CPU Usage Question

[Jeff]

I've got a Pentium D 936 dual core processor in a box running XP. When the
box is idling, the "Performance" tab in task manager shows a constant 15-18%
total usage, and its all on the first processor. In the "Processes" tab,
sorting on CPU, I have 1 or 2 processes (out of 48 total) varying from 1 to
2%. Everything else shows 0. Of course this isn't 0, but is it possible for
them to add up to that much usage?

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[GT]

I've got a Pentium D 936 dual core processor in a box running XP. When the
box is idling, the "Performance" tab in task manager shows a constant
15-18% total usage, and its all on the first processor. In the "Processes"
tab, sorting on CPU, I have 1 or 2 processes (out of 48 total) varying
from 1 to 2%. Everything else shows 0. Of course this isn't 0, but is it
possible for them to add up to that much usage?

48 Processes is quite a lot for an idle PC. I have 36 right now and I'm
using IE, OE, Task Manager + Explorer. If the PC is idling, no processes
should be taking up any time! Tell us what processes are running and taking
up processor time when the PC is idle? If they are not processes that you
know of, I would suggest run a full virus scan and spyware check.

 

[Alex Mizrahi]

(message (Hello 'Jeff)
(you :wrote n '(Mon, 26 Feb 2007 15:56:52 GMT))
(

J> I've got a Pentium D 936 dual core processor in a box running XP. When
J> the box is idling, the "Performance" tab in task manager shows a
J> constant 15-18% total usage, and its all on the first processor.

that's pretty much..

J> In the "Processes" tab, sorting on CPU, I have 1 or 2 processes (out of
J> 48 total) varying from 1 to 2%. Everything else shows 0. Of course this
J> isn't 0, but is it possible for them to add up to that much usage?

i think that may be caused by some hardware drivers -- i.e. hdd, network
card (most likely), or something like that.
in Process Explorer [1] there is additional %% for "Hardware interrupts" and
"DPC" (deferred procedure calls) -- they are connect with hardware drivers,
so check it out.

and also consider checking for viruses and stuff like this -- idle computer
should consume almost no CPU resources.

[1]:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/ProcessExplorer.mspx

)
(With-best-regards '(Alex Mizrahi) :aka 'killer_storm)
"ÎÅ ÎÁÄÏ ÏÂÉÖÁÔØ ÕÕÚËÕ")

 

[Jeff]

48 Processes is quite a lot for an idle PC. I have 36 right now and I'm
using IE, OE, Task Manager + Explorer. If the PC is idling, no processes
should be taking up any time! Tell us what processes are running and
taking up processor time when the PC is idle? If they are not processes
that you know of, I would suggest run a full virus scan and spyware check.

I did a "Show Kernel Times" in the Performance tab, and it appears that it
is a kernel operation that is causing the CPU usage. WTF! It's not a
process, its the kernel ... whatever that means.

What now?

 

[Jeff]

48 Processes is quite a lot for an idle PC. I have 36 right now and I'm
using IE, OE, Task Manager + Explorer. If the PC is idling, no processes
should be taking up any time! Tell us what processes are running and
taking up processor time when the PC is idle? If they are not processes
that you know of, I would suggest run a full virus scan and spyware check.

I did a "Show Kernel Times" in the Performance tab, and it appears that it
is a kernel operation that is causing the CPU usage. WTF! It's not a
process, its the kernel ... whatever that means.

What now?

 

[Jeff]

48 Processes is quite a lot for an idle PC. I have 36 right now and I'm
using IE, OE, Task Manager + Explorer. If the PC is idling, no processes
should be taking up any time! Tell us what processes are running and
taking up processor time when the PC is idle? If they are not processes
that you know of, I would suggest run a full virus scan and spyware check.

I did a "Show Kernel Times" in the Performance tab, and it appears that it
is a kernel operation that is causing the CPU usage. WTF! It's not a
process, its the kernel ... whatever that means.

What now?

 

[Rod Speed]

...

I did a "Show Kernel Times" in the Performance tab, and it appears
that it is a kernel operation that is causing the CPU usage. WTF!
It's not a process, its the kernel ... whatever that means.

What now?

Thats usually due to a hardware/driver problem, something is interrupting
at a high rate and dealing with that is what is causing the cpu use.

 

[Jeff]

Thats usually due to a hardware/driver problem, something is interrupting
at a high rate and dealing with that is what is causing the cpu use.

How do I go about troubleshooting this? Start removing hardware and checking
the usage?

 

[GT]

...

How do I go about troubleshooting this? Start removing hardware and
checking the usage?

Have a look at Alex's recommendation:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/ProcessExplorer.mspx

 

[Jeff]

Have a look at Alex's recommendation:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/ProcessExplorer.mspx

Thanks to Alex ... and to GT for bringing this to my attention.

The Process Explorer is reporting ~12-13% CPU usage for "Deferred Procedure
Calls" under the System Idle Process. When I check properties for it, there
is no other information. What now?

 

[Jeff]

The Process Explorer is reporting ~12-13% CPU usage for "Deferred
Procedure Calls" under the System Idle Process. When I check properties
for it, there is no other information. What now?

So, I did a little Googling, and came across KernRate. This thing reports
stuff that is way over my head. The output is below. Apparently, something
called sfng32 is generating the DFC's. So, now the question once again is
.... What now?

Thanks.


---------------
/==============================\
< KERNRATE LOG >
\==============================/
Date: 2007/02/28 Time: 10:54:13
Machine Name: **********
Number of Processors: 2
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE: x86
PROCESSOR_LEVEL: 15
PROCESSOR_REVISION: 0605
Physical Memory: 2047 MB
Pagefile Total: 3938 MB
Virtual Total: 2047 MB
PageFile1: \??\C:\pagefile.sys, 2046MB
OS Version: 5.1 Build 2600 Service-Pack: 2.0
WinDir: C:\WINDOWS

Kernrate User-Specified Command Line:
Kernrate_i386_XP


Kernel Profile (PID = 0): Source= Time,
Using Kernrate Default Rate of 25000 events/hit

------------Overall Summary:--------------

P0 K 0:00:00.437 (26.2%) U 0:00:00.031 ( 1.9%) I 0:00:01.203 (72.0%)
DPC 0:00:00.437 (26.2%) Interrupt 0:00:00.000 ( 0.0%)
Interrupts= 2730, Interrupt Rate= 1633/sec.

P1 K 0:00:00.031 ( 1.9%) U 0:00:00.031 ( 1.9%) I 0:00:01.609 (96.3%)
DPC 0:00:00.000 ( 0.0%) Interrupt 0:00:00.000 ( 0.0%)
Interrupts= 771, Interrupt Rate= 461/sec.

TOTAL K 0:00:00.468 (14.0%) U 0:00:00.062 ( 1.9%) I 0:00:02.812 (84.1%)
DPC 0:00:00.437 (13.1%) Interrupt 0:00:00.000 ( 0.0%)
Total Interrupts= 3501, Total Interrupt Rate= 2094/sec.


Total Profile Time = 1671 msec

BytesStart BytesStop
BytesDiff.
Available Physical Memory , 1593024512,
2500224, -524288
Available Pagefile(s) , 3611303936,
0660864, -643072
Available Virtual , 2132766720,
31718144, -1048576
Available Extended Virtual , 0, 0,
0

Total Avg. Rate
Context Switches , 4566, 2731/sec.
System Calls , 13226, 7911/sec.
Page Faults , 82, 49/sec.
I/O Read Operations , 43, 26/sec.
I/O Write Operations , 70, 42/sec.
I/O Other Operations , 605, 362/sec.
I/O Read Bytes , 2110, 49/ I/O
I/O Write Bytes , 2140, 31/ I/O
I/O Other Bytes , 13025, 22/ I/O

-----------------------------

Results for Kernel Mode:
-----------------------------

OutputResults: KernelModuleCount = 128
Percentage in the following table is based on the Total Hits for the Kernel

Time 1311 hits, 25000 events per hit --------
Module Hits msec %Total Events/Sec
intelppm 1070 1671 81 % 16008378
sfng32 164 1671 12 % 2453620
hal 23 1671 1 % 344105
sthda 20 1671 1 % 299222
ntkrnlpa 16 1671 1 % 239377
win32k 7 1671 0 % 104727
kmixer 4 1671 0 % 59844
USBPORT 3 1671 0 % 44883
mfesmfk 1 1671 0 % 14961
mfehidk 1 1671 0 % 14961
mrxsmb 1 1671 0 % 14961
Ntfs 1 1671 0 % 14961

================================= END OF RUN
==================================

 

[meerkat]

...

So, I did a little Googling, and came across KernRate. This thing reports
stuff that is way over my head. The output is below. Apparently, something
called sfng32 is generating the DFC's. So, now the question once again is
... What now?

www.google.com , and type in `sfg32`.

 

[kony]

...

How do I go about troubleshooting this? Start removing hardware and checking
the usage?

.... removing drivers, or really the first try would be
things perpetually running in the background, perhaps
related to icons for other apps running in your taskbar tray
like a scanner or printer or ...

 

[Jeff]

www.google.com , and type in `sfg32`.

FWIW ... it turns out that sfng32 is related to the Sigmatel audio driver
loaded on my machine. I reinstalled to see the effect, and the "Deferred
Procedure Calls" dropped to 4 or 5%. Tonight, I'll uninstall the driver and
disable the onboard sound to see if it gets to 0.

 

[meerkat]

...

FWIW ... it turns out that sfng32 is related to the Sigmatel audio driver
loaded on my machine. I reinstalled to see the effect, and the "Deferred
Procedure Calls" dropped to 4 or 5%. Tonight, I'll uninstall the driver
and disable the onboard sound to see if it gets to 0.

Well done J.
looks like you`re making progress.

 

[GT]

...

Thanks to Alex ... and to GT for bringing this to my attention.

The Process Explorer is reporting ~12-13% CPU usage for "Deferred
Procedure Calls" under the System Idle Process. When I check properties
for it, there is no other information. What now?

Have a read through this post and check out the various links:
http://forum.sysinternals.com/forum_posts.asp?PN=1&TID=837

If that doesn't help, then Google for:

What are "Deferred Procedure Calls"

Loads of links.

 

[Jeff]

Have a read through this post and check out the various links:
http://forum.sysinternals.com/forum_posts.asp?PN=1&TID=837

If that doesn't help, then Google for:

What are "Deferred Procedure Calls"

Loads of links.

Thanks. I think that is the forum discussion that I found the kernrate app.
I've managed to isolate the problem to the onboard sound on the Intel
motherboard. Last night, I uninstalled the driver and disabled it in the
BIOS and the problem went away. When I reenabled it, the DPCs go to 3 or 4%
.... no 0 but better than before. Short of buying a 3rd party sound card, I
suppose I'll report the issue to Intel and hope that the next driver release
will cure it.

Thanks again for the help.

Jeff