Re: [Flexradio] High CPU Usage Lockups - Help Needed
Note that the web check should die gracefully (exception handling) if no internet is found or anything like that. Still not a bad thing to try. Eric Wachsmann FlexRadio Systems -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] radio.biz] On Behalf Of Ken N9VV Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2007 7:59 PM To: Guy Atkins Cc: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] High CPU Usage Lockups - Help Needed Guy look at SETUP -- General -- Options right hand side. UNcheck the *Beta* and *Release* boxes just in case they are trying to get out on the Internet to look for updates to the code. If you have a good firewall, the whole console could be spinning it's wheels trying to get through it. Ken Guy Atkins wrote: I've been using many versions of PowerSDR with nearly no glitches for over a year, on a AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.0 GHz) system with 1.25 GB of RAM. The sound card in use is the Presonus Firebox with firmware updated successfully last summer, and the latest 1.21 driver. DirectX and my Nvidia drivers are all up to date, as well as Windows XP updates and with OS optimizations recommended by other SDR-1000 owners. I use the parallel cable that was supplied with the SDR-1000. However, despite the smooth-sailing for months, all my versions of PowerSDR (beta production, 1.3 through 1.8, plus K6JCA and K20X versions) have all started exhibiting the following behaviour, with no other applications or unnecessary processes running: 1. Fine receive operation for approx. 1 minute, then... 2. Rapidly increasing CPU utilization, from ~35-40% (w/display enabled) or from ~12-25% (w/no display) to higher levels, then 100% CPU, then... 3. Audio motorboating stutter, display freezing, and complete PowerSDR lockup, all within a few seconds. This is usually accompanied by full lockup of Windows. Lockups take just a little bit longer to occur when I have the display turned off, but CPU still goes to 100% followed by full lockup. 4. The lockup is normally so bad I can't do a CNTRL-ALT-DEL to gracefully shut down... I need to switch off the computer with the power supply switch. What could be causing this behavior? I have checked and rechecked every aspect I can think of, including trying Fail-Safe and Optimized BIOS settings on my motherboard. I've reviewed my start-up services (via services.msc) over over again, and tried some less aggressive settings after re-reading various XP optimization recommendations from the Flex- Radio reflector and elsewhere. I have tried deleting the .MDB database and starting fresh, as well as uninstalling and fully reinstalling a few of the PowerSDR versions. I usually run very conservative latency settings (large buffers) in the PowerSDR setups and on the Firebox Soundcard. I don't mind latency, as I'm using the SDR in receive-only mode. I typically have the Process Priority setting at high or above normal. Going to real time doesn't offer any improvement. For the life of me I can't think of what changes I may have made to this desktop PC to cause PowerSDR to react this way with all versions. I used to be able to run PowerSDR with other applications concurrent, for hours at a time, perfectly. Now I can't even run it alone for two minutes without lockups that require a complete reboot! Thanks in advance for any pointers or direction! Guy Atkins KE7MAV Puyallup, WA USA www.sdr-1000.blogspot.com ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] High CPU Usage Lockups - Help Needed
I did try deselecting the web check options, but no joy. The swapout of McAfee Security Center for the Avast antivirus products made no difference, either. The SDR-1000 runs fine on my 1.4 GHz Centrino laptop. Although the CPU usage is much higher on average (than the desktop PC used to show when it ran PowerSDR properly), it runs great continuously, even with a few other programs running. I think I may next try reinstalling XP in repair mode. Perhaps in my zealousness to optimize XP, I deleted or corrupted a file I shouldn't have touched. My backups don't go back far enough to the time before I started aggressively tweaking. Thanks to all who have given suggestions to try. Guy Atkins KE7MAV Puyallup, WA -Original Message- From: Eric Wachsmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: 'Ken N9VV' [EMAIL PROTECTED]; 'Guy Atkins' [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Sent: 4/2/2007 12:20 PM Subject: RE: [Flexradio] High CPU Usage Lockups - Help Needed Note that the web check should die gracefully (exception handling) if no internet is found or anything like that. Still not a bad thing to try. Eric Wachsmann FlexRadio Systems -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] radio.biz] On Behalf Of Ken N9VV Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2007 7:59 PM To: Guy Atkins Cc: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] High CPU Usage Lockups - Help Needed Guy look at SETUP -- General -- Options right hand side. UNcheck the *Beta* and *Release* boxes just in case they are trying to get out on the Internet to look for updates to the code. If you have a good firewall, the whole console could be spinning it's wheels trying to get through it. Ken Guy Atkins wrote: I've been using many versions of PowerSDR with nearly no glitches for over a year, on a AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.0 GHz) system with 1.25 GB of RAM. The sound card in use is the Presonus Firebox with firmware updated successfully last summer, and the latest 1.21 driver. DirectX and my Nvidia drivers are all up to date, as well as Windows XP updates and with OS optimizations recommended by other SDR-1000 owners. I use the parallel cable that was supplied with the SDR-1000. However, despite the smooth-sailing for months, all my versions of PowerSDR (beta production, 1.3 through 1.8, plus K6JCA and K20X versions) have all started exhibiting the following behaviour, with no other applications or unnecessary processes running: 1. Fine receive operation for approx. 1 minute, then... 2. Rapidly increasing CPU utilization, from ~35-40% (w/display enabled) or from ~12-25% (w/no display) to higher levels, then 100% CPU, then... 3. Audio motorboating stutter, display freezing, and complete PowerSDR lockup, all within a few seconds. This is usually accompanied by full lockup of Windows. Lockups take just a little bit longer to occur when I have the display turned off, but CPU still goes to 100% followed by full lockup. 4. The lockup is normally so bad I can't do a CNTRL-ALT-DEL to gracefully shut down... I need to switch off the computer with the power supply switch. What could be causing this behavior? I have checked and rechecked every aspect I can think of, including trying Fail-Safe and Optimized BIOS settings on my motherboard. I've reviewed my start-up services (via services.msc) over over again, and tried some less aggressive settings after re-reading various XP optimization recommendations from the Flex- Radio reflector and elsewhere. I have tried deleting the .MDB database and starting fresh, as well as uninstalling and fully reinstalling a few of the PowerSDR versions. I usually run very conservative latency settings (large buffers) in the PowerSDR setups and on the Firebox Soundcard. I don't mind latency, as I'm using the SDR in receive-only mode. I typically have the Process Priority setting at high or above normal. Going to real time doesn't offer any improvement. For the life of me I can't think of what changes I may have made to this desktop PC to cause PowerSDR to react this way with all versions. I used to be able to run PowerSDR with other applications concurrent, for hours at a time, perfectly. Now I can't even run it alone for two minutes without lockups that require a complete reboot! Thanks in advance for any pointers or direction! Guy Atkins KE7MAV Puyallup, WA USA www.sdr-1000.blogspot.com ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz
Re: [Flexradio] High CPU Usage Lockups - Help Needed
Ugh - good computer, gone bad -- maddening. Probably going to take a bit of detective work to sort out the issue. Can you think of any new hardware/software you installed in the near vicinity of things getting flakey? That would be the first thing I'd look at in terms of sorting out where the problem is originating from. Another diagnostic - bring up task manager,. process tab, sort by CPU usage. Is it PowerSDR sucking all the CPU when things go bad? Are there processes other than PowerSDR running that appear to be using significant CPU when things go bad. For some deeper detective work, you can get the AMD CodeAnalyst Performance Analyzer from http://developer.amd.com/downloads.jsp to get a better idea of where the cycles are going. This will take a bit of work to install and setup, but it will show you where the cycles are going which may give a clue as to what is broken. Hope some of this helps. Bill (kd5tfd) At 02:01 AM 3/31/2007, Guy Atkins wrote: I've been using many versions of PowerSDR with nearly no glitches for over a year, on a AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.0 GHz) system with 1.25 GB of RAM. The sound card in use is the Presonus Firebox with firmware updated successfully last summer, and the latest 1.21 driver. DirectX and my Nvidia drivers are all up to date, as well as Windows XP updates and with OS optimizations recommended by other SDR-1000 owners. I use the parallel cable that was supplied with the SDR-1000. However, despite the smooth-sailing for months, all my versions of PowerSDR (beta production, 1.3 through 1.8, plus K6JCA and K20X versions) have all started exhibiting the following behaviour, with no other applications or unnecessary processes running: 1. Fine receive operation for approx. 1 minute, then... 2. Rapidly increasing CPU utilization, from ~35-40% (w/display enabled) or from ~12-25% (w/no display) to higher levels, then 100% CPU, then... 3. Audio motorboating stutter, display freezing, and complete PowerSDR lockup, all within a few seconds. This is usually accompanied by full lockup of Windows. Lockups take just a little bit longer to occur when I have the display turned off, but CPU still goes to 100% followed by full lockup. 4. The lockup is normally so bad I can't do a CNTRL-ALT-DEL to gracefully shut down... I need to switch off the computer with the power supply switch. ... snip ... Guy Atkins KE7MAV Puyallup, WA USA www.sdr-1000.blogspot.com ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] High CPU Usage Lockups - Help Needed
Thanks for your ideas, Bill. The only change I could think of that I made to the system was an upgrade to the latest, greatest McAfee Security Center. I'd been suspecting this was a resource hog for other reasons, so this morning I decided to fully remove it (which took some research effort!) and install Avast Antivirus software instead. Things are still the same, however. (Even with the new antivirus software temporarily disabled.) The CPU cycles are loafing along for the first 1-2 minutes with PowerSDR, then BAM! CPU usage hits the ceiling and lockups begin (display 1st, audio 2nd, then full lockup). I don't see any other process that is using CPU cycles significantly. System Idle Process is usually high (which is a good thing), until the PowerSDR percentage skyrockets. Here's what the Performance Tab of the Windows Task Manager looks like when PowerSDR goes 100%: http://www.guyatkins.com/files/sdr/cpu100.gif Does any of the numeric data in the lower half of the screen look suspicious to anyone? I've run full scans for trojans, worms, and viruses with various utilities and the system keeps coming up clean. I also regularly scan for spyware and other malcontents. I will check out the AMD CodeAnalyst Performance Analyzer later this weekend when I get the chance. 73, Guy Atkins KE7MAV Puyallup, WA www.sdr-1000.blogspot.com -Original Message- From: Bill Tracey [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2007 7:31 AM To: Guy Atkins; flexradio@flex-radio.biz Subject: Re: [Flexradio] High CPU Usage Lockups - Help Needed Ugh - good computer, gone bad -- maddening. Probably going to take a bit of detective work to sort out the issue. Can you think of any new hardware/software you installed in the near vicinity of things getting flakey? That would be the first thing I'd look at in terms of sorting out where the problem is originating from. Another diagnostic - bring up task manager,. process tab, sort by CPU usage. Is it PowerSDR sucking all the CPU when things go bad? Are there processes other than PowerSDR running that appear to be using significant CPU when things go bad. For some deeper detective work, you can get the AMD CodeAnalyst Performance Analyzer from http://developer.amd.com/downloads.jsp to get a better idea of where the cycles are going. This will take a bit of work to install and setup, but it will show you where the cycles are going which may give a clue as to what is broken. Hope some of this helps. Bill (kd5tfd) At 02:01 AM 3/31/2007, Guy Atkins wrote: I've been using many versions of PowerSDR with nearly no glitches for over a year, on a AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.0 GHz) system with 1.25 GB of RAM. The sound card in use is the Presonus Firebox with firmware updated successfully last summer, and the latest 1.21 driver. DirectX and my Nvidia drivers are all up to date, as well as Windows XP updates and with OS optimizations recommended by other SDR-1000 owners. I use the parallel cable that was supplied with the SDR-1000. However, despite the smooth-sailing for months, all my versions of PowerSDR (beta production, 1.3 through 1.8, plus K6JCA and K20X versions) have all started exhibiting the following behaviour, with no other applications or unnecessary processes running: 1. Fine receive operation for approx. 1 minute, then... 2. Rapidly increasing CPU utilization, from ~35-40% (w/display enabled) or from ~12-25% (w/no display) to higher levels, then 100% CPU, then... 3. Audio motorboating stutter, display freezing, and complete PowerSDR lockup, all within a few seconds. This is usually accompanied by full lockup of Windows. Lockups take just a little bit longer to occur when I have the display turned off, but CPU still goes to 100% followed by full lockup. 4. The lockup is normally so bad I can't do a CNTRL-ALT-DEL to gracefully shut down... I need to switch off the computer with the power supply switch. ... snip ... Guy Atkins KE7MAV Puyallup, WA USA www.sdr-1000.blogspot.com ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/
Re: [Flexradio] High CPU Usage Lockups - Help Needed
Guy look at SETUP -- General -- Options right hand side. UNcheck the *Beta* and *Release* boxes just in case they are trying to get out on the Internet to look for updates to the code. If you have a good firewall, the whole console could be spinning it's wheels trying to get through it. Ken Guy Atkins wrote: I've been using many versions of PowerSDR with nearly no glitches for over a year, on a AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.0 GHz) system with 1.25 GB of RAM. The sound card in use is the Presonus Firebox with firmware updated successfully last summer, and the latest 1.21 driver. DirectX and my Nvidia drivers are all up to date, as well as Windows XP updates and with OS optimizations recommended by other SDR-1000 owners. I use the parallel cable that was supplied with the SDR-1000. However, despite the smooth-sailing for months, all my versions of PowerSDR (beta production, 1.3 through 1.8, plus K6JCA and K20X versions) have all started exhibiting the following behaviour, with no other applications or unnecessary processes running: 1. Fine receive operation for approx. 1 minute, then... 2. Rapidly increasing CPU utilization, from ~35-40% (w/display enabled) or from ~12-25% (w/no display) to higher levels, then 100% CPU, then... 3. Audio motorboating stutter, display freezing, and complete PowerSDR lockup, all within a few seconds. This is usually accompanied by full lockup of Windows. Lockups take just a little bit longer to occur when I have the display turned off, but CPU still goes to 100% followed by full lockup. 4. The lockup is normally so bad I can't do a CNTRL-ALT-DEL to gracefully shut down... I need to switch off the computer with the power supply switch. What could be causing this behavior? I have checked and rechecked every aspect I can think of, including trying Fail-Safe and Optimized BIOS settings on my motherboard. I've reviewed my start-up services (via services.msc) over over again, and tried some less aggressive settings after re-reading various XP optimization recommendations from the Flex-Radio reflector and elsewhere. I have tried deleting the .MDB database and starting fresh, as well as uninstalling and fully reinstalling a few of the PowerSDR versions. I usually run very conservative latency settings (large buffers) in the PowerSDR setups and on the Firebox Soundcard. I don't mind latency, as I'm using the SDR in receive-only mode. I typically have the Process Priority setting at high or above normal. Going to real time doesn't offer any improvement. For the life of me I can't think of what changes I may have made to this desktop PC to cause PowerSDR to react this way with all versions. I used to be able to run PowerSDR with other applications concurrent, for hours at a time, perfectly. Now I can't even run it alone for two minutes without lockups that require a complete reboot! Thanks in advance for any pointers or direction! Guy Atkins KE7MAV Puyallup, WA USA www.sdr-1000.blogspot.com ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/ ___ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com/ FlexRadio Knowledge Base: http://kb.flex-radio.com/
