Computer CPU0 core 100%, Audio cracks and dpc/isr latency - System interrupts

Delta280

Delta280

Active member
Joined
Jul 13, 2019
Posts
27
Hello, I hope you are all doing well. I am having an issue with my PC where after it has run for a while the CPU0 core will become 100% utilized by the System interrupts process, which makes my computer run very slow, especially in games. This started occurring after I upgraded my PC, never experienced it beforehand. I upgraded my GPU, PSU, and added a hard drive. I think this is a driver issue, since on some versions of windows and nvidia drivers it was working fine, but now I need help identifying what driver is causing these issues.
  • System Manufacturer? - HP
  • Laptop or Desktop? - Desktop
  • Exact model number (if laptop, check label on bottom) - HP Envy 750-427c
  • OS ? (Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista) - Windows 10
  • x86 (32bit) or x64 (64bit)? - 64bit
  • Service pack? - v1903
  • What was original installed OS on system? - Windows 10
  • Is the OS an OEM version (came pre-installed on system) or full retail version (YOU purchased it from retailer)? - OEM, but now linked to Microsoft account
  • Age of system? (hardware) - About 3 years, upgraded pc this year though
  • Age of OS installation? - Just factory reset about 3 weeks ago
  • Have you re-installed the OS? - No
  • CPU - Intel Core i7 6700
  • RAM (brand, EXACT model, what slots are you using?) - 8x2GB SK Hynix DDR4 @ 2,128 MHz, all 2 slots
  • Video Card - EVGA RTX 2060 XC Gaming (upgraded from GTX 750 Ti)
  • MotherBoard - (if NOT a laptop) - Odense2-S
  • Power Supply - brand & wattage (if laptop, skip this one) - EVGA Supernova G3 550W
  • Is driver verifier enabled or disabled? - Never used it before
  • What security software are you using? (Firewall, antivirus, antimalware, antispyware, and so forth) - Norton Security
  • Are you using proxy, vpn, ipfilters or similar software? - No
  • Are you using Disk Image tools? (like daemon tools, alcohol 52% or 120%, virtual CloneDrive, roxio software) - No
  • Are you currently under/overclocking? Are there overclocking software installed on your system? - No under/overclocks, I do have MSI Afterburner installed though to monitor temps

Here is my Speecy Snapshot link: http://speccy.piriform.com/results/XbeaoCwGsCGwm612XmsPxMW

Attached is a zip folder containing my trace.etl file, msinfo32, and DxDiag.txt, and a picture that shows task manager when the issue is present, as well as LatencyMon.

I've been having this issue for 3 months, so any help is appreciated! And if any other information is needed feel free to ask.
 

Attachments

Last edited:
Hi Delta280,

The trace shows a very large number of interrupts being triggered and very few DPCs. That's typically a sign of a malfunctioning device from what I've seen but if you haven't already done so I'd suggest using DDU in safe mode to uninstall the GPU drivers, reboot, and then let Windows Update install the display drivers.

If that doesn't help I'd then suspect a problem with the new GPU or possibly a problem with audio. In the roughly 4 second trace the drivers dxgkrnl.sys fired 163,654 interrupts and HDAudBus.sys fired 163,724. For comparison, playback of an HD video on Youtube and running a virus scan on my computer in a 143 second trace shows dxgkrnl.sys firing 16,200 interrupts and HDAudBus.sys firing 4,083.

Do you still have the old GPU you can try if needed?
 
cwsink said:
Hi Delta280,

The trace shows a very large number of interrupts being triggered and very few DPCs. That's typically a sign of a malfunctioning device from what I've seen but if you haven't already done so I'd suggest using DDU in safe mode to uninstall the GPU drivers, reboot, and then let Windows Update install the display drivers.

If that doesn't help I'd then suspect a problem with the new GPU or possibly a problem with audio. In the roughly 4 second trace the drivers dxgkrnl.sys fired 163,654 interrupts and HDAudBus.sys fired 163,724. For comparison, playback of an HD video on Youtube and running a virus scan on my computer in a 143 second trace shows dxgkrnl.sys firing 16,200 interrupts and HDAudBus.sys firing 4,083.

Do you still have the old GPU you can try if needed?
Click to expand...

I do still have the 750 Ti, I'll try the DDU solution first and get back to you.
 
cwsink said:
Hi Delta280,

The trace shows a very large number of interrupts being triggered and very few DPCs. That's typically a sign of a malfunctioning device from what I've seen but if you haven't already done so I'd suggest using DDU in safe mode to uninstall the GPU drivers, reboot, and then let Windows Update install the display drivers.

If that doesn't help I'd then suspect a problem with the new GPU or possibly a problem with audio. In the roughly 4 second trace the drivers dxgkrnl.sys fired 163,654 interrupts and HDAudBus.sys fired 163,724. For comparison, playback of an HD video on Youtube and running a virus scan on my computer in a 143 second trace shows dxgkrnl.sys firing 16,200 interrupts and HDAudBus.sys firing 4,083.

Do you still have the old GPU you can try if needed?
Click to expand...
Sorry for the late reply. I reinstalled my network adapter and GPU drivers and the issue seems to have stopped occurring (so far). It's weird because I've tried doing this before in the past but it's never worked. I'm guessing it is a driver problem because when the system interrupts isn't maxing out my cpu thread, my computer runs fine (except for some stutters on battlefield, still trying to figure this out). It could a sign of a faulty card though, not sure.
 
Thank you for the update. The previous trace would suggested an interrupt storm to my mind which I've usually seen caused by hardware issues rather than driver issues but please do let us know how it goes.
 
cwsink said:
Thank you for the update. The previous trace would suggested an interrupt storm to my mind which I've usually seen caused by hardware issues rather than driver issues but please do let us know how it goes.
Click to expand...

Sorry for the late reply. After some more testing, I've discovered I'm getting stutters/hitches in some of my games, and it's very noticable in all Battlefield titles. MSI Afterburner shows large frametime spikes (on bottom of picture) when playing Battlefield V, and in a video I recorded of Battlefield V it shows it as well. Any ideas on what to do next? I want to do as much as we can software-wise before we have to take parts out of my system.

Battlefield V video with frametime graph:

download.png
 
Frametime is not something I've investigated but my suspicion would be more along the lines of timing rather than ISR/DPC latency as a cause. Have you already looked at forums dedicated to the games that are exhibiting the problem? They often have threads about optimizing games. I'm thinking along the lines of framerate limiting, refresh rate settings, v-sync, g-sync, freesync, graphics quality settings, etc.
 
cwsink said:
Frametime is not something I've investigated but my suspicion would be more along the lines of timing rather than ISR/DPC latency as a cause. Have you already looked at forums dedicated to the games that are exhibiting the problem? They often have threads about optimizing games. I'm thinking along the lines of framerate limiting, refresh rate settings, v-sync, g-sync, freesync, graphics quality settings, etc.
Click to expand...
I checked the forums and couldn't really find anything. At school at the moment, so when I get the chance I will send another trace file to see if the system interrupts are really gone. The CPU problem stopped happening but I wouldn't be surprised if there is still some hardware malfunctioning.
 
Sounds good. I don't know if it's the same issue (or even similar) but as an example involving video playback it can be important to make sure your v-sync is an even multiple of the source. So, a 60fps video could exhibit intermittent video/audio glitches if played back on a monitor set for 144Hz but not have such issues if the monitor is set for 120Hz. That issue seems to be highly dependent on whether or not the playback program adjusts for such differences automatically and/or the settings being used.
 
cwsink said:
Sounds good. I don't know if it's the same issue (or even similar) but as an example involving video playback it can be important to make sure your v-sync is an even multiple of the source. So, a 60fps video could exhibit intermittent video/audio glitches if played back on a monitor set for 144Hz but not have such issues if the monitor is set for 120Hz. That issue seems to be highly dependent on whether or not the playback program adjusts for such differences automatically and/or the settings being used.
Click to expand...
Here is my new trace, without the CPU0 core maxed out issue present. If I need to open a game like Battlefield V for the trace, just let me know. This trace was done at desktop.
 

Attachments

I don't see anything in the latest trace that suggests the system is struggling but I suspect we'd need to widen the profile of the trace to get data about the frametime problem. There's a tool called Media eXperience Analyzer which comes with the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit. It has a profile defined that captures all sorts of data related to graphics and audio playback but I'll need to refresh my memory on how to analyze it. I've seen it used to diagnose problems with audio and video glitches but I recall it capturing data about v-sync issues and detecting interrupt storm storm situations. The profile would need to be imported into Windows Performance Recorder and then a trace captured while the issue was occurring. The profile is named "multimedia_wprp.wprp" and will be in a directory of the Media eXperience Analyzer. On my system it shows up in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Media eXperience Analyzer". I'm not completely sure it will help with this problem but it's the only thing that comes to mind as possibly being able to help.
 
mauricen said:
Hi @Delta280

Just curious whether you checked about the latest driver for Video Card - EVGA RTX 2060 XC Gaming

also whether your Windows has the MS KB 4515384 ?
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4515384/windows-10-update-kb4515384
Click to expand...
I updated to version 436.02 when it was the latest driver. However system interrupts kept occurring after I updated my gpu drivers. Then that issue stopped all of a sudden. Now I'm just getting frametime issues in games I never had before with my old GTX 750 Ti. Also I would like to point out that I upgraded a prebuilt HP machine. Maybe there are some issues with my motherboard? Not sure. I will see if I have the update when I get home.
 
cwsink said:
I don't see anything in the latest trace that suggests the system is struggling but I suspect we'd need to widen the profile of the trace to get data about the frametime problem. There's a tool called Media eXperience Analyzer which comes with the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit. It has a profile defined that captures all sorts of data related to graphics and audio playback but I'll need to refresh my memory on how to analyze it. I've seen it used to diagnose problems with audio and video glitches but I recall it capturing data about v-sync issues and detecting interrupt storm storm situations. The profile would need to be imported into Windows Performance Recorder and then a trace captured while the issue was occurring. The profile is named "multimedia_wprp.wprp" and will be in a directory of the Media eXperience Analyzer. On my system it shows up in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Media eXperience Analyzer". I'm not completely sure it will help with this problem but it's the only thing that comes to mind as possibly being able to help.
Click to expand...
I'll run the trace when I get home
 
cwsink said:
I don't see anything in the latest trace that suggests the system is struggling but I suspect we'd need to widen the profile of the trace to get data about the frametime problem. There's a tool called Media eXperience Analyzer which comes with the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit. It has a profile defined that captures all sorts of data related to graphics and audio playback but I'll need to refresh my memory on how to analyze it. I've seen it used to diagnose problems with audio and video glitches but I recall it capturing data about v-sync issues and detecting interrupt storm storm situations. The profile would need to be imported into Windows Performance Recorder and then a trace captured while the issue was occurring. The profile is named "multimedia_wprp.wprp" and will be in a directory of the Media eXperience Analyzer. On my system it shows up in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Media eXperience Analyzer". I'm not completely sure it will help with this problem but it's the only thing that comes to mind as possibly being able to help.
Click to expand...
Alright, sorry for the late reply. This trace was hard to get (not even sure if it contains all of my problems) since I'm not sure how to run a longer trace than for a couple of seconds (or however long). I just ran it when playing Battlefield V on Marita.

trace (4).zip

Hopefully that provides some more information about the small stutters/hitches I'm getting (frametime spikes). If anything else is needed feel free to ask! Thanks in advance
 
cwsink said:
I don't see anything in the latest trace that suggests the system is struggling but I suspect we'd need to widen the profile of the trace to get data about the frametime problem. There's a tool called Media eXperience Analyzer which comes with the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit. It has a profile defined that captures all sorts of data related to graphics and audio playback but I'll need to refresh my memory on how to analyze it. I've seen it used to diagnose problems with audio and video glitches but I recall it capturing data about v-sync issues and detecting interrupt storm storm situations. The profile would need to be imported into Windows Performance Recorder and then a trace captured while the issue was occurring. The profile is named "multimedia_wprp.wprp" and will be in a directory of the Media eXperience Analyzer. On my system it shows up in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Media eXperience Analyzer". I'm not completely sure it will help with this problem but it's the only thing that comes to mind as possibly being able to help.
Click to expand...
Alright, another update. I ran a general.etl file (caught a trace) which should contain the spikes in Battlefield V. Hopefully this has the spike info if the other trace doesn't.

general.zip
 
Thank you, Delta280. I've been looking at the trace linked in post 17 but for some reason it was dropping events which often makes the trace unreliable. Did you use the Media eXperience Analyzer profile to capture that trace? I'll have a look at the trace from 18 and see if I can spot anything.
 
cwsink said:
Thank you, Delta280. I've been looking at the trace linked in post 17 but for some reason it was dropping events which often makes the trace unreliable. Did you use the Media eXperience Analyzer profile to capture that trace? I'll have a look at the trace from 18 and see if I can spot anything.
Click to expand...
Thanks for looking at the traces. I have not used Media eXperience Analyzer to capture that trace. Should I try to capture another trace with it or wait until something comes up in post 18's trace?
 

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