Why Do Deferred Procedure Calls Spike After Gaming?

[Pengwuino]

Hey guys i have a problem that the "geniuses" at overclock.net don't seem to have a clue about :D

When I am done playing a game or sometimes when i alt-tab out of a game, my system slows down a whole lot. I check and in my task manager (xp), "System" is showing CPU usage of 30-90%. I then used a process viewer and found out that what's causing the problem is the deferred procedure calls. They are spiking to, as i said, up to 90%. No program turns on or anything when it spikes up. It stays at these huge numbers too until i restart. Its not a virus or ad-ware or anything, anyone know what the problem is?

 

[Pengwuino]

Alright guys, $20 to whoever can figure this problem out for me (and it turns out to be the right answer). I will paypal or send a check out but i will 100% seriously give $20 to whoever can figure out this problem.

 

[Hurkyl]

Well, temporary slowdown is to be expected due to paging, but that should go away.

 

[Pengwuino]

Its not temporary, it continues until i decide to restart the computer. Could this be a hardware problem manifesting itself in a software-related way?

 

[Hurkyl]

I could easily imagine how it could be a hardware problem, a driver problem, a configuration problem, et cetera. But, I just don't have the expertise to diagnose it.

Did you read the   manual?

 

[Pengwuino]

lol i don't think this is a manual troubleshooting section problem.

All roads were leading to driver problems but after rolling back to older drivers, the problem persisted. I don't really remember doing any configurations at the time. I reallllllllllllllly don't want to reformat but i can only take so much more of this haha.

 

[Hurkyl]

I was thinking more along the lines of "Whoops, I missed this vital step in the installation procedure".


You mentioned that it happens when you quit a game... is it any game, or just one or two specific ones? What about non-game programs?

 

[Pengwuino]

It doesn't happen in non-game programs i believe. Any game does it i believe ( i know of 2 that do it but i shoudl check to see if maybe its only those 2). It also happens when i alt-tab out sometimes. The OS has been on here for like a year so there were no configuration problems. I am wondering if there's a program that will give you really indepth analysis of what programs and processes are going on and what's taking up the CPU usage.

 

[Hurkyl]

I found your other post on this, you said something about video drivers. I imagine the problem lies there, since the games are the only thing putting them to the test.

Since it's coincidental with the installation of your hard drive... my next hunch would be to look for a device conflict.

 

[Pengwuino]

Well, i cleaned out my drivers and then reinstalled some older ones that i know work. Same problem.

Disconnected hard drive, same problem :-/.

 

[Hurkyl]

I'm tired, going to bed!

You might try downloading something that stresses your video card... some sort of benchmarking program, maybe, and see if your problem arises when it's done with that too. (It might even be fun to watch!)

 

[Pengwuino]

Hey good idea, ill try that now.

Ok this is weird. When PCMark04 reaches "File decryption", the problem happens.

Ugh, guess I am going to have to reformat lol.

 

[st0rm]

Guess you already formated but I am having a similar problem. I know for a fact that it's not spyware/viruses. Several windows on my computer frequently become inactive and the only way to make them active again is by pressing alt + cntl + delete. This happens regardless of what I'm running. (I have plenty of ram 1 GB)

I downloaded "Process Explorer" to see what was running in the background. I suspect DPC (Deferred Procedure Calls) is behind this. It could very well be a video card issue. So my question to you is what video card are you running and have you installed any patches?

 

[Pengwuino]

It is a asus Nvidia 5950 ultra video card. I reformatted and it seems to have stopped... and that's good neough for me :P

 

[Jmancav]

New, but same problem

I don't really know if this is a physics problem. but I also have a problem with defered procedure calls on my computer. I have been to many web sites after doing searches on google. I have heard suggestions from everything from video cards, their drivers, wireless networks,NIC's and more most of which I have. I have installed a new driver for my video card(afterwards I found out it wasn't a new driver it was the same one I had). what happens is there is like a hickup in video and audio and a game I play won't play very well. I reboot the computer and if I am lucky the hickups are not there. My computer was fine about 2 months or so ago. and don't ask what I did in those two months, I add so much and remove so much I don't know. is there a checklist of stuff I can go through to diagnose this problem? the funny part is like what just happened now. I rebooted the computer and the hickups were there then after a while I came back to the computer and the system was fine itunes was ok and video was fine. It's over my head. Help!

 

[POBSTAR]

I found this post on the main subject and it give a good hint to understand an cure the prob. :)

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=425589&page=2

Quote: Re: Deferred Procedure Calls killing my system

Hey Folks, I have solved the DPC problem.

Before explaining the problem and how I came up with the solution, I want to thank all who participated and tried to help me out.

After I disabled any hardware I could (possible in device manager), and the problem still persisted, I've decided to check the BIOS battery (I was really desperate). When I have opened RAM door, it apeared that one of the modules was really hot! So I putted it off, cleaned the contacts with rubber ereaser, and put it on again, and wow, everything was OK!

System is working like silk again, RAMs are cool. I do not know if it was not set good or the contacts was dirty, but for sure it was that!

Conclusion, if there is DPCs taking lot of your CPU time, check your hardware first

 

[followthebits]

deferred procedure calls and GPU heat

Ok, this forum helped me figure out why my system was dogging down while playing video games. I am running a Dell laptop XPS M1210 with a NVDIA GO GPU. In monitoring the system during video game play, I also noticed that when the system would dog down the DPC would jump to a high percentage of the CPU load. Couple people on the forum mentioned heat related issues which got me thinking about the heat output of my GPU. In the NVIDIA Control Panel there is a panel for monitoring the GPU temperature. I started watching the temp while playing the video game and sure enogh every time the system would crawl to a stop the GPU temp rose into the upper 90's right along with the DPC spike. I THEN Noticed that the NVIDIA GPU has a option called "Notify me if the GPU temperature exceeds the slowdown threshold". That's what is going on and it explains why it only happens during video games. The GPU is getting too hot and the system is going into slowdown mode to reduce load on the GPU and thus a hugh spike in DEFERRED PROCEDURE CALLS - as in deferred till the GPU can cool down.

So here is how I fixed it. The GPU fan intake is on the bottom of my laptop with the exhaust on the side. I guessed that the GPU and GPU exhaust fins were coated in dust reducing heat transfer and causing overheating. So I took a compressed air can and blasted both the intake and outtake with compressed air shots. Sure enough, big dust cloud beltches out. I do that a few more times.
I restart computer and run the video game from beginning to end with NO slowdowns. As I monitor the GPU temperature is stays at 81-83 degrees. Problem solved. Clean those GPU chips.

In hindsight I had seen this once before without the DPC clue. A desktop my son-inlaw inherited would suddenly shut down. When I opened it up the GPU fan was clogged with cat hair. Clogged so much that the fan was barley turning. Blasted it all out and computer worked fine.

Hope this helps others. This was a very hard problem to figure out. I was convinced that some OS setting had changed in the computer. All the time it was just dirty hardware going into slowdown mode to shed heat.

followthebits

 

[mrspictacular]

I just registered to report my success and to thank ya'll.

I followed much of these suggestions like blowing out the GPU vents/fan, and even reinserting my memory. No success.
I used DPC Latency Checker and left it running while I disabled devices in the Device Manager. Once I disabled something I would move my cursor around rapidly to see if it would still stutter but nothing seemed to do the trick until I noticed the device for the battery.

I knew the battery in my laptop was dead already, so I took that out and EUREKA!.
My mouse flowed smoothly and my CPU was idling calmly now. DPC Latency Checker was giving me a flat reading.

Thanks for your help guys!

*Note: Something I did learn from this problem was disabling unnecessary devices could add some extra boost to my OS or startup time! According to TweakXP it does! Just a lil' FYI.