
system spec: VX2260wm monitor at 1920x1080p
4 GB DDR3 RAM @1333 MHZ 9-9-9-26@ 1.68
Intel Q9550 @ Stock @ 2.83GHZ
ATI HIS 4870X2 2GB DDR5 Video card (DVI>DVI CONNECTION)
HIPER 780W 4M780-TYPE M
ON BAORD SOUND SUPREME FX 2
X38 ASUS MAXIMUS EXTREME MOTHERBOARD BIOS VERSION 1202(TESTED 1302 also but prefer 1202 cause the problem didn't appear on this one!)
300 GB Velociraptor DISK
Vista Ultimate x32 SP1 with all updates

Anything more please ask!

Thank you very much again!

 

[SMOKKINU]

if you are sure it is the CPU, why did you try any of that other stuff?


Sounds like the heatsink/fan may not be seated properly, but good enough for okay temps. If the fan is going bad.....that could cause a noise.


as for the usage... you noted that the problem did not occur when using the 1202 BIOS revision, but is occuring during 1302? if i am wrong correct me.

 

[r21daureeawoo]

Its only later that i found out that there was a noise connected with the issue but anyway the BIOS version doesn't really matter. Its there all the time. Along with the funny CPU noise while doing cpu intensive tasks like playing games etc
Otherwise the noise isn't present,only there when the CPU is above35-40 % that u can start hearing it!

But thnx!

 

[r21daureeawoo]

Problem still here mate!!Tried that one before!LOL!Still welcoming comments!
Just updated system specs!

 

[Noddsta]

the problem you got i get every now and them my cpu useage burst up to 100% and will run slowly fur about 2-3 mins then it perfect after that i being trying to solve mine for some time now i cant i have laptop you see i cant hear no noise but i take it as pinch salt now tbh if it goes bang it does its life loool

 

[r21daureeawoo]

Common mate! U can't compare those 2 issues although similar in nature! Mine doesn't ever hit 100 %! And maybe yours has to do with one specific application though. Heard a lot of fixes for different applications on pc's regarding 100 % cpu usage. U should look into that i guess. And as for the life of the rig i built,i expect it to live at least another 2 years!!I guest it ain't the same for a laptop..Laptop have generally a 2 year life expectancy. But i've seen macs living like for ages!!Thnx for participating though!!

 

[H2SO4]

Excellent problem description. Have rep.

CPU's don't make noise though, no matter how hard they're worked . That sort of noise is generated either as RFI through the speaker(s), or as resonance stemming from the mechanical movement of some component capable of moving, ever so slightly. I think I understand the type of noise you're referring to, but it's not from "the CPU" unless you mean the entire box housing the motherboard, PSU, HDD(s), and everything else. (The term CPU is anachronistic anyway - "processor" is preferable.)

Try this:

• Run PERFMON
• Highlight "Performance Monitor" on the left. You should now be looking at a "%processor time" line chart scrolling across your screen.
• Click the '+' button to add counters.
• Expand the "Processor" object. Everything underneatch it should already be highlighted (DPC Rate, DPCs Queued/sec, Interrupts/sec, and %Interrupt time are the counters I'm really interested in).
• Click the "Add >>" button. That should result in "Processor - * - _Total" being in the "Added counters" list on the right.
• OK your way out of that so you're back on the moving line chart.

If you repro your problem while watching those counters, some of them will spike. I'm interested in the 4 DPC and Interrupt-related quantities I mentioned above - what are the highest numbers reached for each of those during your processor utilisation blowout? You might need to play with the Perfmon tool a bit to get a feel for it.

 

[r21daureeawoo]

Hi there,

Just went through your very well explained tutorial! Here are the results. If u need an image then i'll mail it to you i guess would be easier.

%interrupt time:hardly any effect(extremely small bits of the red colour at zero)
DPC Rate:btw 20-40
DPC's Queued/sec:100
Interrupts/sec:a little less than 10

Hope that helps!

 

[H2SO4]

I suspect you may have a hardware/driver problem which manifests itself either as an abnormally high interrupt rate, or as long-running DPCs (they're a side-effect of interrupts).

Rather than an image, it would be useful if you could generate a short Perfmon "binary log" (BLG) file, say 20 or 30 seconds during which you repro your problem, with a 1 second capture interval and all the counters under the PROCESSOR object as described above, then zip up and upload that BLG here.

Have a look under "Data Collector Sets" | "User Defined" on the left hand side for a starting point on how to generate such a log.

There are more in-depth tools for this sort of troubleshooting than Perfmon, but they're more difficult to use and Perfmon is a good start.

 

[r21daureeawoo]

Hey! just rep ; )

Here's the log freshly made! Hope you manage to sort it out. If u need any more details dont hesitate!

Link attached.

Thanks!

 

[r21daureeawoo]

hey guys! Any comments still welcomed! Thanks!

 

[H2SO4]

hey guys! Any comments still welcomed! Thanks!

(Hmm, someone broke the "quick answer" button )

Not exactly what I expected to see. No obvious glaring issues with DPCs or interrupts, but perfmon suggests that it's primarily user-mode processor utilisation that's troubling you, not kernel (privileged) mode.

Out of curiosity, what happens if you force use of the vanilla VGA driver? From an elevated command prompt (run CMD as admin):

BCDEDIT /SET VGA ON

...then reboot and test again. Is the processor utilisation any different during window resizing?

 

[r21daureeawoo]

Hey! glad to hear from you!
Tried the instructions mentioned above but no difference what so ever.
I don' think that this might help but everytime i restart its a different core out of the 4 in the task manager that stretches out more than the others. For e.g when the cpu utilisation is 25%, only 1 out of the 4 cores in task manager stretches itself more than the others.
Hope i haven't been bothering u mate!

There's that other detail that when booting when the windows vista logo is shown along with the intro sound, the actual logo is there for less time (ie it doesn't actually glow as it is supposed to before loading the desktop. As if there's a delay or something)

 

[H2SO4]

You're not "bothering" me at all. Far from it. I appreciate your desire to understand the problem because I, like many of the regulars here, thoroughly enjoy the challenge of troubleshooting. Otherwise, I could just go browse the web or play Solitaire or something

Tell me something - is that screenshot of your perfmon data that I posted different to what you see in Task Manager? You mentioned that you see high kernel times (in Task Manager), and yet perfmon suggests user-mode code is the culprit?

I still suspect you've got a hardware issue, unfortunately, especially now that use of the base VGA driver has not made any difference. However, if you're willing to persist with it, there are one or two other (more complicated) tools which would provide further insight.

 

[r21daureeawoo]

Hey! If there is a will there is always a way!!would'nt mind going deeper into the matter to understand it better! I guess i should be able to cope with it! Thanks for all your support until now though!

As i once heard in a movie : You only get smarter by playing a smarter opponent!

Here we go! Am ready!

As regards to the picture,u posted, am re-running the perfmon analysis to see if its the same!

Actually they are more or less the same! CONFIRMED!

 

[H2SO4]

Sorry mate, I've got to go sleep now but tomorrow I'll try to write up a detailed description for the use of a tool which may throw more light on your issue - kernrate. If you search the web, you'll find plenty of write-ups on that tool, but it's not simple to use. What it can do is to tell you precisely where the processor time is being spent, as in which functions. That can sometimes provide clues as to the nature of the problem.

Others may of course have a fundamentally different approach to suggest to you.

The other thing I'd ask you to try in the meantime is whether it happens in safe mode. Given that all the reinstallations of different OSs have not done a thing to help, I'd be fairly surprised if the behaviour was different in safe mode, but it's worth testing.

 

[r21daureeawoo]

As regarding the safe mode of windows,i don't see the difference. Problem still there. My wife's laptop having vista home premium has also the same problem i see now!!Lol! just noticed that yesterday!

Could it be related to something to do with networking?

Her's is a sony vaio AR41M model all at stock!Pre-installed by sony!
Link to laptop's specs: http://vaio.sony.co.uk/view/ShowPro..._cons&pageType=Overview&category=VN+AR+Series

Hope that helps!

 

[H2SO4]

As regarding the safe mode of windows,i don't see the difference. Problem still there. My wife's laptop having vista home premium has also the same problem i see now!!Lol! just noticed that yesterday!

Could it be related to something to do with networking?

Her's is a sony vaio AR41M model all at stock!Pre-installed by sony!
Link to laptop's specs: VAIO : VGN-AR41M : United Kingdom

Hope that helps!

One machine at a time

1) Can you download kernrate and install it:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...59-8d9d-4c22-89c4-fad382eddcd1&displaylang=en

2) From an elevated CMD prompt (run CMD as admin) invoke KERNRATE.EXE. It should say it's capturing data and waiting for you to press spacebar.

3) Repro your high processor utilisation problem for a minute or so.

4) Press spacebar in the kernrate window.

I'm interested in the Kernrate summary first of all. We might need to change the approach based on that info.

 

[r21daureeawoo]

Am afraid i could not reproduce the steps above. Actually the program has no KERNRATE.EXE file. The link states that its only for 2000/XP also! Is there any special way to invoke the KERNRATE.EXE?!

Regardless of which executable file i try (be it Kernrate_i386_Win2000.exe or Kernrate_i386_XP.exe) i only get a prompt which tells me just press ctrl-c to finish collecting profile data.

Attached picture.

And as soon as i do ctrl-c it closes immediately.
Hope this helps!

Also didn't have time to replicate the primary problem while running this!

 

[H2SO4]

Sorry, misunderstanding. Don't press ctrl-C until after you replicate your processor utilisation issue.

Then, kernrate will generate a report, although I can't remember whether it just dumps it on-screen, or whether it writes a text file to the same directory. If it's the latter, the most useful thing would be if you could upload the text file here.