DPC Latency ataport.sys

mhermetz · 31 Oct 2014

I've been having bad audio cut outs for a solid 3 months now. I've tried several different things to try and narrow down the driver but nothing has solved the issue. I've been using LatencyMon to track whats happening and I have it narrowed to just the ataport.sys now.

My most recent change to try and solve it was installing windows back on my old 1 TB HDD thinking maybe it was the new ssd I bought. That brought my Latency down from 14.985 to 2.0. That still sucks though, so I'm not convinced it's my ssd. Could something like this be caused by a bad mobo?

All my drivers and bios are updated; It was the first thing I played with.

Here's my log from when I had windows running on my ssd (I'll be going back to that tonight, It so painful going from an ssd to a normal HDD. So damn slow):

CONCLUSION
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. Also one or more ISR routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for 0:02:21 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
SYSTEM INFORMATION
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
Computer name: HERMETZ-PC
OS version: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, 6.1, build: 7601 (x64)
Hardware: ASUSTeK Computer INC., M4A89GTD-PRO/USB3
CPU: AuthenticAMD AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 970 Processor
Logical processors: 4
Processor groups: 1
RAM: 6142 MB total

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU SPEED
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
Reported CPU speed: 3792.0 MHz
Measured CPU speed: 4750.0 MHz (approx.)

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 21926.872447
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 2.383028

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 182.512446
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 0.638333

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
REPORTED ISRs
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs): 29073.204905
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: ataport.SYS - ATAPI Driver Extension, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.171230
Driver with highest ISR total time: ataport.SYS - ATAPI Driver Extension, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.349484

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 450756
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs): 7
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 3
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
REPORTED DPCs
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs): 2418.291930
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.211326
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0.462729

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 908975
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 4
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 30
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 1
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count: ccsvchst.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults 83
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 40
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs): 57766.383175
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%): 0.164283
Number of processes hit: 6

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
PER CPU DATA
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.602295
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 125.590717
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 0.223997
CPU 0 ISR count: 141643
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 111.107859
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 0.348401
CPU 0 DPC count: 710662
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0.907988
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 1184.059863
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0.060571
CPU 1 ISR count: 11212
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 250.173523
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 0.010757
CPU 1 DPC count: 1122
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 1.765886
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 29073.204905
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 0.808574
CPU 2 ISR count: 159878
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 1229.162711
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0.182274
CPU 2 DPC count: 11692
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 4.209014
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs): 952.265823
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s): 0.879613
CPU 3 ISR count: 138035
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs): 2418.291930
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 2.070562
CPU 3 DPC count: 185534

fireberd · 31 Oct 2014

Latencymon tends to overwhelm me with information.

Dropouts/pops/clicks, etc are a fairly often reported problem in Win 7. Our audio section has a lot of posts. Unfortunately there isn't a "one fix". Problems can be Wi-Fi or even wired NIC issues, Audio and Video drivers, etc.

I have a recording studio so I monitor my system closely for any of these issues. One problem I had was with the Google updater accessing or trying to access the internet. I installed Google Chrome browser and that was when the problems started. Even with the Network adapter disabled (I disable it when I run my recording) it was causing dropouts. However, the Google updater was scattered "everywhere" in the Registry and uninstalling it, even with Revo Uninstaller that scans the registry wasn't enough. I had to manually edit the registry to get rid of all the Google updater entries.

A google search about ataport.sys causing dpc and dropouts gets a lot of hits.
Here is one to look over: CLICK ME which turned out to not be the ataport.sys that actually caused the problem.

mhermetz · 31 Oct 2014

Yeah I've actually tried that fix in the link. My Video card wasnt logging like that but I tried anyway....but nothing. I swear I've tried every google post I can find. Its why I'm thinking its component related. I just want to make sure I do my due diligence before I go drop $600 in upgrading some components.

This actually all started after I did a clean install of windows after I got my SSD. Which is why I thought maybe it was that. Who knows maybe its still some driver that's ****ing it up but I can't narrow it down. There's only so many times I can uninstall and re-install drivers and see no progress before I lose it. :/

fireberd · 31 Oct 2014

When you have uninstalled/reinstalled drivers, did you uninstall then restart the PC before reinstalling? If not that can potentially cause problems.

I have SSD's on my recording studio PC (I have dual boot Win 7 and Win 8 on separate SSD's) and not having any problems. I first had a Gigabyte motherboard and now an ASRock.

Are you using any of the ASUS turbo options/tweaker and monitor programs? Some of these can cause problems.

mhermetz · 31 Oct 2014

I have since removed all those addons, and yes I take each driver individually. Uninstall-restart-install-restart...then onto the next. In between installs I also check latency.

I do get some latency,0.5, when I have no audio or video drivers installed. However, I cant stress my system enough to cause it too really spike at that point. The only thing that causes it to spike is when starting a game.

mhermetz · 31 Oct 2014

So minor revelation....although I was running it like this for 3 years and didn't have issue. My Mobo came with a pcie "spacer" card for one of the pcie 16x ports. Apparently when only running one video card that "spacer" should be placed in the pcie slot I had my video card, while my video card should be placed in the pcie x16 #2 slot. Not doing that caused my slot to run at 8x..not 16x.

So I made the change and I have to say I've being playing Shadow of Mordor for 3 hours and absolutly nothing. BUT I look at latencyMon and still see this:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CONCLUSION
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. Also one or more ISR routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for 1:10:58 (h:mm:ss) on all processors.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
SYSTEM INFORMATION
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
Computer name: HERMETZ-PC
OS version: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, 6.1, build: 7601 (x64)
Hardware: ASUSTeK Computer INC., M4A89GTD-PRO/USB3
CPU: AuthenticAMD AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 970 Processor
Logical processors: 4
Processor groups: 1
RAM: 6142 MB total

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU SPEED
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
Reported CPU speed: 3511.0 MHz
Measured CPU speed: 4471.0 MHz (approx.)

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 16229.041230
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 2.480559

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 2589.566912
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 0.620460

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
REPORTED ISRs
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs): 7876.849615
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: USBPORT.SYS - USB 1.1 & 2.0 Port Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.075887
Driver with highest ISR total time: USBPORT.SYS - USB 1.1 & 2.0 Port Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.183287

ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 9981570
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs): 32
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 30
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 45
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
REPORTED DPCs
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs): 9460.904016
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: USBPORT.SYS - USB 1.1 & 2.0 Port Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.300776
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0.470636

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 26558188
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 111
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 34
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 1
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count: ccc.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults 801
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 427
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs): 500383.856451
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%): 0.038881
Number of processes hit: 14

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
PER CPU DATA
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 52.328971
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 3301.295073
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 7.805679
CPU 0 ISR count: 4249923
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 4901.944175
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 10.154859
CPU 0 DPC count: 21408600
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 26.616616
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 5126.145827
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0.476556
CPU 1 ISR count: 123180
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 325.500142
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 0.414467
CPU 1 DPC count: 34567
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 36.475175
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 7876.849615
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 8.341098
CPU 2 ISR count: 2541290
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 1354.638280
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 2.470753
CPU 2 DPC count: 196432
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 123.246572
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs): 3685.756195
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s): 14.601130
CPU 3 ISR count: 3067306
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs): 9460.904016
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 67.136827
CPU 3 DPC count: 4918738
____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____

fireberd · 01 Nov 2014

I ran the Latency Mon on my recording studio system, which has minimal programs installed and works perfectly. I ran it just to see what the program does and Latencymon showed I had problems.

Although it can be a very useful tool, for my system it showed problems that were of no concern for audio or my recording studio.

NoN · 03 Nov 2014

Looks your motherboard have combined PATA/SATA...If you have a DVD/CD drive (or else) plugged onto the JMicron Pata/Sata or Ultra DMA 133/100 Pata, try to swap it. What's about the bundle included? Maybe a USB2.0 port module badly plugged too?