djcel
You can try the tool "Microsoft RATT v3" which will list the details for each driver. It was the program we used before DPC Latency tool
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/DevTools/tools/RATT.mspx
And maybe it's time for Dell to learn how works computers so tell them to have a look on these websites:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/DevTools/tools/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/DevTools/tools/RATT.mspx
Quote :
RATTV3
A Trace Processing Tool
RATTV3 is a Microsoft Windows tool for auditing the execution times of interrupt service routines (ISRs), deferred procedure calls (DPCs), and timer DPCs. This version of the tool is from the WinHEC 2005 CD. RATTV3 is designed to help developers of drivers and other kernel mode components audit the ISR and DPC execution time of their components. This tool will help developers minimize ISR and DPC execution time and meet upcoming Longhorn requirements.
Please read the license agreement, if you do not agree to the terms, please do not install or use this software.
Overview
ISRs and DPCs (including timer DPCs) typically run for relatively short periods of time and are not problematic. However, some drivers and other kernel mode components do generate ISRs and DPCs that are long enough to cause system wide problems such as:
Audio and video "glitches"
Problems with other devices by overly delaying the execution of other ISRs and DPCs
Interference with applications due to over use of CPU time
RATTV3 consists of two equitable programs RATT.EXE and CSWA.EXE. RATTV3 uses Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) to log ISR and DPC activity. ETW is a very efficient event logging mechanism built into Microsoft Windows operating systems (XP, WS2003 and Longhorn in particular). The kernel supports logging of events at the end of each ISR and DPC. These events contain the ISR or DPCs duration. Durations are measured using the kernel equivalent of QueryPerformanceCounter().
RATT.EXE itself is a small system tray program and runs efficiently in the background collecting and processing trace information. It is controlled by clicking on its system tray icon or by using command line parameters (see the usage section below).
RATTV3 allows tracing data to be collected on a machine 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It does this by turning on tracing for three minute periods. Between each period, RATT.EXE uses CSWA.EXE to process the trace. CSWA then generates a report showing the accumulated data for all the traces processed.
CSWA.EXE is a trace processing tool. It process each ISR and DPC event in the trace and computes each event's actual execution time. Tracing processing is quick - typically taking only a few seconds to process several minutes of trace data. As CSWA process each event, it develops a histogram of execution times for each driver (kernel component) in the system. After a trace is processed, CSWA adds the newly developed histogram counts to a data file. CSWA then generates histogram report from the data that has been accumulated in the file.
This mode of operation allows auditing of ISR and DPC execution times to run over very long periods of time - many days or even weeks without accumulating large amounts of trace data files or individual reports that must then be aggregated.
Kernel tracing, RATT.EXE and CSWA.EXE are light weight and efficient - they can generally be run simultaneously with other workloads and tests without disruption or impacting other performance measurements. The largest impact is typically disk I/O during trace logging and processing.
RATTV3 was designed to be used in a lab setting over large numbers of machines. RATTV3 makes it easy to collect reports by periodically using anonymous FTP to upload reports to a central server. FTP was chosen instead of mapping a drive, or using UNC paths for file copies. FTP avoids problems with permissions and is very easy to setup on MS Server platforms. This allows machines to collect data independably of a domain based server system.
RATTV3
A Trace Processing Tool
RATTV3 is a Microsoft Windows tool for auditing the execution times of interrupt service routines (ISRs), deferred procedure calls (DPCs), and timer DPCs. This version of the tool is from the WinHEC 2005 CD. RATTV3 is designed to help developers of drivers and other kernel mode components audit the ISR and DPC execution time of their components. This tool will help developers minimize ISR and DPC execution time and meet upcoming Longhorn requirements.
Please read the license agreement, if you do not agree to the terms, please do not install or use this software.
Overview
ISRs and DPCs (including timer DPCs) typically run for relatively short periods of time and are not problematic. However, some drivers and other kernel mode components do generate ISRs and DPCs that are long enough to cause system wide problems such as:
Audio and video "glitches"
Problems with other devices by overly delaying the execution of other ISRs and DPCs
Interference with applications due to over use of CPU time
RATTV3 consists of two equitable programs RATT.EXE and CSWA.EXE. RATTV3 uses Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) to log ISR and DPC activity. ETW is a very efficient event logging mechanism built into Microsoft Windows operating systems (XP, WS2003 and Longhorn in particular). The kernel supports logging of events at the end of each ISR and DPC. These events contain the ISR or DPCs duration. Durations are measured using the kernel equivalent of QueryPerformanceCounter().
RATT.EXE itself is a small system tray program and runs efficiently in the background collecting and processing trace information. It is controlled by clicking on its system tray icon or by using command line parameters (see the usage section below).
RATTV3 allows tracing data to be collected on a machine 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It does this by turning on tracing for three minute periods. Between each period, RATT.EXE uses CSWA.EXE to process the trace. CSWA then generates a report showing the accumulated data for all the traces processed.
CSWA.EXE is a trace processing tool. It process each ISR and DPC event in the trace and computes each event's actual execution time. Tracing processing is quick - typically taking only a few seconds to process several minutes of trace data. As CSWA process each event, it develops a histogram of execution times for each driver (kernel component) in the system. After a trace is processed, CSWA adds the newly developed histogram counts to a data file. CSWA then generates histogram report from the data that has been accumulated in the file.
This mode of operation allows auditing of ISR and DPC execution times to run over very long periods of time - many days or even weeks without accumulating large amounts of trace data files or individual reports that must then be aggregated.
Kernel tracing, RATT.EXE and CSWA.EXE are light weight and efficient - they can generally be run simultaneously with other workloads and tests without disruption or impacting other performance measurements. The largest impact is typically disk I/O during trace logging and processing.
RATTV3 was designed to be used in a lab setting over large numbers of machines. RATTV3 makes it easy to collect reports by periodically using anonymous FTP to upload reports to a central server. FTP was chosen instead of mapping a drive, or using UNC paths for file copies. FTP avoids problems with permissions and is very easy to setup on MS Server platforms. This allows machines to collect data independably of a domain based server system.
And maybe it's time for Dell to learn how works computers so tell them to have a look on these websites:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/DevTools/tools/default.mspx
Posted Sun 19 Oct 08 @ 4:28 am
DjDeuce2
Dj Soulman & Dj Chris
I also bought a studio 1535 from dell for vjing and i am also getting the same spike every 5 seconds...I bought mine in Sept. Anyway I just wanted to let you guys know my audio crackles in sync with the spickes only if im using my maya 44 soundcard. If i use primary soundcard in the settings menu, my audio/video is clear but the downside is i can't use headphones. I just wanted to know your soundcard selection in the settings menu while u are getting the spikes and the effects it has, if any, on your audio output. Thanks. II
p.s. In hindsight i wish i bought another dell or pc, but i guess u don't expect a new computer to have problems :)
I also bought a studio 1535 from dell for vjing and i am also getting the same spike every 5 seconds...I bought mine in Sept. Anyway I just wanted to let you guys know my audio crackles in sync with the spickes only if im using my maya 44 soundcard. If i use primary soundcard in the settings menu, my audio/video is clear but the downside is i can't use headphones. I just wanted to know your soundcard selection in the settings menu while u are getting the spikes and the effects it has, if any, on your audio output. Thanks. II
p.s. In hindsight i wish i bought another dell or pc, but i guess u don't expect a new computer to have problems :)
Posted Mon 20 Oct 08 @ 2:44 am
djchris73
DjDeuce2 wrote :
Dj Soulman & Dj Chris
I also bought a studio 1535 from dell for vjing and i am also getting the same spike every 5 seconds...I bought mine in Sept. Anyway I just wanted to let you guys know my audio crackles in sync with the spickes only if im using my maya 44 soundcard. If i use primary soundcard in the settings menu, my audio/video is clear but the downside is i can't use headphones. I just wanted to know your soundcard selection in the settings menu while u are getting the spikes and the effects it has, if any, on your audio output. Thanks. II
p.s. In hindsight i wish i bought another dell or pc, but i guess u don't expect a new computer to have problems :)
I also bought a studio 1535 from dell for vjing and i am also getting the same spike every 5 seconds...I bought mine in Sept. Anyway I just wanted to let you guys know my audio crackles in sync with the spickes only if im using my maya 44 soundcard. If i use primary soundcard in the settings menu, my audio/video is clear but the downside is i can't use headphones. I just wanted to know your soundcard selection in the settings menu while u are getting the spikes and the effects it has, if any, on your audio output. Thanks. II
p.s. In hindsight i wish i bought another dell or pc, but i guess u don't expect a new computer to have problems :)
I turn everything off. Internal soundcard, all usb devices, all usb hub/root controllers, DVD players, integrated camera, auxillary ports, HDMI, Firewire, everything...
Spikes still there.
DjSoulman, Are you sure your new bios revision isn't A05 instead of the A005 that you posted?
Posted Tue 21 Oct 08 @ 5:15 pm
djles.co.uk
djchris73 wrote :
DjSoulman, Are you sure your new bios revision isn't A05 instead of the A005 that you posted?
DjSoulman, Are you sure your new bios revision isn't A05 instead of the A005 that you posted?
Erm, you're probably right, can't check as it went back to Dell yesterday. They rang to say it will be returned to me next Monday. Ha! We shall see whether they have fixed it or not. Personally I don't think they can, I think it's an inherent problem on all the Studio line of laptops. Now that they have accepted there's a problem I will ask for a refund if they can't fix it.
Posted Wed 22 Oct 08 @ 4:15 am
djchris73
DJSoulman wrote :
Erm, you're probably right, can't check as it went back to Dell yesterday.
djchris73 wrote :
DjSoulman, Are you sure your new bios revision isn't A05 instead of the A005 that you posted?
DjSoulman, Are you sure your new bios revision isn't A05 instead of the A005 that you posted?
Erm, you're probably right, can't check as it went back to Dell yesterday.
I ask only because we basically got the same computer, except your processor is faster. When my computer boots it shows BIOS Revision A05.
DJSoulman wrote :
They rang to say it will be returned to me next Monday. Ha! We shall see whether they have fixed it or not. Personally I don't think they can, I think it's an inherent problem on all the Studio line of laptops. Now that they have accepted there's a problem I will ask for a refund if they can't fix it.
Bro, I hope you are wrong. I hope they can fix it. It took forever to load all of my CD Library into my laptop. I don't want to do that again. Have faith in Dell LOL :)
Posted Wed 22 Oct 08 @ 4:40 pm
Tear Em 'Up
djchris73 wrote :
Bro, I hope you are wrong. I hope they can fix it. It took forever to load all of my CD Library into my laptop. I don't want to do that again. Have faith in Dell LOL :)
Chris, external hard drives are very inexpensive. Why not grab one and put all your music on it. I have four EXT HDs with my music on them. If something happens I have not lost anything, which last Saturday one of my HDs crashed...I replaced it with two....
Posted Wed 22 Oct 08 @ 4:48 pm
djchris73
TearEmUp wrote :
Chris, external hard drives are very inexpensive. Why not grab one and put all your music on it. I have four EXT HDs with my music on them. If something happens I have not lost anything, which last Saturday one of my HDs crashed...I replaced it with two....
djchris73 wrote :
Bro, I hope you are wrong. I hope they can fix it. It took forever to load all of my CD Library into my laptop. I don't want to do that again. Have faith in Dell LOL :)
Chris, external hard drives are very inexpensive. Why not grab one and put all your music on it. I have four EXT HDs with my music on them. If something happens I have not lost anything, which last Saturday one of my HDs crashed...I replaced it with two....
Your right. If I got to do the same as DJSoulman, my machine will go bye-bye, too.
Posted Wed 22 Oct 08 @ 4:56 pm
djles.co.uk
TearEmUp wrote :
Chris, external hard drives are very inexpensive. Why not grab one and put all your music on it. I have four EXT HDs with my music on them. If something happens I have not lost anything, which last Saturday one of my HDs crashed...I replaced it with two....
Chris, external hard drives are very inexpensive. Why not grab one and put all your music on it. I have four EXT HDs with my music on them. If something happens I have not lost anything, which last Saturday one of my HDs crashed...I replaced it with two....
Yep, that's definately the way to go. I use a Maxtor One Touch 500Gb USB hard drive (the 5 year warranty swung it for me). That's how I was able to switch laptops in the middle of a gig. My old Inspiron I'm using now has always had a skeleton database of mp3's on it in case the external goes down I could still finish the night. Never got 'round to it on the new laptop due to all the problems.
My first laptop 6 1/2 years ago was 30gb, next one (I'm typing on now) 60gb then I bought my Inspiron with 60gb and added an external 80gb, then I changed it for a 160gb. Now I have the 500gb external for gigs, the other externals sit at home now surplus to requirements!
This external is filling up fast so the next drive will probably be at least a Terrabyte or two!!! Where will it all end??? :-)
Posted Thu 23 Oct 08 @ 6:30 am
marctronixx
ive been watching your thread an wanted to stop in for a bit. :-)
i just bought two 500gb buffalo drives for 89.00 from a US based store called frys. tuey are sata with firewire and usb ports. they have a usb onlly version for 79 dollars.
i have them firewired to my dell. i have an xps m1530 2.4ghz duo core 2 (however its worded), 4gb ram and 512 MB nnvidia on XP. i also have 2 more sata 320 gb drives to record a "mix" .
im having a pickle of a time with mixing video. the screen lags behind the RMX movements but the audio only files i cam mix and scratch like im on real turntables! its insane. anyway ive tried shutting down everything--drivers, programs, with only a handful of processes running, and VDJ video mixing still acts like i have250mb ram on the thing and not 4gb! its baffling... but i just wanted to drop in and say your not alone..ooh and i have dpc checker and it shows green bars and one or two yellow bars but no red bars. i just dont get it..
my left click touch pad button is sticking so i have a dell tech coming to the house to replace it. this laptop is pretty nice but this issue is driving me nuts.
apologies for hijacking your thread--just needed to vent... cheers mates...
i just bought two 500gb buffalo drives for 89.00 from a US based store called frys. tuey are sata with firewire and usb ports. they have a usb onlly version for 79 dollars.
i have them firewired to my dell. i have an xps m1530 2.4ghz duo core 2 (however its worded), 4gb ram and 512 MB nnvidia on XP. i also have 2 more sata 320 gb drives to record a "mix" .
im having a pickle of a time with mixing video. the screen lags behind the RMX movements but the audio only files i cam mix and scratch like im on real turntables! its insane. anyway ive tried shutting down everything--drivers, programs, with only a handful of processes running, and VDJ video mixing still acts like i have250mb ram on the thing and not 4gb! its baffling... but i just wanted to drop in and say your not alone..ooh and i have dpc checker and it shows green bars and one or two yellow bars but no red bars. i just dont get it..
my left click touch pad button is sticking so i have a dell tech coming to the house to replace it. this laptop is pretty nice but this issue is driving me nuts.
apologies for hijacking your thread--just needed to vent... cheers mates...
Posted Thu 23 Oct 08 @ 7:17 am
djles.co.uk
OK next saga in this sorry tale;
..........as mentioned on another thread, I waited in all day on Monday for 10 hours and no delivery! Tuesday morning I was furious and rang Dell to be told they were delivering that day. I said I couldn't wait in another day and they said they would have someone contact me to re-arrange delivery. Well no-one contacted me, on returning home later in the day there was a card from the delivery driver, he had tried to deliver and no-one was home. Last night I had to make a 25 mile round trip to collect my laptop from the courier firm. On getting home I fired the laptop up to find that it was exactly the same as it was before going back to the factory. They had put a new motherboard in but nothing else! They even left the DPCLAT program sitting on the desktop!
Today I rang India again and spent another 1 1/2 hours on the phone!!! The engineer I spoke to said I could NOT have a refund after arguing about the DPC problems. Eventually I got passed on to his 'supervisor'. He asked about the sound driver version number. I said that all the drivers had been updated from the Dell website. he said the version I had was not the latest and directed me to input a 'special' web address into Internet Explorer and download the latest driver. It still didn't make any difference. He then asked me if I could re-format the hard drive and do a clean install of Windows Vista from the CD, NOT the restore facility from the hidden partition. He also gave the 'special' address of a page of drivers for this computer and gave a list of what drivers to install and especially which order to install them. He claims that this should fix my issues and will phone me at noon tomorrow hopefully happy to hear good news.
Due to limited time I have only got the bare Vista re-installed but haven't got the drivers installed yet. I'm not too hopeful, but, will let everyone know what happens.
Cheers
Les
www.deejayles.com
..........as mentioned on another thread, I waited in all day on Monday for 10 hours and no delivery! Tuesday morning I was furious and rang Dell to be told they were delivering that day. I said I couldn't wait in another day and they said they would have someone contact me to re-arrange delivery. Well no-one contacted me, on returning home later in the day there was a card from the delivery driver, he had tried to deliver and no-one was home. Last night I had to make a 25 mile round trip to collect my laptop from the courier firm. On getting home I fired the laptop up to find that it was exactly the same as it was before going back to the factory. They had put a new motherboard in but nothing else! They even left the DPCLAT program sitting on the desktop!
Today I rang India again and spent another 1 1/2 hours on the phone!!! The engineer I spoke to said I could NOT have a refund after arguing about the DPC problems. Eventually I got passed on to his 'supervisor'. He asked about the sound driver version number. I said that all the drivers had been updated from the Dell website. he said the version I had was not the latest and directed me to input a 'special' web address into Internet Explorer and download the latest driver. It still didn't make any difference. He then asked me if I could re-format the hard drive and do a clean install of Windows Vista from the CD, NOT the restore facility from the hidden partition. He also gave the 'special' address of a page of drivers for this computer and gave a list of what drivers to install and especially which order to install them. He claims that this should fix my issues and will phone me at noon tomorrow hopefully happy to hear good news.
Due to limited time I have only got the bare Vista re-installed but haven't got the drivers installed yet. I'm not too hopeful, but, will let everyone know what happens.
Cheers
Les
www.deejayles.com
Posted Wed 29 Oct 08 @ 7:53 pm
djles.co.uk
Turns out that these 'special' addresses are just the American website support pages.
Installed all drivers as instructed and no change. :-(
DPC Latency Checker is showing the same red bars in the bar graph every 5 seconds and then some others reaching the top of the display randomly. Playing a DVD seems to be OK, it's the random dropouts that I'm concerned about. Have installed VDJ and will give it a blast in the morning.
Installed all drivers as instructed and no change. :-(
DPC Latency Checker is showing the same red bars in the bar graph every 5 seconds and then some others reaching the top of the display randomly. Playing a DVD seems to be OK, it's the random dropouts that I'm concerned about. Have installed VDJ and will give it a blast in the morning.
Posted Wed 29 Oct 08 @ 10:54 pm
djchris73
DJSoulman,
You couldn't check the DPC Latency Checker before you loaded all of the drivers?
You couldn't check the DPC Latency Checker before you loaded all of the drivers?
Posted Thu 30 Oct 08 @ 1:05 am
djles.co.uk
Never thought to try that as I was just following instructions. Now you mention it I should have tried. :-( I can only get back to that point by re-installing from scratch and there isn't time, I'm expecting their call in about an hour.
Posted Thu 30 Oct 08 @ 6:14 am
djchris73
I'm sorry that you are still having this problem. This means I'm still having this problem, too.
I was going to wait and see how well they could fix your issue and I was going to try and reference your ticket number with Dell when it was time to get mine looked at...
I started the process the other day. I explained the whole thing to the guy in India. I told 'em about DPCs and audio dropouts. He goes remote into my PC, turns on the disabled audio drivers and tells me it's fixed...
When I bought my Laptop, I paid extra to have North American Support. I think it's time for me to invoke that privlege...
The tech in India suggested I try a PSA test. Pre-boot System Analysis. It took six hours to complete. It didn't find anything wrong...
I was going to wait and see how well they could fix your issue and I was going to try and reference your ticket number with Dell when it was time to get mine looked at...
I started the process the other day. I explained the whole thing to the guy in India. I told 'em about DPCs and audio dropouts. He goes remote into my PC, turns on the disabled audio drivers and tells me it's fixed...
When I bought my Laptop, I paid extra to have North American Support. I think it's time for me to invoke that privlege...
The tech in India suggested I try a PSA test. Pre-boot System Analysis. It took six hours to complete. It didn't find anything wrong...
Posted Thu 30 Oct 08 @ 7:55 am
djles.co.uk
OK just come off the phone to India, they want to have one more try at fixing the issue. They are going to send an engineer to my house tomorrow to try and fix it, even the Indian Tech guy said he was skeptical. But, if he can't fix it then he IS going to give me a refund!!! Result!!! Unfortunately, there'll be a little delay as I'm off to Rome, Italy then Paris, France next week. :-)
Now, what laptop should I try next! :-( ............and how many hours/days testing additional to what I've wasted on this laptop..........
I'm glad that my old Dell Inspiron 6000 works fine for now (albiet a little slow single 1.6Ghz proc) ...........and shared graphics!!! :-)
Now, what laptop should I try next! :-( ............and how many hours/days testing additional to what I've wasted on this laptop..........
I'm glad that my old Dell Inspiron 6000 works fine for now (albiet a little slow single 1.6Ghz proc) ...........and shared graphics!!! :-)
Posted Thu 30 Oct 08 @ 8:49 am
Killabee44
Guys,
I am looking for a backup laptop.
Can the people that have tested the DPC Latency checker on their laptops and found that it does not go in the red, please post your model number and price?
I, as well as DJSoulman and many others would appreciate it.
Thanks.
Killabee44
I am looking for a backup laptop.
Can the people that have tested the DPC Latency checker on their laptops and found that it does not go in the red, please post your model number and price?
I, as well as DJSoulman and many others would appreciate it.
Thanks.
Killabee44
Posted Thu 30 Oct 08 @ 3:44 pm
SBDJ
Dell XPS M1730, 2.8GHz Core2Extreme, 2 x nVidia 8800...
Posted Thu 30 Oct 08 @ 10:09 pm
marctronixx
SBDJ wrote :
Dell XPS M1730, 2.8GHz Core2Extreme, 2 x nVidia 8800...
do you have this particular laptop?
Posted Thu 30 Oct 08 @ 11:15 pm
djles.co.uk
DJSoulman wrote :
They are going to send an engineer to my house tomorrow to try and fix it, even the Indian Tech guy said he was skeptical.
God! Would you believe, I got a phone call at 9am this morning from Dell to say the Tech guy that was supposed to be coming to my house has phoned in sick!!! Told them why don't they just skip that part and just give me a refund, still waiting for a reply.
Posted Fri 31 Oct 08 @ 10:06 am
djchris73
DJSoulman wrote :
God! Would you believe, I got a phone call at 9am this morning from Dell to say the Tech guy that was supposed to be coming to my house has phoned in sick!!! Told them why don't they just skip that part and just give me a refund, still waiting for a reply.
DJSoulman wrote :
They are going to send an engineer to my house tomorrow to try and fix it, even the Indian Tech guy said he was skeptical.
God! Would you believe, I got a phone call at 9am this morning from Dell to say the Tech guy that was supposed to be coming to my house has phoned in sick!!! Told them why don't they just skip that part and just give me a refund, still waiting for a reply.
DJSoulman why don't you try to upgrade to an XPS M1730? SBDJ says no problem with that model...
Posted Fri 31 Oct 08 @ 11:01 am
