e7200 3dmark06 issue

I last ran 3dmark06 in july. The system scored 16900 with a cpu score of 3400. CCC 8.10.

I ran it today, the system scored 12400, with a cpu score of 2200. CCC 8.12 beta.

specs:
gigabyte ga-ex38-ds4, rev 1, bios f6a
e7200 @ 3.8Ghz, 400mhz fsb, 1.32v
2x2G(4G) patriot ddr2 pc6400 @ 800mhz, 2.0v
2 x 3870 CF, visiontek OC edition, 800/1170
win xp 32 sp3
bios - both speedsteps enabled

bios, CPUz, HWmonitor, 3dmark06 and control panel-system all show 3.8Ghz.

CCC crossfire enabled, catalyst AI enabled.
GPUz and 3dmark06 show both cards are enabled and full x16 2.0.
both have power, both fans spin, both crossfire bridges are installed

all seems to be running fine. I have noticed a drop in cod4, but farcry2 is running great.

what would make my cpu score so low? I ran it twice, same score. It is about the same score the e7200 gets at stock speeds. Could this be a speed step problem?

Are you sure your system is still overclocked? My guess is that it was unstable and reverted to stock. Check with cpuz. Be sure it is stable by running prime95 small ffts for at least 12h.

in the first post i mentioned that the bios, cpuz, hwmonitor and 3dmark06 have it at 3.8Ghz.

I will see what processes are running and turn some off.

I did turn off all speed steps. No luck, same 3dmark06 cpu score.

thanks all, i will do some more testing and get back to you.

I just tried 3dmark06 with CCC 8.10. same score. well, actually lower.

i ran the Intel process identification utility. It see the cpu at 3.8G. the OC is good. I ran spybot S&D, no spyware running.

Ctrl+alt+del and take a screenshot of the processes tab and post it.

AH HA!!

Uninstall AVG NOW. I had it for a while and it DESTROYED my benchmark scores just like yours.

any other ideas. it is still at 12000.

1.98v

99% of 33%. System idle process does that all the time.

That is a vital windows process. It is supposed to be there. Your CPU will only hit 0-1%if you are running 21 processes. 22 and up you have crap running in the background.

yeah I know what system idle process is but the math doesn't work like that. If it reports idle at 99%, cpu usage should be 1%, it all should add up to 100%. Theres something wierd going on...

it could be something driver related as well, mobo/chipset drivers etc...
If you boot windows into safe mode, is it still doing it?

Ok, i ran process explorer. It is showing the 20-30% cpu usage as hardware interrupts.

Does this mean i have a conflict between hardware?

The process list of the task manager does not count kernel time, only free time available for applications/services. If you turn to the performance tab and select View - Show Kernel Times, you should notice red bars at 1/3 height.

High kernel times at idle signify a device or driver problem.

You can download a free program to monitor kernel activity:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads [...] laylang=en

Run and extract that to the Desktop (default folder Krview), then install to the default location with setup.exe. When done, open cmd.exe from the Start menu. Run the krview utility by typing its full address, the default of which is:

"C:\Program Files\KrView\Kernrates\kernrate_i386_xp.exe"

Include the quotes at the command prompt, and change the C drive to whatever is your main system drive. When the utility starts, it prompts you to press Ctrl-C to stop data collection. About 10-20 seconds after you see that message, press Ctrl-C. At the bottom of the report is a list of kernel-interrupting processes. The top of that list, with by far the most # of hits, should be the offending driver. You can disconnect that device or reinstall/upgrade its drivers. If you have problems tracing the process to a device, take a screenshot of the list in the command prompt window (Alt-PrintScreen) and post it back here.

intelppm is the processor driver, responsible for power management features like Speedstep. On a normal system, ntkrnlpa leads interrupt rates at 200-250k/second. On your screen, three drivers have unusually high interrupt rates - intelppm, ati2mtag, and hal. Of the three, the most specific cause is the ATI graphics driver.

There is an ATI Catalyst software uninstallation utility that you should run to completely remove the video driver, instead of installing one version over another. Catalyst 8.12 seems to be out, so you needn't be running a beta version. Try that, and if it doesn't work, repeat the uninstallation utility and use 8.10 for now.

I uninstalled win xp sp3 and ATI drivers 8.12 beta. I installed ATI 8.12 full release. same thing. Kernrate exactly the same.

now what?

I didnt check kernrate, but i did look at the task manager cpu usage when the ATI drivers werent installed.

cpu usage was about 10% without the ati drivers installed.

option 1 & 4: i tried each vid card individually, i switched pcie slots, i switched around power plugs. none worked.

option 3: speedsteps and power settings were all turned off yesterday. I check again. no improvement.

option 2: there were no excessive copies of devices, but i did notice i had a couple of devices disabled; both ATI HDMI Audio devices. I dont have HD so i had them disabled, and 1 of the many network connections this pc has.

ill get to the point. I think enabling those ATI HDMI Audio devices fixed it. The CPU usage immediately went to 0. I tested it a few times. They cause conflicts with my Realtek drivers. I found another way to disable the HDMI devices.

All seems good now. 0% or very low cpu usage and the pc socred 17020 on 3dmark06. The highest yet.

Thank all of you for your help.

Nice work