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Windows 7 32 bit, up to date, Intel i7 860. (For some reason the company runs 32bit Windows everywhere.) I tried to update all motherboard drivers etc. as far as possible.
I have a performance issue with a machine which appears in connection with multithreading (or so I think).
As an example (and where I most often see it, but it appears on other programs as well): ProteoWizard is a file conversion tool for mass spectrometry files. I can add a list of files and it will attempt to process up to 8 files in parallel (quadcore x 2 threads/core). If I choose 1 to 6 files, I start the process and it goes straight through. If I have >=7 files in the queue, conversion goes to ~20%, then gets stuck for 15 seconds, then continues again, always in "chunks" of a few % before getting stuck again.
During the time the process is stuck, CPU is at 1%. RAM is not limiting, it is maybe at 70% or so and not going up.
I don't get the same problem on other, even slower machines.
The computer gets also stuck at 1% CPU doing nothing on other occasions, but for multithreading it is most frequent.
Where should I look for the problem?
System Information screenshot showing problem http://i.minus.com/ibtjBN8RCsl7UV.png
Edit: See this screenshot from Process Explorer; nothing is at the limits. CPU is flat, RAM is constant at e.g. 60%, I/O is flat, GPU is flat, network is flat, disk is flat. You see exactly how far the process ran fine and where it grinds to a halt. At first, 2 of the 8 threads continue working, then they die down too.
meow
Posted 2012-07-02T08:09:15.350
Reputation: 181
Update: I ran the Windows memory check and the memory seems to be fine. To me, it "feels" like there is some conflict where everything starts waiting for something the system should do and it doesn't... – meow – 2012-07-02T09:07:59.350
Any Temperature problem? – M'vy – 2012-07-02T09:09:25.043
Hm... I don't know. With HWMonitor I see the CPU temp constantly around 45°C, but the max shows very high numbers ~90-120°C even when I clear the max... However I never see high numbers in for the current temperature. Could it be that the CPU creates very short temperature spikes and immediately "shuts itself down" again? – meow – 2012-07-02T10:12:09.197
Also interestingly, the high max numbers show up only for CPUTIN and AUXTIN. The temperatures of the 4 cores themselves have the max around 60°C. – meow – 2012-07-02T10:13:03.457
Hum, readings on the internet say CPUTIN is rarely accurate. If the cores would have hit 90C+ this would have been a problem. Anyway, I would run some air in the PC first, just to rule out that possible cause. – M'vy – 2012-07-02T10:41:07.930
By the way, I ran another check with Process Explorer; nothing is at the limits. CPU is flat, RAM is constant at e.g. 60%, I/O is flat, GPU is flat, network is flat, disk is flat. See this pic: http://minus.com/lbtjBN8RCsl7UV You see exactly where the process grinds to a halt. At first, 2 of the 8 threads continue working, then they die down too.
– meow – 2012-07-02T12:02:24.383@meow: I would suggest that as a possible workaround you could try reducing the number of threads to 4. You might want to try turning off Hyperthreading in the BIOS - it doesn't have much benefit anyway. If you want to determine if the problem is with the machine or that particular software then you will need to be more specific about what other scenarios show the same problem. You could also try running the program in safe mode (if it will run) to see if some driver or background software is interfering. – James P – 2012-07-02T12:23:24.030
Try plug an external HDD and process the files from there – Martheen Cahya Paulo – 2012-07-02T15:09:26.403
Re the % CPU, I don't think this is relevant. On my PC, running Process Explorer with other background tasks keeps the CPU at around 9%. – Julian Knight – 2012-07-02T20:34:27.703
Do you have an SSD? Since I've installed one, everything runs much smoother but occasionally I had a hiccup: the system would literally freeze for around 10 seconds. That could be either disk problem when OS needs to perform a kernel level disk operation or a motherboard issue. Mine is quite old, too – Amadeusz Wieczorek – 2012-10-02T13:57:59.537