Hal.dll high interrupts CPU usage

[Shafski]

Hi,

I recently noticed high CPU usage from NT system and kernel which was affecting my performance, noticeably when gaming. After doing a performance analysis, I found this in interrupts (attached screenshot)

After looking around, I'm still not sure of the cause as my PC is fairly new and was wondering if anyone could help me?

Thanks.

 

[carwiz]

Interrupts don't really mean a lot. An interrupt is generated every time you move your mouse or press a key on the keyboard. If you look at the average duration it's .009ms or 9/1000th of a millisecond. The total accumulated over the entire period in your data amounts to 13 seconds. I don't see the period covered but that's not a lot.

It would probably be better to analyze what else is running while you're trying to play a game. Services, background programs, auto update, etc. can eat up cycles. You might try a Clean Startup and see if that improves game response. OEM bloatware and crapware are heavy burdens on a laptop. Most don't do anything that can't be done through Windows.

Forgot to mention: You don't have many specs listed but running out of memory is another bottleneck on performance.

 

[Shafski]

Interrupts don't really mean a lot. An interrupt is generated every time you move your mouse or press a key on the keyboard. If you look at the average duration it's .009ms or 9/1000th of a millisecond. The total accumulated over the entire period in your data amounts to 13 seconds. I don't see the period covered but that's not a lot.

It would probably be better to analyze what else is running while you're trying to play a game. Services, background programs, auto update, etc. can eat up cycles. You might try a Clean Startup and see if that improves game response. OEM bloatware and crapware are heavy burdens on a laptop. Most don't do anything that can't be done through Windows.

Forgot to mention: You don't have many specs listed but running out of memory is another bottleneck on performance.

Ah I see. I've observed my processes whilst gaming etc but why is NT kernel and system taking up 15 cpu constantly on windows task manager, more than the game itself at points. I barely run any other things when gaming just the necessities, but this seems to take up a large amount of the CPU.

 

[carwiz]

I can't see from here unless you run this Diagnostic Tool and upload the zip file. You could have lots of programs running unnecessarily. That's what OEMs do. But run the Clean Startup first. Or at least snip the screens and post them here. Especially from the Startup Tab.

 

[Shafski]

I can't see from here unless you run this Diagnostic Tool and upload the zip file. You could have lots of programs running unnecessarily. That's what OEMs do. But run the Clean Startup first. Or at least snip the screens and post them here. Especially from the Startup Tab.

Hey.

Specs : AMD A8 6600K Quad Core 3.9Ghz Processor with 4.2GHz Turbo Clocking Speeds
AMD Radeon HD8570D 8GB RAM (says 7.19 GB usable)


Startup :


The only running services I have are the ones related to AMD so don't see them being a problem.


Also, from the diagnostic tool.
View attachment Shafski.zip

Thanks so much, really do appreciate it

Oh one other thing, I've updated my profile. Apologies for the misunderstanding, I don't use a laptop anymore This is a problem with a computer I use now for everything, that I bought about 4 months ago.

 

[carwiz]

Here's a quick list (didn't have too look hard) that is probably contributing to lag on a 2-core, 4-thread processor.
These were all running while LoL was running.

Google Toolbar
Open Broadcaster
Catalyst Control Center
Super-Charger - List of startups not available.
Rainmeter
AdobeBridge
Winamp - Added

And Chrome if the browser is open while gamming.

 

[Shafski]

Here's a quick list (didn't have too look hard) that is probably contributing to lag on a 2-core, 4-thread processor.
These were all running while LoL was running.

Google Toolbar
Open Broadcaster
Catalyst Control Center
Super-Charger - List of startups not available.
Rainmeter
AdobeBridge
Winamp - Added

And Chrome if the browser is open while gamming.

Ah thanks. Is google toolbar a service or something? And Adobe Bridge aswell, is that service? I can't seem to find any of them as processes when I was just running the game. I've made supercharger stop running. Winamp I sometimes use to listen to music whilst gaming. CCC controls my graphics settings so I don't think I can end that (?) I've removed supercharger too as I don't need it.

 

[carwiz]

Google Tool Bar is a PUP. It probably installed with Chrome or some other program you downloaded. It spends a lot of time at startup uploading all the websites you've visited. It's probably listed in Chrome as a helper/extension.

Adobe Bridge is a process that comes with Adobe Creative Suite. Check the Startup Tab of the System Configuration for other entries too. (Clean Startup) It's just bloatware for CS6 file management. If you don't know what it is, you're probably not using it and it doesn't need to run at startup.

CCC is not required. It often causes BSODs. You can adjust graphic settings through the driver/display properties.

 

[Shafski]

Google Tool Bar is a PUP. It probably installed with Chrome or some other program you downloaded. It spends a lot of time at startup uploading all the websites you've visited. It's probably listed in Chrome as a helper/extension.

Adobe Bridge is a process that comes with Adobe Creative Suite. Check the Startup Tab of the System Configuration for other entries too. (Clean Startup) It's just bloatware for CS6 file management. If you don't know what it is, you're probably not using it and it doesn't need to run at startup.

CCC is not required. It often causes BSODs. You can adjust graphic settings through the driver/display properties.

Thanks a lot for the advice. I'll stop the unecessary/unused services from startup.

I wanted to ask, is it normal for Nt Kernel & System to take up 10-15 of my CPU constantly when im gaming?

 

[carwiz]

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?

 

[Shafski]

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]

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]

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

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?

 

[carwiz]

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]

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]

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]

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]

"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]

"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.

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.



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]

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.