DPC latency + Hiccups while boot [Win8.1]

It's been 4 days since I received my AW17 and was going through most of the threads for information on the new lineup of the alienware systems of 2013/2014.

And being through this thread for the setup information of the HWInfo, MSI Afterburner(RSTT).I was finally able to set those tools with the Dell EC (Settled with those Lockdown RPM for Fans as 0,2000,4600 - CPU & 0,2000,3500 -GPU) as Compal EC won't let me check the GPU fans. Plus disabled the GPU I2C Support and GPU I2C via NVAPI as pointed out by residual voltage disabled the fan control also.

Despite doing all these sadly the DPC will never go down and adding to that the Optimus and non Optimus results vary.With each restart cummulatively after (fn+F5) post-bootup my system gives hiccups screen going black for a ms then again on. This hiccup thing doesn't happen always.....

Is this due to Intel Rapid start or Killer Suite or Optimus switching ? or Should I install a fresh copy of Win7 Ultimate / Professional ?
Moreover I couldn't find single driver package for e2200 Killer, always ended up with that killer suite...

Can I get any help regarding this issue/ Is it software or Hardware ...?
Did ePSA test except for RAM - OK for all components, no crashes either while moderate gaming, No overheating.
No benching either thought I'd better get this sorted out before benching
No OC, Stock vBIOS & AW BIOS vA14 Attached some snaps that might be useful...


P.S : Thanks to Mr.Fox and others who helped NBR for very useful information at fingertips & sorry for being so lenghty....

 

You might want to read this: Gaming and mouse response BIOS optimization guide for modern PC hardware - 2014 r0ach edition

 

Thanks brother for your sugession, Tried uninstalling Intel RST Still this DPC lag persists. Rest of them can't be changed much...

Moreover the Alienware OSD and TI modded OSD also don't work on this crappy win 8.1, If I can manage getting the latency down It's ok else Win7 FTW.

 

Did you check process/drivers in latencymon, it may show something.

 

Mostly this ndis.sys happens to take more execution time in the previous run also...
And Idk why the intel's RST still shows up after uninstalling..

 

Try installing the same driver (RST), then uninstall it again but with Revo uninstaller - get this program on some p2p site. (I always recommend to use revo uninstaller for system drivers)

You can also check under device manager if you have RST set up under disk drives or ATAPI controllers. You can use uninstall with the checkbox of "delete device driver software" ticked.


Lastly you can check for driver updates using this system analyzer tool: Easily explore your PC


Else try deleting the RST exe if the problem still persists.

 

Howdy Ashtrix,

I apologize for my ignorance, but what do you mean by DPC Latency? Are you referring to audio capture? I assume that the M17 uses host-based audio (no dedicated audio hardware), which is typically sub-optimal when doing any kind of professional audio work. It is normally better to get an external capture device, even USB based solutions offer higher quality to host-based processing. I guess I don't understand what your issue is? Thanks in advance for clarification.

 

DPC latency is the measure of delay in which windows as a non-RTOS accepts input, runs a process or does something that is connected to your current work.

It's not a measure of input lag, though having it lower will prevent issues like audio popping and result in a more responsive machine.

 

After going through a couple of threads on the Killer's e2200 NIC....

Killer e2200 NIC Issues w/ Alienware 18 - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?...kath5gbeh1&topic=173037.msg1266946#msg1266946
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=164835.msg1215981#msg1215981
Killer e2200 Gigabit not working - Guru3D.com Forums

^^^At last got the only driver package of that NIC, unfortunately my machine still gives damn high latency,

Plus even w.o that Ethernet driver (ndis.sys previously) the high latency, I wish there's some way to fix this issue...





P.S: Anyone who wants to get rid of that crappy Killer suite, follow those links you will find the files only you need without that bloatware..

Edit : And my Acer Ultrabook Aspire S3 - i5 2467M, 4GB DDR3, Win 7 Ultimate x64 + Intel RST installed - DPC reading is an avg of 120usecs, while my AW (win8.1) is around 1000us, while running HWinfo - 4k-10k usecs.

 

Have you tried updating windows 8.1 to see if microsoft comes up with any new fixes that you might've missed?

Used another antivirus? (MBAM is pretty easy on system load)

Tried to set core parking to disabled? Coder Bag: Disable CPU Core Parking Utility / http://bitsum.com/about_cpu_core_parking.php

Tried setting timer resolution to 0.5? Timer Resolution « Lucas Hale

Install nvidia graphics driver without Geforce experience and 3D Vision?

Disabled superfetch and prefetch?



Edit: try disabling azalia (internal soundcard) in the BIOS if you have an external sound card / DAC.

Also check if you have any audio driver made by c-media in the device manager, the drivers supplied from them usually has high DPC latency (ASUS Xonar / Sennheiser 3DG4ME device)

 

Will try em out & post results if anything changes.
Thanks for the sugesstions..

 

Disabled Prefetch & Superfetch this resulted in fluctuating DPC between 1.4kus to 2kus while it was a 1000us constant, Plus Im using McAfee 365 days version so thought not to remove it, the same thing nothing changes.
About the Timer Resolution, I've set it to .5ms there's a latency drop from 1000us to 560us but it's not stable it fluctuates between 500-2000us(though 2000us is very rare), Still it's haivng downsides... Thanks anyways.

Tried 4x systems running win8.1 and all of them are having the same 1000us and Win 7 Pro/Ultimate x64 give a 100-190us I guess this cannot be reduced under 500us in the Win8/ 8.1 OSes unfortunately.

4K hit is due to HWInfo



Summarization : Disabling Prefetch, Superfetch doesn't change, Instead changing timer resolution improves em a bit with disabling Prefetch & Superfetch, though this results in an unstable environment leaving no choice with this Win 8.1 OS.

 

After this whole BS, I've decided to rollback to the best OS !!
And now the latency is normal under 100us, Problem solved