Argh DPCs!
July 12, 2006 3:44 AM Subscribe
Every 60 seconds my PC freezes momentarily. Audio stutters and inputs stop...inputting. I think i've tracked this down to "DCP"s, or Deferred Procedure Calls, but where do I go from here?
It doesnt happen EVERY time I use my computer, which makes it harder to pin down the exact cause. It makes it impossible to listen to music, watch videos, or even type!
(Windows XP Home, SP2 on a Dell XPS 600)
It doesnt happen EVERY time I use my computer, which makes it harder to pin down the exact cause. It makes it impossible to listen to music, watch videos, or even type!
(Windows XP Home, SP2 on a Dell XPS 600)
Response by poster: Thanks empyrean,
I dont think its my graphics cards, and i hope not, as its an SLI system.
I found this thread I posted on a Google group a little while back. It sheds a little more light on the situation.
I havent tried the clean boot thing, but the more I think about it, the more i'm suspecting my Wireless card. I dont remember it freezing up until I added it to my network. I'll check that out tonight.
posted by lemonfridge at 7:51 AM on July 12, 2006
I dont think its my graphics cards, and i hope not, as its an SLI system.
I found this thread I posted on a Google group a little while back. It sheds a little more light on the situation.
I havent tried the clean boot thing, but the more I think about it, the more i'm suspecting my Wireless card. I dont remember it freezing up until I added it to my network. I'll check that out tonight.
posted by lemonfridge at 7:51 AM on July 12, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
Disable or switch out the card to test that theory. If your CPU usage drops down to normal 0-10% (aka, no more DPC's), it's your culprit.
Possibly one of your running processes is running a service that's having problems. If you feel at all uncomfortable at any point reading the following directions, please do not follow them. Here's my modified list of steps to take that I've borrowed from a forum (thanks Arrow@sysinternals):
1. Download/Install XP Version of Sysinternal's process explorer.
2. Reboot, open the process explorer - one of the svchost.exe files will have higher cpu usage (listed under CPU column) - this file is spawnig those DPC's.
3. Right click that svchost.exe and click Properties, then click the Services Tab to check which services its running. Write them down.
4. Right click that svchost.exe file and kill the process (might crash, if so skip to 6A).
5. If DPC's are gone now, we're on the right path, open services panel (Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services).
6. Look for the services you've written down, they all should be halted (if you killed the svchost.exe). One by one, double click them and start them up and look at DPCs (on Process Explorer) -- if they go high -- thats the problematic service -- double click it and change its Startup State to disabled, you should be good.
6a. You cant kill the svchost.exe - because your system crashes - you must write down all services it serves, go to services panel (described in step 5), and one by one stop them untill you identify the problem. Disable the problematic service so it wont start automatically (described in step 6) and you're good.
posted by empyrean at 4:25 AM on July 12, 2006