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September 30th, 2009 10:00
High CPU Usage, Poor performance, Caused by PIO
Over the last few months I've had this problem with my Dell Inspiron 6400/E1505. The symptoms where: persistently high CPU utilization on the first processor, poor performance of all applications - especially during, and right after, boot. Furthermore, even the Windows Power Up sound-wave was being distorted during boot! I had thought it was a virus, so I loaded virus scanners. Then I thought it was the Virus Software so I removed the anti-virus scanners. Then I tried to shift the affinity of all the process, which I had permission to control, over to the second processor to remove the strain from the first processor. None of this worked.
To run this down I first downloaded Sysinternals "Process Explorer"
http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/ProcessExplorer.zip
which gave me some visibility to what was going on inside of the MS Windows "System Idle" Process. It turns out that I was experiencing a very high "Hardware Interrupt" rate. If processor 0 was at 38%, the Hardware interrupt rate would be at 35%. If Processor 0 was at 60% the Hardware interrupt rate would be at 58.5%.
So I chased down the hardware interrupt rate and found this article
http://frazzleddad.blogspot.com/2006/03/lousy-performance-high-hardware.html
. In it he talks about the ATA/IDE reverting to PIO mode instead of Ultra-DMA. This causes the Hardware Interrupt ratio to spike. To identify this as the problem navigate: Device Manager -> IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers -> <Primary or Secondary> IDE Channel -> Properties -> Advanced Settings. If either the <primary or secondary> say PIO mode, then uninstall the driver and reboot the machine. Windows will re-install the driver, set the correct mode, and then do a second reboot (At least mine did).
When the machine finally came back on-line, the processor was back to normal (Low CPU utilization on both processors) and even the sound wave played nice during boot up. The performance of the applications also seems to have returned to normal.
Alas, though, all did not stay well. the Primary IDE drive switched back to PIO mode, and my performance went back into the toilet - at a rate exponentially proportioned to my increase in CPU hits. I did some more digging and found this article.
http://winhlp.com/node/10
which lead me to check my event log (Excerpt Below) and I found out that I've got a bad block on my hard disk. Though it's not causing the Drive to crash (yet), it is causing the computer to constantly set the controller back down to PIO mode. So, My question is this, how can I confirm I've got a bad disk, (Controller or media), and not a bad driver or some other thing I'm not thinking of? I need the final proof to justify to my IT department and get them to purchase the new drive (My laptop is now out of warranty).
Please advise,
Chris.
Event Log Excerpt with Bad Disk info:
9/29/2009 5:36:05 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:35:59 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:35:52 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:35:45 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:35:38 PM atapi Error None 9 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within the timeout period.
9/29/2009 5:34:55 PM atapi Error None 11 N/A CC_LAPTOP The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort0.
9/29/2009 5:34:55 PM atapi Error None 9 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within the timeout period.
9/29/2009 5:34:44 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:34:37 PM atapi Error None 9 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within the timeout period.
9/29/2009 5:33:54 PM atapi Error None 9 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within the timeout period.
9/29/2009 5:32:35 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:32:28 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:31:47 PM atapi Error None 9 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within the timeout period.
9/29/2009 5:31:38 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:31:31 PM atapi Error None 9 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within the timeout period.
9/29/2009 5:30:28 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:30:21 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:30:14 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:29:04 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:28:58 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:25:43 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:17:51 PM LSASRV Warning SPNEGO (Negotiator) 40961 N/A CC_LAPTOP The Security System could not establish a secured connection with the server DNS/dns1.inflow.pa.bo.comcast.net. No authentication protocol was available.
9/29/2009 4:02:49 PM LSASRV Warning SPNEGO (Negotiator) 40961 N/A CC_LAPTOP The Security System could not establish a secured connection with the server DNS/dns1.inflow.pa.bo.comcast.net. No authentication protocol was available.
9/29/2009 3:02:49 PM DnsApi Warning None 11165 N/A CC_LAPTOP "The system failed to register host (A) resource records (RRs) for network adapter
with settings:
9/29/2009 5:35:59 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:35:52 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:35:45 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:35:38 PM atapi Error None 9 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within the timeout period.
9/29/2009 5:34:55 PM atapi Error None 11 N/A CC_LAPTOP The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort0.
9/29/2009 5:34:55 PM atapi Error None 9 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within the timeout period.
9/29/2009 5:34:44 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:34:37 PM atapi Error None 9 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within the timeout period.
9/29/2009 5:33:54 PM atapi Error None 9 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within the timeout period.
9/29/2009 5:32:35 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:32:28 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:31:47 PM atapi Error None 9 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within the timeout period.
9/29/2009 5:31:38 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:31:31 PM atapi Error None 9 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within the timeout period.
9/29/2009 5:30:28 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:30:21 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:30:14 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:29:04 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:28:58 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:25:43 PM Disk Error None 7 N/A CC_LAPTOP The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
9/29/2009 5:17:51 PM LSASRV Warning SPNEGO (Negotiator) 40961 N/A CC_LAPTOP The Security System could not establish a secured connection with the server DNS/dns1.inflow.pa.bo.comcast.net. No authentication protocol was available.
9/29/2009 4:02:49 PM LSASRV Warning SPNEGO (Negotiator) 40961 N/A CC_LAPTOP The Security System could not establish a secured connection with the server DNS/dns1.inflow.pa.bo.comcast.net. No authentication protocol was available.
9/29/2009 3:02:49 PM DnsApi Warning None 11165 N/A CC_LAPTOP "The system failed to register host (A) resource records (RRs) for network adapter
with settings:
No Events found!