Odd problem with Seti and AMD 64

[11427]

I put together a new A64 machine the other day and have been a little disappointed in it's performance, I kept hearing how much faster the A64's were than the old XP's. The biggest thing I noticed was that my XP 2500+ was (well, is) doing WU's twice as fast as the 64 2800+. The interesting thing is it took from 11:30 this morning untill 6:00 this evening to do 1 WU though Seti claims it was completed in 2:59:05. WTF,... anyone else ever run into anything like this?
When I run a Seti benchmark I get:
........A64 2800+........XP2500+
Dry.......3567................3490
Whet....1916................2063

They also come out pretty much even when I run SiSoft benches,.... any idea's?

 

[Wolfsraider]

Could it have been a corrupt wu?

not sure but there have been bad wu's before

Mike

 

[Unforgiven]

are you using the same speed of ram on both? are you sure the amd 64 is running only 1 instance of seti and not 2 or 3?

 

[11427]

Could be a corrupt WU,.. but it's been acting like this for a couple of weeks.
Yes, the exact same ram in both machines (Kingston HyperX pc3500) only 1 instance on each machine,....both machines show 99% cpu usage for Seti in task manager,..... any other thoughts?

 

[Unforgiven]

the reason i suspected multiple instances of seti running is that 2:95 is about 50% of the time that your processor was running seti in your example. something else has to be robbing cpu cycles. also, are you sure that your cpu is running at the correct clock speed and all that? those marks are disappointing and something is definately wrong!

 

[Ken g6]

On NT-based versions of Windows, SETI times are registered as actual processor times, unlike 9x versions where actual runtime is used. So as Unforgiven said, something is almost certainly taking 50% of your cycles.

 

[11427]

Thats kinda what I was thinking,... but I cannot find anything wrong. I almost think I'm just missing something but I can't see what it is.
BTW both machines are almost identical ie: same mem, same HD, same OS, etc. etc.
As for the clock speed,... I cannot be certain, but as far as I can see it is. (bios settings, easytune5, MyComputer properties, etc. etc.)

 

[MechEng]

You could try and check your settings with CPU-z

 

[11427]

Checked things out with CPU-Z,... only odd thing is my chip shows up as a Clawhammer,.... I thought it was a Newcastle. It is supposed to be a skt754 2800+ Newcastle. Or so I thought.

 

[Unforgiven]

isnt the clawhammer only 512kb cache rather than the newcastle @ 1 meg?

 

[ecvs85]

s-754 newcastle's has 512kb L2, while s-754 clawhammer has 1 meg, I remember anandtech did a benchmark for these 2 cores before.

 

[11427]

Any other ideas???? I'm about ready to return MB and CPU and take a 15% restock hit.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

post a screen shot of your log, and setidriver.

 

[Ken g6]

Originally posted by: 11427
Could be a corrupt WU,.. but it's been acting like this for a couple of weeks.
Yes, the exact same ram in both machines (Kingston HyperX pc3500) only 1 instance on each machine,....both machines show 99% cpu usage for Seti in task manager,..... any other thoughts?

Can you try keeping a Task Manager window open overnight or something?

Back when we were doing RC5-64, there was an option in it to turn off when any certain other program was running. People who were running RC5 in labs found it useful to turn it off when Taskman.exe started, so that other users wouldn't freak over the 100% cpu usage. I imagine other programs that use 100% cpu, and which you might not want, might use the same scheme. Spyware, viruses, heck, maybe it's one of the RC5 worms that were circulating back in those days!

 

[CyGoR]

Or could it have something to do with the power saving features of the A64? Guess not if CPU-Z shows the right frequencie..
Usually these settings can be done in the MB BIOS, if it's on, you might want to turn it off..
That's the last thing I can think of, besides checking for virussus/spyware etc with some very good programs.

One other thing, you could try to go to Windows Safe Mode (+console) and run the Seti client through the DOS console, this way there will be no unwanted services etc active. And if that doesn't work, I don't think it's a software problem..

Good luck! :beer:

 

[bvDrAx]

I agree, I would check your Cool-N-Quite feature in the BIOS. Disable it since you always want your CPU running at full throttle. I have an A64 3500 and I have seen nothing but a speed increase over my XP2600.

 

[11427]

Well,... I finally gave up on it,.... replaced it with a 939 3000+ and a new mobo. Only problem now is it locks the keyboard when I try to install an OS. Yup, Gigabyte K8NF-9, can't seem to find a work-around for this problem (tried both BIOS', even a Beta or two, disable usb keyboard, and all the other things that worked for others on these forums, but no luck for me). So the search is back on for a new board.

 

[CraigRT]

Man you are having such bad luck!
May I suggest a Soltek board!?

my last 4 Soltek boards have been great.. every single 1 of them!

best of luck!

 

[The Reaper]

I don't run seti, but in FAD I'm having the same results as you. My AXP mobile 2400+ @ 2350 MHz completes jobs faster then my FX-53 @ 2530 MHz. I had a A64 3200+ (win) @ 2150 MHz, and that was so stinking slow it was pathetic. I think the A64?s are way overrated.

 

[Ken g6]

Can you run something like Knoppix without it locking?

 

[11427]

Ok,.. the Gigabyte was swapped out for an MSI K8N NEO 2, up and running with no problems. Working on an overclock and will bring it online soon.

 

[11427]

Looks like the CPU is going to top out at 2350Mhz,... was hoping for 2.5 or 2.6 like some have made it to, oh well, sure beats the old K6/2-500 @ 550 that it's replacing ;-)