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HLT driver

Started by abwillis, 2011.09.19, 01:42:52

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herwigb

Andy,
QuoteHerwigb, do you see the jerky operation only with the TH version or also with the AF version?   
I see the jerky operation with both of them - being a curious guys, I tried the old driver with the new .exes et voila jerky operation is gone....
Kind regards,
HerwigB.

abwillis

#31
Do you have the zip that the driver you don't have problems with the jerkiness?  The driver hasn't had any real changes that I can think of since the initial post... If you have the zip it will have the source and I'd like to verify anything that could have changed since then to the driver itself.  In particular, if you open the ioctl.c, how many times was hlt called... the only thing I have played with was the number of times hlt was called per driver call to see if calling it more than once was more efficient than just one call.  I haven't seen a difference here but whichever way is showing better there will be the way I look towards.

abwillis

Is anyone experiencing the hangups using os2ahci instead of danis506?  The machine that I have not problems at all on is using os2ahci but the T410 is running danis506... I am wondering if maybe I am conflicting with Danis506 somehow.  On the T410 I am able to see the slow DiskIO but not on this machine with the os2ahci which is another reason I wonder if I am conflicting there.  I have determined why the later driver showed it but the earlier one did not... I was seeing if I could call more HLT per driver call to see if it would reduce overhead from the loop in an effort to lessen CPU usage.  It didn't help but as I did not see any change on this system which is the one I use I didn't think to restore it to just one call before uploading it.  I have a test running on the T410, if it is still running in the morning I will upload a new version tomorrow.

DougB

QuoteIs anyone experiencing the hangups using os2ahci instead of danis506?

Yes, I use OS2AHCI on the T510, and it has hung a couple of times.

herwigb

Andy,
yes, I have, I will provide a link to the zip file later today.
Kind regards,
HerwigB.

abwillis

OK, so it is not HT, nor os2ahci, nor the number of threads (I built a test app that was opening 20 at a time here in an attempt to lower processor usage, I did get it down to ~75% while keeping the same temperature but that doesn't seem to be much of an advantage).  The next difference that I thought of is the kernel in use.  On this machine that has no problems I have 14.104a in use.  Is anyone seeing hangs with 14.104a?  The T410 had 14.105 and I don't know about 14.104b if it could potentially conflict.  Anyhow, just looking for data while I am running a test again on the T410 with 14.104a kernel now.

DougB

I got the T43 to run with IDLEHLT and IDLEHLT-AF, but IDLEHLT-TH just terminates with the message "Closing handle". I am not sure why ir works today, and not before. Perhaps I forgot to reboot to load the driver. It does lower the temperature.

I have seen kernel 14.105 hang on both the T510, and the quad core. I have not seen it hang with 14.104a, but I rarely use that any more, so that doesn't mean much. I will try it.


abwillis

Ran the 14.104a kernel on the T410 for an hour with no issues... closed idlehlt-th and restarted it and in half an hour it had hung.  Here the TH version always hangs solid requiring power off when it does hang. 

DougB

I am running the 14.104a kernel on my quad core. I tried the TH version, and it ran, slowly, and very jerky, for about 45 minutes. I never got more than about 30 minutes with the 14.105 kernel, before it hung. Then, I shut down the TH version, and tried the original version. It too was very jerky, so I shut it down after about 5 minutes, and started the AF version. That still causes a slowdown, and I can't tell, for sure, what the temperature is (seems to be cooler), but it is still running a few hours later.

I also started the AF version on my T510. It is also still running a few hours later, but it hasn't been doing anything except run the Doodle Screen Saver Cairo clock.

In both cases, it seems that the machine is far more likely to hang when using the 14.105 kernel (or Murphy is playing games again). It also seems that the AF version is much faster than the other versions, and that makes it much smoother, but I can still detect some jerky mouse movement. The CPU usage, on the quad core, seems to ride at about 50%, when idle. The T510 (no HT) seems to idle at about 60% usage. Both using the AF version.

The "slow" operation seems to have something to do with disk operation. (Danis on the quad core, and OS2AHCI on the T510). When I watch the disk led, I see about 20% duty cycle with operations where I expect to see 100% disk activity. If I get a program loaded, that doesn't use much disk, it seems to run reasonably fast.

I am not sure what to make of all that...

abwillis

I have uploaded a new build... the idlehlt.sys in it should hopefully alleviate some of the DiskIO issues as it is back to the way it was initially.  There are some new exe files, the idlehlt-tth.exe I have introduced a slight timing variance that may keep it from hanging when used with the 14.104a kernel but it could just be that it hasn't hung yet.  The idlehlt-mth.exe and idlehlt-mth1.exe spawn more threads while trying to call DosSleep to show less CPU usage but they only got it down to 75% so may not be that interesting and on the T410 doesn't appear to actually be doing anything worthwhile.

DougB

QuoteI have uploaded a new build

On the Asus M3A78-EM quad core:This one is working much better. A quick experiment with the various versions showed that the jerky movement, and the slow disk I/O, are no more. Further observations showed that using the MTH version gives me the lowest usage on the quad core system. At idle, each processor seems to stay between 5% and 10%. MTH1 seems to stay between 10% and 15%. As noted, the temperature widget doesn't work, so it is only an impression that the temperature stays lower than without your driver. I ran the 14.104a kernel, and AF, for most of today, with no hangs, but I have switched back to the 14.105 kernel for now. The program startup now shows what I expect to see (based on what you said earlier).

On the T510: Again, it is working much better. The jerky mouse, and slow I/O, seem to be fixed. Here too, I have gone back to the 14.105 kernel, and I am using the MTH version, which seems to keep the  activity meter in the 65% to 70% range. The uncontrolled temperature is about 61C, and with your driver, it is staying at about 52C. This is good.

Overall, both systems seem to be very responsive, yet they run cooler (subjective on the desktop). Now, if they will continue to run...


DougB

Well, the Asus M3A78-EM quad core hung after about 45 minutes. It was a hard hang, that required the reset key. Then, it hung hard again, just after the desktop appeared (before loading idlehlt). Using MTH version.

I will try the TTH version, with the 14.105 kernel. The processor usage is back up to the 90% to 99% range, and response is definitely a little slower, but not too bad.

DougB

TTH hung solid when I tried to fetch updates to the news groups, using Pronews. Pronews was royally screwed again, and I had to restore it from my backup.

I will try more things tomorrow...

abwillis

I left the T410 running with the TTH version last night, came in to find it hung solid; that with the 14.104a kernel. 
So it does not seem to be a difference in kernel, acpi, os2achi vs danis506, USB drivers (had the usbhcd13 drivers on this machine that does not exhibit problems and IBM drivers on the T410 and have changed those out). 
One theory that may not actually hold water but I am trying to test... the T410 is a newer machine than this one.  I have not been able to get a definitive answer as to how C states past C1 (HLT) get set.  In one Intel document it seemed that it may be done by the hardware, so I wonder if the C1 state goes long enough if it moves to a deeper state (doesn't seem right that it would do that and not come back out on its own).  To that end, I have changed the BIOS on the T410 from Automatic in the power setting to Maximum and running it now to see if maybe the newer system is trying to be more aggressive in power saving but then I don't have a way to pull it back out.
It has run an hour so far but I have gotten that far before.

abwillis

Since setting the Power settings in BIOS to Maximum instead of Automatic it has been running for several hours now.  I let it run an hour, stopped idlehlt-th and restarted it, let it go a couple of hours and restarted it again and it has now been going for a couple more hours.  I'll let it run overnight but its been that if it has run for over an hour and I restarted it that it would hang 30-45 min later.  I will have to double check but I think the Z61 has Power setting as Automatic but being older may not be as aggressive.  That at least is my best guess at this point.  As I have not found how to get the machine to go into a deeper sleep state than C1, I am not sure what it takes to get it out if that is indeed what is happening.