- Jun 30, 2004
- 16,154
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I won't force anyone -- or even encourage them -- to read through my long thread on weird WHS-2011 behavior loading up one processor core with < 90% usage. Summary -- it was attributable to "Delayed Procedure Calls and Interrupts.
It looks pretty certain now -- it wasn't the sound card or drivers; wasn't the old NVidia hardware. But it WAS a driver and configuration problem that I missed when putting this system together.
BIOS configuration: IDE configuration -- PIO and DMA mode settings.
When an optical drive reverts to PIO mode, it apparently affects the entire storage subsystem by throwing up the DPCs and interrupts. I was able to simply turn off the onboard IDE, and my problem went away.
Now I'm looking at how this happened. I had a good, used IDE DVD/RW drive. I thought I needed it for this server box. And I didn't pay enough attention to configuring it.
ONE THING I KNOW: I can run the DVD/RW out of an IDE-to-USB external drive box. I'm PRETTY SURE that even with a 2007 motherboard, I can get the system to boot from a USB-connected optical drive.
I need to make sure either way, though, before I order an SATA optical drive and go through config modifications to my system. As I see it, I don't even NEED an optical drive for this system if I can prepare a bootable USB flash drive with the WHS OS on it.
Anyway -- this had been a problem in forum (elsewhere) discussion for WHS, Server 2008, and possibly even later flavors. The MY-stery of high CPU usage. And "Why are DPCs and interrupts hogging my clock-cycles?"
The troubleshooting approach to all this had been established: first -- attend to a focus on HW drivers. But who would think to worry about an IDE optical drive, since it had always "worked" when you needed it to?
YOU CAN use older hardware. Just be mindful of HOW you choose to set it up.
UPDATE: Dang!! After three hours running perfectly, the high core usage is back!! What now? I ask.
It looks pretty certain now -- it wasn't the sound card or drivers; wasn't the old NVidia hardware. But it WAS a driver and configuration problem that I missed when putting this system together.
BIOS configuration: IDE configuration -- PIO and DMA mode settings.
When an optical drive reverts to PIO mode, it apparently affects the entire storage subsystem by throwing up the DPCs and interrupts. I was able to simply turn off the onboard IDE, and my problem went away.
Now I'm looking at how this happened. I had a good, used IDE DVD/RW drive. I thought I needed it for this server box. And I didn't pay enough attention to configuring it.
ONE THING I KNOW: I can run the DVD/RW out of an IDE-to-USB external drive box. I'm PRETTY SURE that even with a 2007 motherboard, I can get the system to boot from a USB-connected optical drive.
I need to make sure either way, though, before I order an SATA optical drive and go through config modifications to my system. As I see it, I don't even NEED an optical drive for this system if I can prepare a bootable USB flash drive with the WHS OS on it.
Anyway -- this had been a problem in forum (elsewhere) discussion for WHS, Server 2008, and possibly even later flavors. The MY-stery of high CPU usage. And "Why are DPCs and interrupts hogging my clock-cycles?"
The troubleshooting approach to all this had been established: first -- attend to a focus on HW drivers. But who would think to worry about an IDE optical drive, since it had always "worked" when you needed it to?
YOU CAN use older hardware. Just be mindful of HOW you choose to set it up.
UPDATE: Dang!! After three hours running perfectly, the high core usage is back!! What now? I ask.
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