A lot of spikes, DPC latencies, ISR routines. Distorted sound, slow downs

Forsberg · Mar 28, 2016

Hello,

I have problem with Windows 10 on my laptop Samsung NP-300-V5A. To be honest it seems newer updates made system much worse than vanilla state system. Here I am not sure, perhaps I am wrong.
To fight with DPC latencies, ISR I have done so far:

updated my laptop's BIOS
disabled HyperThreading and power save in BIOS
used "disabledynamictick yes"
used "HPET" command in the system

So far without success. Thus I gave up and request for help. I have made short logs via XPERF and sent you a link to check. I also attach screens of programs.
If it helps I may add that when I was compressing xperf files into RAR, I got a lot slowdowns. I also tried to shut down devices in "devices menager" but without any result.

Xperf logs:
CPU - Dropbox - CPU.rar
Kernel - Dropbox - kernel.rar

Here is LatencyMon log:

Read More:

Drivers tab:

Read More:

DPC Latency Checker:

Read More:

Thank you.

OldGrayGary · Mar 29, 2016

Hi Forsberg .... and welcome to the forums ....

Thank you for uploading the files and providing the screenshots. I should have a chance to look at them sometime tomorrow. Have you run diagnostics on the hardware, just as a "to be sure" step? Can't hurt. In the meantime, I'll have a look at the data.

Tell you what, just to be extra thorough: see if you can run & post the results of the SysNative info gathering app
https://www.sysnative.com/forums/bs...windows-10-8-1-8-7-vista-post303.html#post303

Forsberg · Mar 29, 2016

Thank you. I'll do next steps day after tomorrow as today I have 15 hour trip through Europe by my auto and soon I am going out.

OldGrayGary · Mar 29, 2016

Sounds like fun - enjoy your trip!

Forsberg · Mar 31, 2016

Well it was work trip, no fun at all because 14 hours behind wheel is enormously tiring

Regarding BSOD Dump + System File Collection App - after running it I have an error: "The reference was returned from the server." (loosely translation).

OldGrayGary · Mar 31, 2016

Sounds like you're glad to be home! (14 hours of driving wouldn't be so bad, if it was spread out over a month, instead of a weekend!)

If you want to try the info collection utility again, you can give it a go in Safe Mode.

Now that you're back, I'll have a look at the traces you posted (and make some notes).... Wish I had as much memory in my brains as today's external hard drives ...

I'll stay tuned.

OldGrayGary · Apr 3, 2016

Hi again

I've been a little busy lately, but finally got a chance to look at your cpu performance monitor graphs. On those graphs, the two highest sources of both cpu utilization and latencies were waterfox.exe (the 64-bit Waterfox browser) and AIMP.exe (the audio equalizer). On the Waterfox side of life, have a look at how much difference a few plugins can make, in the following example thread (from overclock.net) -
Waterfox 15 and 1GB RAM for waterfox.exe in Taskmanager

I'm not sure if we can trust the graphs from Resplendence Latency Monitor and DPC Latency Monitor, since neither has been updated for Windows 10 (the results could be inaccurate to some degree). The funniest part about their results is that the processes they report with the highest latencies are their own processes! [The highest latencies were from the latency monitoring programs themselves]. The moral of this story: don't leave those two programs running. Only run them for a short while, long enough to test for results - and then turn them completely off.

The other two programs those monitors report as high latency processes are the Usbport.sys and HDAudioBus.sys drivers. That makes fairly decent sense, since they are likely involved in your audio experience - audio output devices are often USB, and of course an audio driver has an effect on audio. I don't know the versions or dates of those two - but it is something you could look at. If you can get the SysNative info collection app to run, that will provide more info on the drivers.

If you didn't already try it: run the info collecting app with administrative privileges ("run as administrator") ... and if that doesn't work, you can try running it (also with administrative privileges) in Safe Mode (which I mentioned last time).

.... and enjoy the weekend!

OldGrayGary · Apr 3, 2016

P.S. ... sorry, I forgot to mention something .... one of the oddest numbers that came up from Latency Monitor as the difference in "reported cpu speed" and "measured cpu speed" .... the reported number was close to the expected 2,300 MHz that the processor is rated for, but the measured number was shown as 30 Mhz!! (I had to read and re-read that number a few times .... I thought that perhaps it was a typo....)

It's possible overheating is throttling back the cpu (it will sacrifice speed to save itself). You can use a temp monitoring program to see how hot the cpu is getting, and whether it's an issue ... a popular temp monitor is CPU-Z....

Forsberg · Apr 3, 2016

OldGrayGary said:
Hi again

I've been a little busy lately, but finally got a chance to look at your cpu performance monitor graphs. On those graphs, the two highest sources of both cpu utilization and latencies were waterfox.exe (the 64-bit Waterfox browser) and AIMP.exe (the audio equalizer). On the Waterfox side of life, have a look at how much difference a few plugins can make, in the following example thread (from overclock.net) -
Waterfox 15 and 1GB RAM for waterfox.exe in Taskmanager

Thanks, I haven't suspected Waterfox for bad behaviour. I think I am gonna switch to normal Firefox and test it further.
Regarding audio, it would be weird as audio processing is quite low resource hungry thing for current processors? I look further for better drivers, but Windows 10 says they're quite new (fall of 2015 if I remember correctly).

Running collector app in safe mode was success so I attach the files.

Regarding CPU speed and temp - as far I know my CPU can sustain 100% it's power up to 100*C. This is what Intel says. However there must be some kind of technology (Intel SpeedStep I think) which makes it worse as I've been told some games are slower than it should be due to processor's lower speed - I mean it works 1.3-1.8 Ghz instead of fully 2.3 even when temperature is only 80*C.
I did some benchmarks earlier and CPU sustained steady 2.3 Ghz even at 96*C.
The 30 Mhz in report must be some kind of failure because at that speed I doubt even mouse's cursor would move on screen

The GPU card runs fine up to 101*C at full speed, such temp is rarely reached.

I've got this laptop not so long, the woman I got this from couldn't get it working so I try to do instead.

View attachment SysnativeFileCollectionApp.zip

Also as I have a lot of RAM I do not care how it is utilized, I mean I am happy if it takes more if it would speed things up. Free RAM is in someway wasted memory in my opinion.
I have also i5 2500K CPU (desktop) and there is nothing laggy, no spikes ect. Personally I thought i5 series for laptops are more powerful.

OldGrayGary · Apr 3, 2016

Hi again

Thanks for attaching the files. I'll see if I can have a look at them soon.

Regarding Waterfox - so far, what I've seen users report is that it isn't so much Waterfox itself, but often plug-ins that cause most of the slowing (or simply higher memory usage). It's true that if you've got enough memory, it's not a big worry ... I'd guess it affects latencies and audio when the page file starts to get heavy usage.

Is the stuttering more noticeable on audio/video tasks that are "too easy" for your setup (perhaps the framerates are so high, things get out of sync?) ... If this is a possibility, look into the video sync capabilities of your video card.

I've also been asking some stutter-sufferers here at SysNative to see if setting the Virtual Memory range manually helps. I haven't seen much yet pro or con, but I figure it's worth a try (shouldn't hurt anything, even if it doesn't help). Since you have 8 GB of system memory, a reasonable lower setting would be 8192 MB, and a higher setting of 16384 MB.

I'll check back again after I've had a look at your files.

OldGrayGary · Apr 5, 2016

Hi again

I had a look at your latest files ...

It seems to me that Samsung isn't terribly helpful in providing updates for their devices for Windows 10. The most recent drivers on their support site for your model are from 2012. Unfortunate.

You mentioned "The woman I got this (laptop) from couldn't get it working"..... Can I guess that the Windows 10 arrived on the laptop as an upgrade (not a clean install)? My worry is that utilities and drivers from the earlier system are clogging up Windows 10. It is worrisome, too, that some basic components of Windows 10 - like the Lock Screen, Camera, OneDrive ("SkyDrive" in your error logs), etc. - have been filling your error logs daily since late March.

If the misbehavior of the system has mainly taken place during its Windows 10 days, and if it behaved nicely when running Windows 7 - there is the option to go back to using Windows 7. I doubt that it has been less than 30 days since the upgrade to Windows 10, but if so - the laptop could return to Windows 7 with just a few clicks (Windows Start - Settings - Update & security - Recovery - Go Back to Windows 7). If it has been more than 30 days since the Windows 10 upgrade, the system could still be recovered to Windows 7 by reinstalling from a saved system image (if available), or with a clean install (using a Windows 7 DVD, and entering the original product license - usually found on a sticker on the bottom of the laptop).

Windows 7 will continue to get Security Updates until mid-January 2020. It's a reasonable choice.

And you'd still have Windows 10 as an option:
You could even go back to Windows 7, test to see if everything works OK, and then make a system image backup (to keep as insurance) ... and then try a clean install of Windows 10, using the most recent .iso available via the Media Creation tool. I prefer installing from a DVD (buring the .iso file as a system image onto the DVD, and using it to install) because it is simpler & can also serve as a handy tool for repairs. I use regular DVD-R discs, so that the image cannot be corrupted once burned onto the DVD. (No malware infection to worry about). For the clean install, I'd recommend NOT using any of the outdated drivers from Samsung, and allowing Windows 10 to detect the hardware and install the necessary drivers. If the drivers come from Windows, you don't have to worry about compatibility. I don't recommend using third-party driver update utilities either: I've yet to see one that is maintained well enough to recommend. And there are plenty that 'help' your system go from bad to worse. If you need drivers for specialized gaming devices, check for Windows 10 compatible updated versions. If you must use an older version (because nothing newer is available) try installing such drivers in Compatibility Mode. But I'd prefer to avoid older drivers on the whole rather than to have to mess with Compatibility Mode.

Let me know which direction you want to go, and if you have any questions.

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A lot of spikes, DPC latencies, ISR routines. Distorted sound, slow downs

Forsberg

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OldGrayGary

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Forsberg

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Forsberg

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