Hi everyone! Lately I've been having weird problems with my laptop. After some time of booting it up and using it normally, it will start to get really hot. And I found out that this process on Windows called "Interrupts" is taking up all the cpu of one of the core, that in total takes up 25% of the CPU. So I started researching to find out what exactly could be causing it, and used LatencyMon to pinpoint the problem. This is the output I got: Code (Text): _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ 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 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 0:00:39 (h:mm:ss) on all processors. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ SYSTEM INFORMATION _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Computer name: AK53S-PC OS version: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, 6.1, build: 7601 (x64) Hardware: K53SC, ASUSTeK Computer Inc. CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2430M CPU @ 2.40GHz Logical processors: 4 Processor groups: 1 RAM: 4006 MB total _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU SPEED _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Reported CPU speed: 2394,0 MHz Measured CPU speed: 1836,0 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): 9956,788632 Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 7,734608 Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 351,079001 Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 5,093296 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ MEASURED SMI, IPI AND CPU STALLS _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The SMI, IPI and CPU stalls value represents the highest measured interval that a CPU did not respond while having its maskable interrupts disabled. Highest measured SMI or CPU stall (µs) 7,697225 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 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): 37,660401 Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: ACPI.sys - ACPI Driver for NT, Microsoft Corporation Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 5,356438 Driver with highest ISR total time: ACPI.sys - ACPI Driver for NT, Microsoft Corporation Total time spent in ISRs (%) 5,449347 ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 950406 ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0 ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs): 0 ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 0 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): 362,438596 Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: ndis.sys - NDIS 6.20 driver, Microsoft Corporation Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 13,653239 Driver with highest DPC total execution time: ACPI.sys - ACPI Driver for NT, Microsoft Corporation Total time spent in DPCs (%) 18,819671 DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 2925818 DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0 DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 4 DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 0 DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0 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: msmpeng.exe Total number of hard pagefaults 283 Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 247 Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs): 2003431,340852 Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%): 9,442092 Number of processes hit: 3 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ PER CPU DATA _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 30,846349 CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 37,660401 CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 8,667514 CPU 0 ISR count: 950406 CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 362,438596 CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 25,003745 CPU 0 DPC count: 2411970 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 2,197669 CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0 CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0 CPU 1 ISR count: 0 CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 166,616541 CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 2,089403 CPU 1 DPC count: 214635 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 2,731817 CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0 CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0 CPU 2 ISR count: 0 CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 136,291980 CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 2,581994 CPU 2 DPC count: 271843 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 0,344908 CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0,0 CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s): 0,0 CPU 3 ISR count: 0 CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs): 158,488722 CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0,258673 CPU 3 DPC count: 27374 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ At first I tried disabling the battery controller and that used to work (or probably it didn't but I thought it did) but that is just not doing the trick anymore. Same with the wireless card, whose drivers I updated to the latest version. Now the really funny thing, is that there is also a process doing the same on Linux, the "kworker" process, I didn't do much research being on Linux though. So this made me think that the problem itself is not software related as I first thought.. could this be the case or just mere coincidence? Oh and I even tried updating the BIOS which also didn't work. This has been driving me nuts for the last months. I seriously don't know what to do anymore and it's really annoying because when it does that, I can even hear audio glitches and the cooling fans are really loud and it's all just plain annoying. So yeah thats it. I would thank you guys so much if you could help me figure this one out.
So you're saying my laptop is getting hot.. and because it's getting hot, it'll try to get even hotter? I am not being sarcastic by the way I genuinely don't get this.
No, because I thought the problem was actually having these processes taking up CPU usage and heating things up.
You can see the CPU is not even running at max speed. It is being throttled so it would not disintegrate. When you go turn off SPeedStep it'll get whole lot hotter as the speed is no longer reduced in such a condition :P
But this seriously doesn't happen until those processes start taking up CPU usage like crazy. Under normal circumstances, my laptop does not get hot. I can even feel with no problem the airflow coming out of it. But after some (I think) arbitrary time (It really seems to be random), "Interrupts" starting sucking on CPU power and that's when it gets hot because of that. And again, same happens on Linux, except on Linux it's "kworker" who does this. I've discovered that putting it into sleep and turning it back on seems to temporarily fix the problem...
But overheating is not what bothers me.. it doesn't even get that hot anyone. It bothers me that one of my core is at 100% making audio and other stuff slow and glitchy.
But that's the point! It's likely not overheating because your CPU is throttling. It's doing that to prevent it from critically overheating and potentially damaging itself.
Okay I get now.. so it really is just general overheating.. I'll try to open it up and clean the cooling fans. Thanks everyone
