Help with Hardware Interrupts

[50bmg]

My cpu usage is 20-30% at idle. I did some digging and found that hardware interrupts are causing it. See pic.

How can i figure out the conflicts?

gigabyte ga-ex38-ds4, rev 1, bios f6a
e7200 @ 3.8Ghz, 400mhz fsb, 1.32v
2x2G(4G) patriot ddr2 pc6400 @ 800mhz, 2.0v, 5-5-5-12
2 x 3870 CF, visiontek OC edition, 800/1170, CCC 8.12 beta
seagate 500G sata 2 7200.11, seagate 250G sata 7200.08
BFGTech 800w psu, 54A combined
win xp 32 sp3
bios - speedsteps disabled

 

[erocker]

Look at the IRQ settings in your bois and make sure they are being automatically set. Also check your device manager for any bad/missing drivers.

 

[50bmg]

The IRQ are on auto in the bios.

nothing obvious in device manager.

 

[iamollie]

check what access mode your hdd is using sometimes it reverts to the wrong one as a fall back which causes the computer to need to mess about with interupts

 

[50bmg]

i checked the bios. both HDs' access mode is set to auto.

 

[50bmg]

from another thread about same thing. posting this to help others.

___________________________

from: wr

The process list of the task manager does not count kernel time, only free time available for applications/services. If you turn to the performance tab and select View - Show Kernel Times, you should notice red bars at 1/3 height.

High kernel times at idle signify a device or driver problem.

You can download a free program to monitor kernel activity:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...59-8d9d-4c22-89c4-fad382eddcd1&displaylang=en

Run and extract that to the Desktop (default folder Krview), then install to the default location with setup.exe. When done, open cmd.exe from the Start menu. Run the krview utility by typing its full address, the default of which is:

"C:\Program Files\KrView\Kernrates\kernrate_i386_xp.exe"

Include the quotes at the command prompt, and change the C drive to whatever is your main system drive. When the utility starts, it prompts you to press Ctrl-C to stop data collection. About 10-20 seconds after you see that message, press Ctrl-C. At the bottom of the report is a list of kernel-interrupting processes. The top of that list, with by far the most # of hits, should be the offending driver. You can disconnect that device or reinstall/upgrade its drivers. If you have problems tracing the process to a device, take a screenshot of the list in the command prompt window (Alt-PrintScreen) and post it back here.
____________________________

i will post my results

 

[50bmg]

ok, i ran kernrate. It showed the process "Intelppm" at 67%.

I read that win xp sp3 has an issue with AMD processors and intelppm, but i have an intel cpu. Everything i read shows fixes for AMD systems.

Any ideas.

 

[50bmg]

bump

 

[intprob]

To use Krview, ignore any driver that is part of Windows or that is for the CPU idle thread.
inteppm is for the CPU idle thread, ignore it.
hal and ntkrnlpa are part of Windows, ignore them.
ati2mtag is the first one on the list that is elevated and relevant.
Find out what hardware interrupt it uses and then any device that shares this interrupt could be the problem. It might not be ati2mtag.
If its the video driver, can you use another card?
Putting the computer to sleep might reset things.