High DPC and Hard Page Faults - Need help

[InspectorRumpole]

Hi
After i upgraded my GFXcard, i started getting a lot of glitching and stuttering (both in graphics and audio)when i play games.
The first thing i did was to run DPC Latency Checker. It reported very high DPC, so i started researching on the net, and found this thread on your forums: https://www.sysnative.com/forums/wi...y-issues-wpa-windows-windows-vista-7-8-a.html
After reading it, i installed LatencyMonitor to find out more details about what is causing the problems.

I have attached a couple of screenshots from LatencyMonitor from when i play a 3d game. (Dota2).

I also ran a test with a less graphics heavy game (Magic 2014), and i can included those screens if needed.

I've tried following some of your suggestions, and so far i have updated my Network and Audio drivers (Realtek). I have also updated my USB3.0 Drivers, but im currently using 2.0 ports.

Here are my computer specs:

CPU: Intel i7 930 (2.8ghz, Bloomfield)
RAM: Corsair 2x4GB DDR3 1066 Mhz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R (rev. 1.0) GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1366 - GA-X58A-UD3R (rev. 1.0)
HDDS: 2 Samsung Spinpoint 1TB (SATA) + an older Maxtor 250gb HD (IDE) (for my MP3 collection only).
GFX: Sapphire HD7790 SAPPHIRE HD 7790 1GB GDDR5

I've also tried varius other things, like increasing my Page File and fiddling with Microsoft Security Essentials.
I really hope someone out there is able to identity my problem and hopefully help me get rid of it.
Thanks for reading.

 

[satrow]

Hi Rumpole, welcome to Sysnative!

Could you give another screenshot ordered by Total execution?

What were you doing during the 13+ minutes of logging, there's a lot of ATA (anything accessed from the IDE drive?) and USB (only mouse and keyboard (gaming variety, with own drivers?) connected?) activity - looks like you were gaming, yes?

Where's your paging file, System drive only, or ... ? The SATA drives are connected by the Intel or Marvell chip?

 

[InspectorRumpole]

Hi again
Thanks for your reply satrow!
Yes, i was gaming during the logging.
There shouldn't be traffic on my IDE drive, since it's where i keep my MP3s only.
I only got a mouse and a USB keyboard using the USB ports (2.0), and i got Logitech Setpoint software for my mouse which is a cheap 2-button model. I use standard Windows drivers for the keyboard.
My Page File (13gb) is located on my system drive, which is a 1TB Samsung Spinpoint.
I' not sure about how the drives are connected. Are there more ways to connect them on the MOBO?
I thought i already ordered my screenshot by Total Execution?
I'll try running another test and post the screenshots here.

 

[satrow]

There's actually a 3rd option for connecting SATA drives on that board, JMicron. Check that yours are both connected to the Intel chipset, marked as SATA2_0, SATA2_1, SATA2_2, SATA2_3, SATA2_4, SATA2_5 according to the Gigabyte website.

While you're inside the case, disconnect the IDE drive during testing, you may not be accessing it but something else might be - MSE is pretty difficult to control

You can set the Page file to 100MB min. and max. on the System drive and 4092 - 4092MB on the secondary drive. That will reduce disk I/O on the System drive, which will normally have high I/O anyway, so spreading the load out. (I have 2x drives with 100MB and 1x drive with 100MB-1GB here, 8GB RAM and no problems gaming.)

After the above checks/changes, run LatMon and a game again to see if there's any difference.

 

[Deek]

You may want to check for the "ZeroAccess" rootkit...It is just one of many that cause a lot of IO where you don't expect it, but It is rampant right now. There are many removal tools out there. This rootkit hides from most scanners.

Have you already done the malwarebytes scan, virus scan, defrag, chkdsk thing yet?

Did you uninstall your old GPU drivers before installing the new ones?

If not, further instructions will follow.

 

[InspectorRumpole]

Hi again.

I've tried a couple of things since last, and it seem it has had some effect.
I started out by opening the case and removing my MP3- and DVD-Drive.
Turns out the MP3 HD (250gb Maxtor) wasn't an IDE-drive, but a SATA as well. I'm not sure which version though..probably SATA1.
After that, i made sure my 2 remaining drives were connected to the Intel Chipset. They are now connected to SATA2_1 and SATA2_3 on the mobo.
I also found a tool that removes all things ATI related (amd_cleanup_util_1.2.1.0).
I then installed the lastest drivers for my card.
I also set my Page file to 100-100 on my System Drive, and 4096-4096 on both partitions on my secondary drive.
I ran Latmon again running the same game as before:
(Note that the screens in my first post was at 13mins, while the new ones were only 6 mins.)




@Deek
Thanks for joining
No, i haven't run chkdsk, defrag or malwarebytes yet. I'll do that next.

 

[Deek]

Progress! Love it!

FYI - Splitting a page file to two different partitions on the same disk perform FAR worse then a single page/disk file because the head has to swing back and forth to different partitions on the same disk. Just one Page file per physical disk is best.

I'd love to see another latency mon after you do a tuneup (chkdsk, defrag or malwarebytes)....just my own curiosity though.

Has gaming improved? Driver updates for your audio and intel sata driver (maybe even bios) can go a long ways if all else is in order. I just recently did a firmware update (sas2008 card) to a year old server and it doubled my disk throughput.

 

[satrow]

Deek is correct, of course, on the paging file per disk issue; 1 pf per physical drive, or per IDE/ATA cable for those older systems, is optimal. 4092MB is the 'old' maximum size allowed (FAT32 file size limit, iirc); I habitually cling to that size, it works on pretty much all recent Windows versions and I think it's mathematically better, too

It's looking much better but the real test is whether it feels lag-free with no audio glitches. There's a lot of audio traffic on your graphs, check that any 'tweaks' like audio effects are turned off, they can cause issues.

 

[InspectorRumpole]

Another update.
-Set the Page File for my secondary HD to 4092, removed it on the other partition.
-Installed Malwarebytes and ran a scan. It found something called PUM.Hijack.Drives, located in my registry. I think it has something to do with a drive being hidden, and i shouldnt worry about it.
-Windows reports that all my drives are 0% fragmented, so i didnt do a defrag.
-Disabled the AMD HD Audio Drivers in device manager, since im not using HDMI audio.
-Ran a chkdsk before i went to bed, so im not sure if it found anything. Is there any way to find a log?

Status:
I still get a bit of lag when i run a game, but the audio popping is gone.

Btw, what will happen when i connect my DVD and 250gb again? Will it go back to the way it was before?
Also, should i use USB3.0 for my Mouse and Keyboard, and disable the USB1/2 drivers in BIOS?
Regarding BIOS/Sata drivers, im not sure how to find out what version i have, and how to install those things if i got outdated ones.

 

[satrow]

Sorry, Rumpole, I didn't notice this reply earlier, can we have a current status update, please?

 

[Dissolution]

I am having this same issue with hard pagefaults.... Anyone know how to fix it? I have tried so many different things and nothing seems to fix the page fault issues.... I get thousands of them quite quickly... Please help this is driving me insane.