High Hardware Interupts

[Tootsdog9]

I have worked on this for a while and just can't seem to figure this out. When I boot up the pc it is working ok but not great. The CPU usage stays at about 50 to 60 percent. The cause is high hardware interupts that range about the same. I haven't been able to find any conflicts and there is no virus or malware to blame. I have run several test with all the standards including online scans. Now here is the only clue I have found, if I hit the sleep button on the keyboard and then wake the pc up the CPU and hardware interupts are back to normal. I could live with this but once they are back to normal I have no sound. Can't play any music in the media player nor any windows sounds. I did have just one item in the event viewer that said I could have a bad IDE cable. So I replaced both and have also gotten a new keyboard but none of these changes have solved the problem. Hibernation is unchecked in the display properties and the pc is set to always be on and to only turn off the monitor after 2 hours. I can usually find a solution on a Google search but I seem to only be finding more questions with answers that don't seem to work. Thank you in advance for your efforts.

[TheTerrorist_75]

I would start checking your hardware and drivers. Try removing a piece of hardware (sound card, Ethernet adapeter & etc.) then seeing if the interrrupt goes away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrupt_storm

In operating systems, an Interrupt Storm is an event where a processor receives an inordinate number of interrupts that consume the majority of the processor's time. Interrupt storms are typically cause by hardware devices that do not support interrupt rate limiting.

Because interrupt processing is typically a non-preemptible task in time-sharing operating systems, an interrupt storm will cause low percevied system responsiveness, or even appear to be a complete system freeze. This state is commonly known as live lock. In such a state, the system is spending so much time processing interrupts that it is not completing any other work. Therefore, it does not appear to be processing anything at all, because of a lack of output to the user, the network, or otherwise. An interrupt storm is sometimes mistaken for thrashing, since they both have similar symptoms, but different causes.

An interrupt storm can have many different causes, including misconfigured or faulty hardware devices, faulty device drivers, or flaws in the operating system. Most modern hardware implement methods for reducing or eliminating the possibility of an interrupt storm. For example, many Ethernet controllers implement interrupt rate limiting. Interrupt rate limiting causes the controller to wait a programmable minimum amount of time between each interrupt it generates.

The most common interrupt storm is a faulty driver under an APIC (Advanced programmable interrupt controller) where a device "behind" another signals an interrupt to the APIC. The OS then asks each driver on that interrupt if it was from its hardware. Faulty drivers may always claim "yes", but then proceed no further as the hardware attached actually did not interrupt. The device which originally interrupted did not get its interrupt serviced, so interrupts again and the cycle begins anew. The system locks dead under an interrupt storm. This was (and remains) a problem on the SoundBlaster Live! series of sound cards on some motherboards and only a kernel debugger can break the storm by unloading the faulty driver.

Many OS implement a polling mode that disables interrupts for devices which generate too many interrupts. In this mode, the OS peridodically queries the hardware for pending tasks. As the number of interrupts increase and the efficiency of an interrupt mode deminishes, an OS may change the interrupting device from an interrupt mode to a polling mode. Likewise, as the polling mode becomes less efficient than the interrupt mode, the OS will switch the device back to the interrupt mode. The implementation of interrupt rate limiting in hardware almost negates the need for such polling modes.

[martymas]

hi Tootsdog9

it isnt very often you get stumped

have you checked your ram to see if the sticks are compatable

marty

[Tootsdog9]

Well I tried something and it worked good enough for now. I upgraded my onboard sound to Vinyl AC 97 Audio driver. The crazy thing is when I turn on the pc I still have the problem till I disable the driver and re-enable it. Then all is back to normal plus I have sound. I can live with that and if it is a problem on the chipset of the board, there isn't much I can do anyway other than replace the board. I never would of thought onboard audio could some how be linked to such a problem as hardware interupts.