Hardware Interrupts problem

edit: i had a faultly wireless card. i got a new one and it works, 100%.


hi guys, ever since i got my laptop (Z63A) i've always experienced lag

today, i finally tried to get to the bottom of it, and it turns out that my CPU Usage is spiking (Overall CPU Usage has always been 60-90% at idle) mainly because of Hardware Interrupts (seen in Process Explorer; 60-80% of CPU usage is from Interrupts alone)

I google'd for a long time and I haven't had much luck. I'm running out of ideas

 

Start killing each of the processes who might be doing it.(it might be a process who apparently and "innocently" are consuming only 1% of the cpu resource)
From the beginning what did you install who might be guilty ?
How much RAM do you have ?
Did you have a fresh installation from the beginning ?
Try a fresh installation (Norton Ghost your HDD,burn it to a DVD , kill your first partition , fresh install if happy keep things as they are if not restore them back)

 

mm, ive rebooted in safe mode and my CPU was still spiking at about 70% usage. i'm not sure what it is, i've heard gfx driver, usb driver, IDE (but i've checked that it's DMA instead of PIO)

i'll give that another try though

i have 1gb ddr2 533
yes, fresh install, this is second fresh install

 

You should have hardware interrupts going all the time. I mean, every time you move your mouse or type on your keyboard that's a hardware interrupt occurring. It's not the hardware interrupts so much as some program (maybe malware) running in the background sucking up your system resources. My philosophy is to reformat the hard drive and reinstall everything once every six months to deal with this potential problem as well as inherent Windows "junk" accumulation in registry.

Edit: just saw your newest post. Does it "lag" when you first install Windows without any of the drivers (graphics/sound/etc.)? If it does lag before any software installation, try updating your BIOS to the latest version. If it still lags, send it in to the shop.

 

How I'd tackle the problem:
1. Examine the process list in Task Manager, see what eats up the CPU.
2. If I can map process names to applications, I would see why those applications eat so much CPU. If they're not essential and I can solve easier by removing those application, I'd remove them.
3. If I the processes are system services, I would google and see if someone else had that problem and what was the cause.
4. If I can't identify the process name, I google for it and see if it's some sort of malware, worm etc. If so, I search for a tool to clean it up from the system.

Be aware that some worms etc. use Windows-looking names such as NOTEPAD.EXE etc., to fool the user. Any process with this name should typically correspond to an identically named file in windows/ or windows/system32. If it's somewhere else... it's fishy. Sure enough, many worms place themselves in windows/ or windows/system32. Google should help you here.

About reinstalling: run a reliable firewall before connecting to the network with a fresh install, otherwise the worm might be on your system before you even blink twice.

 

hi guys, heres the update:

instead of backtracking, i did a fresh install again, using NTFS (not quick)

i brought Process Explorer over on a usb drive (never connected to internet) and it's showing 60-75 under the CPU column from Interrupts (hardware interrupts)

next highest is just system idle process at about 30-40
and process explorer is about 1-3

my CPU usage at idle is still about 60-80% at idle

could this mean a faulty hardware installation? should i go ahead and just send it back under warranty?

task manager: system idle process (CPU:96)
procexp: (CPU:04)

:/

edit: and i'm using the latest W3A bios

 

It just popped into my mind.
Go to the Device Manager start checking the Recources tab.
Can you see : "IRQ conflict"
An IRQ conflict can cause some nasty and persistant lags.

 

here is the IRQ screen, without any additional drivers installed because of fresh reformat

 

i've been trying to install the modem driver, but nothing is working. could this be the source of my problem? loose connection somewhere? but i assume the modem is onboard the intel mobo. i'm really disgruntled now =/

 

You need the Intel HF Audio framework and sound card drivers before the modem will work. It's actually implemented as part of the sound system.

 

Disable the devices via Device manager, disable one at a time, as far as i know this should work.

 

hi guys, sorry i've been away for a while

YES, this did work. I can't believe i didn't do this earlier

i have two problems

intel PRO/wireless 2915ABG
RICOH R/RL/5C476(II) PCMCIA Adapter

the wireless is causing about 60% cpu usage
PCMCIA is accounting for about 20%

are we getting closer to the solution?

(again this is a Z63A laptop)

edit: happy thanksgiving

 

i've updated the intel wireless driver, still no good..

but im glad that the problem has been narrowed down, with the two devices disabled, my CPU idle usage is 0-1% and i can actually do superpi to 1M in 30secs compared to the previous time of 3 minutes lol

any final suggestions? :-/

 

Try a Linux LiveCD like Knoppix to rule out some kind of a hardware issue?

Other then that, you have the ACPI HAL, right? "ACPI Uniprocessor PC" in device manager?

 

I would try:
Leave PCMCIA disabled. Go to Device Manager, right click the Intel wireless adapter and chose uninstall. Restart the computer instead of scanning for hardware changes. Windows will find new hardware and reinstall the driver. Note any error messages if any. You can do this in Safe Mode and then boot back into Safe Mode.
Hope this gets you one step closer!

 

I did this and it reinstalled, had no hardware interrupt, but when i rebooted back into normal mode, it was there again. i will try this again with safemode with networking instead

and yes, i have ACPI uniprocessor

 

okitsmedan,

Now I would try:

1. Go to Device Manager and look for any exclamation points or question marks. If there are any, right click the device and choose properties. Look for the problem. Make sure to click the Resources tab and check for IRQ conflicts. Do this first for the wireless adapter and PCMCIA controller even if there are no warning marks. I do this with Device Manager "View" set to "Devices by Type".

2. Is your wireless adapter named? Such as: Intel PRO Wireless/ABG. Other Intel devices should be specifically named also.

3. If all devices are O.K. then I wonder about this. Is the W3A Bios compatible with the Z63A? If so, when it was loaded did you re-enter the Bios and reset to the default/factory settings before booting into Windows?

4. I would do this no matter what after checking the Device Manager. Shut down the computer. Remove AC power and then remove the battery. Let it sit for at least 2 minutes. Replace the battery and AC and boot into Windows. Check everything again.

5. In the Bios, is there a setting that gives the option of letting the Bios assign IRQ's or Windows assign them. If so, make sure that the Bios is assigning them. My A7J does not have this option.

Good Luck!

 

it doesnt say conflict, but both the wireless card and the cardbus controller are (PCI) 17 IRQ

is this important?

there is an exclamation mark on "Serial" which is under "Non-Plug and Play Drivers"

 

Same for me (somehow)

Another screen shot would help.

And I am quite happy to have been able to help.I and me brother some nasty lag problem with an Athlon XP which turned out to be an IRQ conflict between the AGP bus and A PCI slot (the last behaviour I expected from an ASUS motherboard) - So I think I understand a bit of what you feel-or were feeling when it was fixed.

 

IRQ sharing is normal. The second part however is troublesome. Why do you have a "Non-Plug and Play" device showing up?

Edit: Normally the "Non-Plug and Play Drivers" section is hidden, even if something in there has an exclamation mark.

 

Right click "Serial" and choose properties. Look through the tabs for a problem.

Does this happen in Safe Mode? If not, there may be a software conflict.

Did you try the steps in my earlier post?

 

oh, cuz i enabled show hidden devices. heh

 

oh wow, it does not have an exclamation in safe mode

 

okitsmedan,

I took a look at my A7J Non Plug and Play drivers and..........."Serial" has an exclamation point!!! Under the General tab it says: "This device is not present, is not working properly, or does not have all its drivers installed."(Code 24)
The A7J does not have a Serial port and I doubt yours does so the driver isn't loaded and is not needed in Safe Mode. Serial.sys may be needed for some PCMCIA devices as stated in this article:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/CEC/serddvr.mspx
So....(Ha Ha)no worries about "Serial".

Do you still have high CPU usage? If so, answering the questions in my previous post with the numbered steps would help and #4.

Make sure that all devices are disconnected from your notebook (printers, USB devices, etc.) and then check CPU usage. Leave devices disconnected while troubleshooting.

 

thanks!

i'll check out the article. i reformatted with windows xp sp2 and i still have the problem. yup, i make sure nothing is connected. i even took out the wifi card, restarted, shut down, reinstalled wifi card, restarted, and no good.

1. no irq conflicts reported
2. yes, named 2915ABG Network Connection
3. I've tried both the bios the laptop came with and the new bios, both have cpu problem after fresh reformat
4. this didn't work =(
5. no setting available

i contacted my seller and they might take it in

 

Hey........ I'm running out of ideas too.
Did you ever uninstall/reinstall the Ricoh controller in Device Manager? Reading through my posts, I did not specify this.

Are you using the drivers from Asus?

Is the wifi card internal or slot loading?

Does Task Manager report the same CPU usage?

Have you tried "Autoruns" to try disabling programs running in the background?
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/Autoruns.mspx
Use the "Hide Microsoft Entries" if necessary. Maybe a third party program is the culprit.

I know I'm grabbing at straws but it is what I would do.

Let me know what you find!

 

!!!

i just realized that I dont think i have ever tried a different version of the intel pro wireless program than the one that came on the CD included... i will report back!

edit: wait but i have the problem before anything is even installed... but i will try nevertheless.

-i did reinstall ricoh
-drivers are from the CD included, will try ASUS drivers instead..
-slot loading
-same usage
-not yet! =)

thanks!

 

I've been having a hardware interrupt problem on my desktop comp for a long time, and it refused to go away even after formatting.You can imagine how much grief this caused me, my comp suddenly lagging in the middle of important stuff (like playing games )

I just followed your advice, and it WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!IT ACTUALLY FINALLY WORKED. Seems one of my DVD drives was faulty.

I registered here just to thank you, you rock, like totally rock.
I love you ( in a high-five kind of way )