System slowed down by hardware interrupts

Is there any tool available that could help me find out what's causing all these hardware interrupts? Sometimes they occupy an entire core from my laptop's Core 2 Duo CPU. When that happens, everything slows down to a crawl. I can't even play a low-res video in VLC without extreme stuttering.

Scanned your system for viruses/spyware recently?RayvinAzn

Yes. It's clean in that regard. I think it has to do with the hard drive. I just want to know if there's a tool that can tell me for sure.

Yes. It's clean in that regard. I think it has to do with the hard drive. I just want to know if there's a tool that can tell me for sure.

mjarantilla

The S.M.A.R.T. utility might be able to give you some indication - but if your processor resources are getting sucked up, I doubt it's your hard drive.

[QUOTE="mjarantilla"]

Yes. It's clean in that regard. I think it has to do with the hard drive. I just want to know if there's a tool that can tell me for sure.

RayvinAzn

The S.M.A.R.T. utility might be able to give you some indication - but if your processor resources are getting sucked up, I doubt it's your hard drive.

Well, it wouldn't be the hard drive per se. It's the hard drive's interrupt signals. There are times when I get 40-60% of my CPU sucked up by what Process Explorer calls "Hardware Interrupts." The normal Task Manager reports it as part of the idle process. I only suspect my hard drive because the only other time the hardware interrupts get that high is when I'm transferring data to or from my hard drive, or copying large files.

I also got excessive hardware interrupts when my laptop's Bluetooth malfunctioned and it spat out a whole load of interrupts until I forcibly deactivated and uninstalled it.

Off hand it sounds like your drive has dropped into PIO mode. Check Device Manager and see if the contoller is running in DMA or PIO mode.

Off hand it sounds like your drive has dropped into PIO mode. Check Device Manager and see if the contoller is running in DMA or PIO mode.

HowardB

Looks like it has. Primary IDE Channel Properties -> Advanced Settings -> Current Transfer Mode = PIO Mode.

I have Transfer Mode set at "DMA if available." How would I fix this, if I can?

Looks like it has. Primary IDE Channel Properties -> Advanced Settings -> Current Transfer Mode = PIO Mode.

I have Transfer Mode set at "DMA if available." How would I fix this, if I can?

mjarantilla

Check the BIOS to make sure DMA is enabled. That's the only other general fix I can think of.

[QUOTE="mjarantilla"]

Looks like it has. Primary IDE Channel Properties -> Advanced Settings -> Current Transfer Mode = PIO Mode.

I have Transfer Mode set at "DMA if available." How would I fix this, if I can?

HowardB

Check the BIOS to make sure DMA is enabled. That's the only other general fix I can think of.

Hang on, is the Primary IDE Channel the one I want to be looking at, or the Serial ATA Storage Controller? My hard drive is a 2.5" SATA.

Also, I found this tech support page on Microsoft's website:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817472

Basically it says to uninstall the driver for the controller. Errr....is that a good idea, given that this is my primary hard drive?

EDIT: Never mind. I got the Primary IDE back to UDMA Mode 5. :)

Hardware interrupts are usually conflicts with IRQ's. Too many devices on one address, or something of that sort. Try switching ports if that's possible, that might solve your problems.RayvinAzn

How can I do that?

You can check System Information in Start--->Accessories--->System Tools and check to see which devices are sharing an IRQ.