Hyper-Threading and Reduced Performance

[frodo]

I don't know if this is anything, but I found on the Soundblaster site that
someone stated you should put your soundcard into PCI Slot #3 (on an intel
board) so it is assigned is own IRQ, because if not, it may interfere with a
hyperthreading processor if it is sharing its IRQ.

Right now, mine is in slot #5, and it shares its IRQ with 3 other devices.

Any thoughts on this before I tear apart my computer yet again?

I suppose it's worth a try. Moving the card will change the IRQ that it
uses, tho WHICH IRQ is most likely mobo dependent. You may need to move
it a couple of times to see which one it switches to.

And yes, it does make sense - interrupts would be the most likely cause of
a timing related bug actually cropping up.

Moving the card should be fairly easy, BUT...

Recently, I put an X-FI card in, and my second video stopped working; I
moved the card to a different slot and it was unrecognized! I had to
completely reinstall the creative drivers to make it see the card again -
I'd never encountered that before, usually the system/driver/PnP just
notices the move and adjusts itself, w/o requiring a complete reinstall.
[plus it didn't resolve the issue - turned out I had to enlarge the AGP
Apature to fix the issue; took several days of googling to find the
soulution, but someone out there had the problem too and had posted
about it. The answers ARE out there...!].

BTW, my X-Fi is currently sitting on IRQ 20, all by itself.

 

[Guest]

Well, I did some rearranging and got my sound card its own IRQ. Seem to run
fine for almost two days, then bammo, all the problems again.

I had noticed when I updated my Intel Active Monitor to the latest version
(when I put in the cpu), it replaced the SMBus Controller (driver?) with its
own and ended up sharing an IRQ 17 with something else. This morning I
updated that driver to the one Windows 'recommended' and now the SMBus
Controller has its own IRQ 3.
My Intel Active Monitor won't run on that driver, but I am going to see if
that was the cause (crossing fingers yet again.....)

Still occasionally run hardware tests, burnin, memtest etc, and everything
always comes up fine....It just has to be a software or driver issue or
hardware conflict and for some reason, I am determined to find out what it is
and solve it even if it drives me mad!!!

 

[frodo]

Well, good luck. [no sarcasim intended, I know your pain!]

I'd try eliminating 1 item at a time and see how it runs for a bit.
Start w/ Intel Active Monitor. Then drop additional startup items until
the problem goes away (if it does). Drivers are obviosuly harder to drop,
but you could turn off non-essential interfaces in the bios
(serial/parralel/etc). USB Legacy Support can cause problems, if you have
a PS2 keyboard and mouse you can most likely disable this one too; a
usb-only kb will require it tho.

But "one at a time" is the only way to remain sane. When you think you've
found the culprit add it back in and hope it fails again. And remember
even that is not sure-fire proof, coincidences do happen...

And consider Alexander SPK, $40 may be worth it.

-----

I hesitate to mention this ( ;-) ), but I have seen corrupt .PNF files in
the /inf directory cause problems. These are "precompiled INF files", and
can be deleted w/o problem (move them to a junk dir for safety if you'd
like). XP will rebuild the ones it needs on next reboot from the original
..INF files. It's a longshot, but...

 

[Guest]

Well, I have been lucky so far today, no problems...

After having reread the readme that came with the newer Intel Active
Monitor, it does state that....

There are reported problems with the SMBus driver/controller reported if
Soundblaster Live! is installed in the PCI #2 that can be remedied if moved
to a different PCI slot.

Well, I had the Soundblaster Audigy 2ZS (not Live!) in PCI #6. Didn't cross
my mind at the time when I installed it...the driver slipped by me. I guess
my configuration also had problems, but to a greater extent. Seems pretty
obvious now after having reread it, and...manually going into the Device
Manager and clicking update driver for every single (not counting non plug
and play) driver I had. The SMBus was the only one that changed.

I sincerely hope that is what it was. You were right (hopefully) about a
driver causing it.

Thank for the help. I will report back hopefully in a few days with news
nothing has gone wrong....

 

[Guest]

Well, I still haven't solved everything. I have only had 3 crashes since I
last replied which is better, but even one is too many. After the first
recent crash, I broke down and purchased the Alexander SPK. It only found
one crash pre-install from May of last year, and none of the recent ones that
have been plaguing me. Well, fine, I figured I would just wait for the next
crash so I could generate a report and maybe clue me in.

No Such Luck. I have had 2 crashes with Alexander SPK installed and it
didn't generate any report what-so-ever on the crash, or even acknowledge a
crash other than restarting the computer (which I had previously set not to
in order to see the BSOD). Add to that, I needed to contact them just to get
the registration key that was supposed to be supplied when I purchased it
(another problem) in order to install it, I am not impressed. I am now in
contact with their support team to see why it is not generating reports. No
luck yet, but at least I can say, they are very very quick to respond to
email.

Hopefully I will report back with better news, and as always, if someone has
any additional clues, I would be entertain all possibilities.

 

[Guest]

Oh, I forgot to ask, If I move/delete the .PNF files, will I have to redo any
settings on the computer, or will my current settings remain. I am only
asking, as that is alot of .PNF files, just in case that is it....

Thanks.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Well, I still haven't solved everything. I have only had 3 crashes
since I last replied which is better, but even one is too many.
After the first recent crash, I broke down and purchased the
Alexander SPK. It only found one crash pre-install from May of last
year, and none of the recent ones that have been plaguing me. Well,
fine, I figured I would just wait for the next crash so I could
generate a report and maybe clue me in.

No Such Luck. I have had 2 crashes with Alexander SPK installed and
it didn't generate any report what-so-ever on the crash, or even
acknowledge a crash other than restarting the computer (which I had
previously set not to in order to see the BSOD). Add to that, I
needed to contact them just to get the registration key that was
supposed to be supplied when I purchased it (another problem) in
order to install it, I am not impressed. I am now in contact with
their support team to see why it is not generating reports. No luck
yet, but at least I can say, they are very very quick to respond to
email.

Hopefully I will report back with better news, and as always, if
someone has any additional clues, I would be entertain all
possibilities.

I know this has nothing to do with your hyperthreading problems but no
reports from a reboot indicates a power problem. You may have two problems.

 

[frodo]

Oh, I forgot to ask, If I move/delete the .PNF files, will I have to redo any
settings on the computer, or will my current settings remain. I am only
asking, as that is alot of .PNF files, just in case that is it....

No, settings will remain. Move the pnfs somewhere temporary (as a safety)
and reboot; all those that are actually needed will be rebuilt.

The comment about the power supply perhaps being faulty sounds reasonable
to me too. What brand and how big is it? What is the machine's
compliment of devices? A good 350 watts should drive a typical machine w/
a regular video card, 2 HDs and 2 opticals. Higher end video needs more.
Note your issue started when tou switched to a Prescott CPU, which does
draw more juice (you had a Northwood before, as I recall). But it only
draws a little bit more. FWIW, I have seen "flakey" setups "cured" by a
new power supply. Not that I'm encouraging you throw $$ at the beast.
Antec, Enermax, and PC Power and Cooling are the top names in PS's. When
shopping pay attention to the 20-pin vs. 24-pin connector - most made in
the last 12 months support both; typically it's 24-pin and you can
snap-off the extra 4 if you don't need 'em.

If you are totally unsatisfied w/ Alexander SPK then ask for a refund,
they are good people and should accomidate.

 

[Guest]

Its something to think about, but the very few times I had crashed before
over the past 3 years, I never had a report. But, those few times may have
been just 'freezes' also...

Thanks for the info....

 

[Guest]

I will try the pnf thing...you never know.

I will give Alexander a little more time, they are trying and staying in
close quick contact...

As far as the power supply and system....

My system...

Allied ATX 400W power supply
Intel D865GBF MB
Intel P4 3.0 GHz HT processor with HT currently off
2 Western Digital Hard drives, both 7200, one 120 GB, the other 250 GB
(primary)
ATI X800 XT 256 MB video card with 2 monitors attached
Soundblaster Audigy 2ZS
PCI USB Card
PCI Modem Card
Lite On CDRW
Lite On DVD Player

'Attachments'
Keyboard
Mouse - USB
Printer - USB
DSL Modem - USB
Webcam - USB
HP DVDRW External - Firewire
Joystick - USB

And out of those, I mainly only use the keyboard, mouse and DSL Modem. I
have my main systems hooked up to an uninteruptable power supply (Energizer
OF-800?)

I had been thinking about getting a new power supply, but it really isn't in
my budget yet.

Thanks again for putting up with me lol !