Hal.dll high interrupts CPU usage

Shafski · 11 Jun 2015

carwiz said:

That seems pretty high but it depends on what the game is doing. Right click on NT Kernel & System then click on Analyze Wait Chain. Is there anything shown in the window?

What is it without the game running?

I don't have the analyze wait chain option (I use windows 7)

But, for now I tried it after ending all the services and I haven't seen it go over 5 whilst gaming. Is 5% normal?

It maxes at about 3 every few seconds without gaming.

carwiz · 11 Jun 2015

That is Windows 7. I thought you were getting your numbers from Resource Monitor (CPU Tab)? In the upper pane, there should be a listing for NT Kernel & System. Right click on it and you should get a menu.

Added:
With just IE, Live Mail and Resource Monitor running, I'm at 0.21 on NTK & S.

....BUT, I have an 8-thread machine.

Shafski · 13 Jun 2015

carwiz said:

That is Windows 7. I thought you were getting your numbers from Resource Monitor (CPU Tab)? In the upper pane, there should be a listing for NT Kernel & System. Right click on it and you should get a menu.

Added:
With just IE, Live Mail and Resource Monitor running, I'm at 0.21 on NTK & S.

....BUT, I have an 8-thread machine.

Nice :P

It says system is running normally and nothing happens when I leave it on the analyze wait chain. On average my NT Kernel & System CPU Usage is 7, fluctuating constantly between like 4-15.

Also, I think I found the cause of the CPU from it but I have no idea what it is?

Hal.dll high interrupts CPU usage-cpu.png

carwiz · 13 Jun 2015

Hmmmm. I was looking at the description in your left window example. It looks like ntoskrnl.exe is having trouble retrieving a page. That should have generated a BSOD if it failed. It's in the Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA) process at that point.

For test purposes, reduce your pagefile size to .5GB (or 500MB). I'd like to see if less pagefile space on that big spinner (HDD) of yours will help reduce your system time as well as put more into free memory. We may want to run a Memtest if you don't see an improvement.

Forgot to mention:
I don't think the Analyze Wait Chain screen updates. It's just a snapshot at that point in time. The fact that it was empty is a good thing.

Shafski · 13 Jun 2015

carwiz said:

Hmmmm. I was looking at the description in your left window example. It looks like ntoskrnl.exe is having trouble retrieving a page. That should have generated a BSOD if it failed. It's in the Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA) process at that point.

For test purposes, reduce your pagefile size to .5GB (or 500MB). I'd like to see if less pagefile space on that big spinner (HDD) of yours will help reduce your system time as well as put more into free memory. We may want to run a Memtest if you don't see an improvement.

Forgot to mention:
I don't think the Analyze Wait Chain screen updates. It's just a snapshot at that point in time. The fact that it was empty is a good thing.

Ah haha. I left it open and was checking it every few seconds to see if something came up. I'll open it after a while a few times and see if theres any difference (with regards to the wait chain)

I reduced the pagefile size to 500MB. Sorry, I've never changed the pagefile size but I just put the minimum and maximum as 500MB right? Thanks again

carwiz · 13 Jun 2015

I reduced the pagefile size to 500MB. Sorry, I've never changed the pagefile
size but I just put the minimum and maximum as 500MB right?

Yes, that's correct. Did it seem to help reduce the system time used?

Shafski · 14 Jun 2015

carwiz said:

I reduced the pagefile size to 500MB. Sorry, I've never changed the pagefile
size but I just put the minimum and maximum as 500MB right?

Yes, that's correct. Did it seem to help reduce the system time used?

Sorry, what do you mean by system time? CPU used up by NT Kernel & System right?

So far I've seen it at a maximum of 3% after the change, but I just checked today. I'll post again any further changes. It's constantly at 1% now, much better than before.

carwiz · 14 Jun 2015

"Time" was probably a bad word choice. Percent CPU, as you were watching.

Right click the task bar and Start Task Manager. On the Performance Tab, click on Resource Monitor (at the bottom), then click on the Memory Tab. Post a screen shot of the Physical Memory bar graph area.

Shafski · 14 Jun 2015

carwiz said:

"Time" was probably a bad word choice. Percent CPU, as you were watching.

Right click the task bar and Start Task Manager. On the Performance Tab, click on Resource Monitor (at the bottom), then click on the Memory Tab. Post a screen shot of the Physical Memory bar graph area.

Hal.dll high interrupts CPU usage-memory.png

Is that alright sir

Btw when I game I end skype process, chrome, and just use League and sometimes OBS & Curse

Right now even with all those running whilst im in matchmaking in League (so the actual game hasn't started yet) I'm getting the below average CPU on System.

Hal.dll high interrupts CPU usage-memory2.png

Things are seeming a lot more hopeful, but I'm going to monitor it and report back if it changes. So is the cause memory related?

carwiz · 14 Jun 2015

That memory usage looks pretty good.

Actually, I think it's a combination of the large disk being used for system files and the possibility that you may be using IDE mode instead of AHCI mode. I didn't look up the specs on your HDD but large disks aren't known for speed. Typically, they're used for data storage. Windows will use much of whatever you assign to virtual memory even though it may not be necessary from a physical memory standpoint. And having a pagefile on a slow disk takes time and I/O from other tasks as the pagefile is filled and re-read.

That's where Solid State Drives (SSD) really shine. They can make an otherwise slow system blazing fast. Many use a smaller SSD for system and programs and leave the HDD to data storage. The difference is like night and day.

Keep an eye on your system load for a while and if it stays low, you can add back any startups you disabled during the Clean Start. It's better to add only ONE at a time so you can see the effect it has on the system and decide if it's worth the load it puts on the system when you're not actually using it.