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Resolved Excessive Hardware Interrupts

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by flamingo, 2011/07/06.

  1. 2011/07/06
    flamingo

    flamingo Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Every few days my machine will become very sluggish and it seems to be due to a very high level of hardware interrupts as reported by Process Explorer. About 45-50% of CPU capacity is consumed and it seems to be one core that is completely swamped. A restart of my PC fixes the problem. The problem seems to occur randomly and persists until I restart PC. When the problem is present, everything (i.e., the various application I use) seems to work OK except for very sluggish behavior.

    The problem still occurs when the only external things connected are keyboard, monitor, and Ethernet.

    When I first noticed the problem about a year ago, it might happen two or three times a day. That was very annoying. I searched for ways to further diagnose the problem but didn't find anything helpful. Now the problem only happens about once a week so I just live with it by rebooting when it occurs.

    I just stumbled across windowsbbs.com and there seemed to be very knowledgeable and helpful people here. I thought I would ask for help to actually find and fix the problem.

    This the system detail:
    OS Name Microsoft® Windows Vistaâ„¢ Home Premium
    Version 6.0.6002 Service Pack 2 Build 6002
    System Manufacturer HP-Pavilion
    System Model GC670AA-ABA a6120n
    System Type X86-based PC
    Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 4400 @ 2.00GHz, 2000 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)

    I have done things like reseating connectors and cables, removing dust, checking for free airflow, and reinstalling some applications. These didn't seem to make a difference.

    ..Paul..
     
  2. 2011/07/06
    MrBill

    MrBill SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    Welcome to the boards. Please go to User CP near the top left of this page and fill out your system specs.

    Have you looked for Malware/Spyware, etc.?
    Head over to the Malware section and do some of the stuff there and post the logs.
     

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  4. 2011/07/06
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Hi Paul, Welcome to Windowsbbs! :)

    Have you tried booting the computer into Safe Mode and seeing if you experience any Hardware Interrupts there?

    Like Bill said I would make sure that no malware infections are causing the problem.

    Before you post in the other forum please read this and post a new thread in the Malware and Virus Removal Forum.

    Also please enter your System Details. It helps us in answering your questions.

    Note: A common error is to forget to show your System Details in your profile:

    Make sure to do the above when entering your System Details, thanks.
     
  5. 2011/07/06
    flamingo

    flamingo Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    I filled in the system specs. as suggested. I regularly use the Norton Internet Security suite and what it mainly finds and removes are tracking cookies.

    I don't really understand safe mode so I only try it when I can't reboot or have some other disabling problem.

    I'll look at the malware/virus forum to see what is suggested there.
     
  6. 2011/07/06
    MrBill

    MrBill SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    Don't see them.
     
  7. 2011/07/06
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    You did but you missed the last step:

     
  8. 2011/07/06
    flamingo

    flamingo Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Evan, your original instructions had that as the last step. I missed that. Thanks for the reminder.
     
  9. 2011/07/06
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Good job. :)

    So before we start suggesting things to try to resolve this problem, like I said previously you should post in the Malware and Virus Removal Forum to be on the safe side. Once your computer is declared clean then go ahead and post back in this thread and we will go from there.
     
  10. 2011/07/07
    flamingo

    flamingo Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    It takes several hours to run all the scans. Halfway through. Then I'll post in virus/malware forum.
     
  11. 2011/07/07
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Ok cool.
     
  12. 2011/07/09
    flamingo

    flamingo Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Went to the malware forum and was declared clean after a sequence of scans and analysis by Broni. (Thanks Broni!) No obvious virus/trojan/malware was identified unless it was buried in the logs somewhere.

    Back to the original excessive hardware interrupt question. The problem occurred only once every 5-10 days so it is hard to diagnose or replicate. I do have a few more specific questions:

    1) Is Process Explorer going to accurately report hardware interrupts?

    2) Assuming these hardware interrupts are real, how can I determine what is causing them or where they originate?

    3) Is there a tool I can use when they occur? Is there a logging tool I can leave running so that it provides useful data for analysis after the next occurence?

    Maybe it won't recur but if it does it would be nice to be prepared.

    ..Paul..
     
  13. 2011/07/09
    rsinfo

    rsinfo SuperGeek Alumni

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    Try updating your drivers. One unstable driver could be causing this.
     
  14. 2011/07/09
    flamingo

    flamingo Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    What is the risk of going through all 50-60 devices that show up under Device Manager and mindlessly clicking on update driver for everything? On the few cases where I have done that, it always comes back with drivers up to date.

    If a driver were somehow corrupted, how would that show up?

    I was hoping to somehow get a clue as to what driver was problematic before messing with it.

    ..Paul..
     
  15. 2011/07/09
    rsinfo

    rsinfo SuperGeek Alumni

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    You don't have to mess with 50-60 drivers. The drivers which I have personally found to be problematic are video card & lan drivers. You could try to update them for a start.
     
  16. 2011/07/10
    hawk22

    hawk22 Geek Member

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    High interrupt rates on I/O are often associated with the transfer mode for an IDE device having reverted from DMA to PIO. Pre-SP2 versions of XP in particular were rather sensitive to errors and would flip to PIO mode. They needed to be reset to "DMA if available" in Device Manager, usually by uninstalling the IDE driver and letting Windows reinstall. Check out MS KB article 817472 here.

    http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817472


    If not I/O-related then interrupts are possibly malfunction or bad connection in another device - try re-socketing connections. You already have done that.
     
    rsinfo likes this.
  17. 2011/07/10
    ephemarial

    ephemarial Well-Known Member

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    Hi flamingo

    Software programs can also cause hardware interrupts.
    So gonna be hard to track it down.

    Easiest way is to go from symptoms you’ve given and then try to eliminate things.

    Used to happen 2-3 times a day – now only once a week – reboot cures it- until next time.

    Suspect programs will be somewhat calculation intensive (your 45-50% cpu usage) and requiring hardware resources.

    Sounds like a background program that is occasionally running and using the hard drive.

    !st suspect will be Norton doing scheduled scans.
    When computer is sluggish – look at hard disk light – is it being accessed?
    If yes then put Norton into ‘silent mode’ and see what happens.


    Think of what else you might have that starts up and runs automatically.
    Backup programs – other AV’s (should only have 1 but--), driver update programs………


    ps – also when computer is sluggish.
    Open Windows Task Manager (press crtrl – alt –del keys) – See if recognize the applications running.
    Then go to processes tab and see what process is requiring most of your 40-50% cpu usage.
     
    Last edited: 2011/07/11
  18. 2011/07/12
    flamingo

    flamingo Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    I installed Process Explorer because Task Manager didn't see what was slowing things down. Process Explorer sees the hardware interrupts as well as the applications running. When the problem occurred, I would kill the applications (e.g., Firefox, Word, etc) that were shown as "running." It never affected the high level of hardware interrupts.

    I can't remember clearly whether I looked at the disk activity light. I did look at the I/O activity as reported by Process Explorer and it did not spike when the hardware interrupt level was excessive.

    Maybe the extensive clean up done in the last few days has eliminated the problem. If I can go 2 or 3 weeks without a recurrence, I'll be willing to declare it "probably fixed. "

    ..Paul..
     
  19. 2011/07/22
    flamingo

    flamingo Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    The transfer mode issue was mentioned by a previous poster. When I go to Device Manager there is a column labeled current mode but the table is empty. As a result, I have no idea what transfer mode my hard disk is using. The MS KB article seemed to only apply to XP SP2 and earlier versions. I have Vista so the transfer mode issue may have changed or become moot.

    I did uninstall the driver and reboot. It appeared to reinstall the same driver version. The level of hardware interrupts did not materially change. Since I don't know what is considered normal or typical for hardware interrupts on an unloaded machine, it may be that my behavior is normal.

    I have not had the 40% plus CPU consumption for several days now so I'll consider this resolved and keep my fingers crossed. If it recurs, I'll start a new thread.
     
  20. 2011/09/21
    flamingo

    flamingo Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    About 7 weeks ago my CD/DVD R/W drive was slowly failing so I replaced it. That
    may have solved the excessive hardware interrupt problem. About two months now with no recurrence. My fingers are crossed. Even though the high level of interrupts occurred when I wasn't using the drive, the drive controller may have been the problem. I considered it solved.

    Thanks for all the helpful suggestions. Its a delight to find thoughtful, helpful people as is the case on this web site.
     
  21. 2011/09/21
    Evan Omo

    Evan Omo Computer Support Technician Staff

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    Thanks for the update. :)
     

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