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Tracing hardware interrupts and DPC with xperf
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dirbase View Drop Down
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Posts: 440 		Post Options Post Options   Quote dirbase Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Tracing hardware interrupts and DPC with xperf
    Posted: 08 January 2010 at 1:39pm
Hi nathrao,

To install xperf, please follow molotov's instructions here
If you select to install just the "Win32 development tools" (that's all you need!), the file is not so big!
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Posts: 2 		Post Options Post Options   Quote nathrao Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 January 2010 at 10:15pm

I recently discovered this problem (35-45% of CPU tied up in interrupt processing) on Powerspec V35o with Vista Home Premium SP2 (build 6002). I am unable to locate XPerf that seems to be the recommended tool to trace the interrupt/device causing the problem. I tried Microsoft website and all I get is the SDK installer. I don't want todownload 4GB, but I don't know how to get just XPerf and friends. Help!

Thanks
Nath
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Posts: 3 		Post Options Post Options   Quote bluenote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 November 2009 at 9:24pm
Hey molotov

I'm using vista x64, and I do have daemon tools installed (but not running, to my knowledge),
however daemon tools pre-dated the problem by at least a couple months.

What I've done for now which has eliminated the high CPU usage, is disabled ACPI aware-OS support in the bios,although this isn't ideal from my perspective, I don't feel like there is much else that is likely.  (although, I will uninstall daemon tools just to confirm).

thanks
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Posts: 17492 		Post Options Post Options   Quote molotov Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 November 2009 at 4:14am
Hi bluenote,

What OS are you using?  The unknown entries are curious...  What arch are you using - x86, or x64?

Do you have Daemon Tools installed?
Daily affirmation:
net helpmsg 4006
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Posts: 3 		Post Options Post Options   Quote bluenote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 November 2009 at 11:37pm
Ok, I managed to figure out that the summary table has the individual data labeled.

For interrupt CPU usage graph, the data is like this:

1. acpi.sys      (address)                                            316,551
2. Unknown (3 entries, of which 2 are miniscule)  -   164,006
3. hal.dll                                                                       55,430

Leading me to believe that my problem is associated with acpi and/or with the unknown entry.  How could I translate the memory address into a program/driver/file ?

thanks

EDIT: And how do I go about troubleshooting something as intangible as ACPI?



Edited by bluenote - 03 November 2009 at 11:39pm
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Posts: 3 		Post Options Post Options   Quote bluenote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 November 2009 at 11:26pm
Hey guys

Recently, my quad core AMD started having phantom CPU usage (doesn't show up in any discernible process in task manager).
After a little digging, I found that process explorer DOES show the missing cpu usage (~30%)
but its source is hardware interrupts and DPC.

Now, I'm trying to trace what is generating the interrupts, but I'm not having any luck.

I have run xperf (after much trouble trying to find out how to get it installed),
with the simple command line of:

xperf -on DiagEasy+PROFILE -stackwalk Profile

when I open the merged.etl file, I just get a screen of graphs, and can't seem to drill down to any details with regard to DPC/interrupts.  I don't know whether I'm using the viewer wrong, or if I'm actually not capturing the specific info I need.

Any help much appreciated!  thanks
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