Gigabyte Boards and DPC Latency

[nevbie]

here is a reference result from my ASUS P5K-E, with only basic applications running:

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/3743/p5kegj8.png

 

[Green Gigs]

Right now I see F3e on the Gigabyte website as the latest driver for the GA-EP35-DS3R, but I read that Gigabyte is sending out F3f to people with the dpc spike issues and that it's working. Anyone know how long until it might be made an official release on the gigabyte website?

Also what is the prefered method of updating the bios for all of you that do not have a floppy drive? Does the quickflash utility work with saving the bios file to a cd?

 

[imported_dorian]

I just installed a GA-P35-DS3L.. latency stays around 50-75, and regularly spikes to 500+ every few seconds.

As for stuttering, I'm not sure if I'm having it.. if I'm listening to music and I do something like install a program, the music stutters a couple of times.. and when Crysis is loading, the sound stutters too.. I thought it was normal, because it's an intensive task, but is this related to the DPC latency?

Personally, I'll wait for an official fix since it's not bothering me too much

 

[toadeater]

Originally posted by: Green Gigs
Also what is the prefered method of updating the bios for all of you that do not have a floppy drive? Does the quickflash utility work with saving the bios file to a cd?

You can flash from a USB key that's formatted in FAT16. The easiest way to do this is to use the HP USB format utility. I don't think it even needs to be bootable if you use QFlash.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizs...&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

Or the old version: http://www.bootdisk.com/plan30/hpflash1.zip

http://www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm

 

[Green Gigs]

Ah thanks for the info toadeater. So is a cd possible using quickflash or only when using dos? I really just want to do the most fail safe method possible, do most people laugh at the windows utility gigabyte offers to update the bios or is it not a bad method?

 

[Winterpool]

Nevbie, your DPC latency results are profoundly depressing... So low, bloody heck! They suggest there may in fact be a problem with my Abit board (not to mention the much worse results on many Gigabyte boards reported here).

Could you post another set of results whilst running a decent load of applications? Say, a few web browser windows and playing a high-quality video file.

 

[tomoyo]

I'm actually not seeing any major dpc issues on my EP35 rev 2.1 on the latest website bios even with my pci wireless card. That causes some minor spiking to 1000/1500, but my audio has never skipped due to that. Without the wireless card, it's generally in the 50-200 range with some minor 600-1000 spiking once in a while. Not sure if I'm just lucky or something else. I'd love to see it even lower with the new bios revision.

And personally I just update in windows, it's very easy and solid if you have a stable system.

 

[tomoyo]

Originally posted by: nevbie
here is a reference result from my ASUS P5K-E, with only basic applications running:

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/3743/p5kegj8.png

Are you using any pci cards on that mobo?

 

[Green Gigs]

Tomoyo, the pdf readme on the gigabyte website says that if your internet becomes disconnected during the updating process that it can cause problems and my cable internet is notorious for going down once or twice a day so I guess using the @bios wouldn't be good for me. Can anyone clue me in if I can just burn the new bios onto a cd and have the quickflash utility be able to find and use it?

 

[mcmilljb]

I have a EP35-DS3R, and I get some high spikes too. I think mine stems from using a USB KVM switch and PCI wireless card. If I removed both, it would probably look ok. I am going to wait on the official non beta release before I consider upgrading the BIOS. Right now I need to spend some time on lowering the temps. I have a Q6600 that wants to heat up if I overclock.

 

[bodorange]

I've been following this thread with interest as I have some serious DPC latency issues with my p35-DS3P:

Often, though not always, at 'idle' I see a flatline of 2500us in DPC along with 20% kernel time on core0.
I have been seeing some very odd behaviour that I can not always reproduce and behaviour appears and disappears between reboots. I too can generate 17000us spike by launching CPUZ.

I have used MS RATT to try and see if particular drivers are associated with the high DPC. This isn't to say it is the driver that is the cause rather than the mobo/bios. Instead to see if it sheds any more light. The worst symptoms I see are momentary mouse pointer and keyboard cursor freezing but I haven't been able to relaibly reproduce this since using DPC or RATT.

Anyway, on my setup the driver associated with greatest DPCTmr Count is the CMedia8788 driver for my X-Meridian. If I disable this device, I still see latency, somewhat less, though more spikey and then it is \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\VIDEOPRT.SYS that is associated with the DPC delays.

I have the onboard parallel port and realtek sound disabled. I am on stock settings with Q6600 and 4x1GB Geil DDR2 800MHz RAM.

I can live with it at the time being, but when I find time for gaming and video editing soon, if there is no bios fix (assuming that is the sole/major cause in setup) I am going with another mainboard and flog my P35-DS3P.

 

[cactusdog]

bodorange, have you tried the beta bios? Or are u waiting for a final? Your PC must feel sluggish and unresponsive, flatlining at 2500us would cause all sorts of problems.

 

[bodorange]

Originally posted by: cactusdog
bodorange, have you tried the beta bios? Or are u waiting for a final? Your PC must feel sluggish and unresponsive, flatlining at 2500us would cause all sorts of problems.

No, I haven't tried a beta bios. I've scoured forums and tried to compare my findings with those that have reported success or improvement using a beta bios. Being a bit of a pessimist, it's occurred to me my latency issues may not be sorted by a bios change. But I'm prepared to try!

I'm also considering going back a few revisions. I'm wondering, with the various bios versions for the gigabyte p35-x boards, which corellate with which. For example, p35-ds3p is currently on f10 where as p35-ds4 is f12. However, from the brief BIOS description, it would seem these are essentially the same BIOS's with customisation for either boards features.

I do now have reservations about my choice of mobo and wish I had done more homework. At the time, I did not appraise the various Gigabyte boards thoroughly enough. I simply narrowed my choise to Abit IP35 or Gigabyte P35-xxx. I wanted serial ports and thought I liked the sound of the onboard HD audio with the Gigabytes. I have since found the Realtek codec did not work as I had hoped with my 5.1 decoder. So I put in the X-Meridian and was very pleased with the sound from that. At some point I am going to revert back to onboard sound and compare latency. This won't be a fix for me though as I want to use the X-Meridian now.

Strange thing is I haven't noticed any sound problems even though my latency figures are high and RATT histogram points to the CMedia driver as being involved with the bulk of the DPC delays.

But you're right my PC is not as responsive as I'd expect for the spec. My old SN41G2 shuttle compares favourably with this Q6600 system! I'd probably still be using it if it wasn't so bloody noisy.

Something very odd I have just noticed. When I fire up Unreal Tornament (I'm talking original 1999 version now!) fullscreen, the DPC latency drops by half! This is reproducable after a reboot too. In fact if I play any audio I see the same effect. Still, DPC latency is steady 625us.

I generally try to take the analyse, diagnose approach but this has me me beat. I'll try anything!

 

[nevbie]

Originally posted by: Winterpool
Nevbie, your DPC latency results are profoundly depressing... So low, bloody heck! They suggest there may in fact be a problem with my Abit board (not to mention the much worse results on many Gigabyte boards reported here).

Could you post another set of results whilst running a decent load of applications? Say, a few web browser windows and playing a high-quality video file.

OK I have a relatively weak system: Celeron 420, ASUS P5K-E, Radeon X1550, Creative Audigy 2 (which is a PCI card) and 4GB of RAM.

I started playing a video file, opened quake 3 windowed and let it play a gamedemo, and then opened Audacity application, while this analyzer was running. With only a single core CPU, opening audacity took a moment. Here is a screenshot after that moment:
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/8624/refer2on5.png

So when my PC is thinking/loading, it doesn't seem to affect DPC latency at all.

I got this yellow spike after that, while closing the applications, though:
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/29/refer3pr8.png

It's the only spike I noticed, but they seem to exist for "normal" systems too.

..I don't think your abit has problems unless you experience problems without knowing your DPC latency..

 

[Winterpool]

I still envy your low DPC latency. On the other hand, I probably wouldn't trade a Xeon E3110 for a Celeron, heh.

My system is relatively new, so I've not yet run all my usual apps for decent durations yet. I've been experiencing some issues with Vista, but they are mostly network related. My measurements are almost all 1000 microseconds or less, but I've never had a low run like yours for more than a handful of measurements. Nothing significant so far in terms of impaired media playback though (other than it sometimes taking a while to open some files on my servers -- again, likely network related).

 

[cactusdog]

Originally posted by: bodorange

Originally posted by: cactusdog
bodorange, have you tried the beta bios? Or are u waiting for a final? Your PC must feel sluggish and unresponsive, flatlining at 2500us would cause all sorts of problems.

No, I haven't tried a beta bios. I've scoured forums and tried to compare my findings with those that have reported success or improvement using a beta bios. Being a bit of a pessimist, it's occurred to me my latency issues may not be sorted by a bios change. But I'm prepared to try!

You can email GigabyteColin on this forum if it is not on their website. He will send you one. Just tell him your model and say u want the latency fix bios.

 

[SnakeChomp]

You can also contact Janus Yeh if you are in need of a beta bios. I contacted them a few days ago and they sent me a beta bios quickly thereafter. You can find their email address here: http://forums.tweaktown.com/f6...king-26456/#post250169.

They sent me the F4E bios (I have a EP35-DS3P), and it fixed the regular 1000us spikes. My latency is all green now, like others with the regular 1000us spikes have reported. But, it didn't fix the other issue I mentioned earlier in this thread, when plugging an E-SATA cable into an enclosure that is powered off.

I told them about these spikes and they are following up with me to find out more about my system configuration. So, I have high hopes that they are actually looking into this problem: don't believe any whiners you may see elsewhere. For the time being, my system runs fine. I just make sure not to leave the E-SATA enclosure plugged in when its turned off and I don't have any problems.

 

[DarkRogue]

That's good news SnakeChomp.

I have the same motherboard and it seems they indeed are churning out new BIOSes if the version numbers are any indicator. A couple weeks ago they were at F3b and F3n was on their website as a beta soon after, F4e looks like they're heading somewhere.

 

[bodorange]

Originally posted by: SnakeChomp
They sent me the F4E bios (I have a EP35-DS3P), and it fixed the regular 1000us spikes. My latency is all green now, like others with the regular 1000us spikes have reported. But, it didn't fix the other issue I mentioned earlier in this thread, when plugging an E-SATA cable into an enclosure that is powered off.

Do we know if Gigabyte have beta BIOS's addressing this DPC latency issue for all of their p35 based motherboards? That is assuming all their p35 based boards are affected.
I've not seen my specific board mentioned in any forum thread wrt to one of these beta bioses. I don't beleive there are as many bios variants as the range of mobo's would suggest. At any rate, all 4 (!) revisions of p35-ds3p currently have the same f10 as latest bios file and I have a feeling these are identical bios files.

I will contact colin and see if he has a bios I can try.

Cheers.

 

[cactusdog]

They have a latency bios for all their boards P35/X38/X48, you just need to contact them.

 

[toadeater]

On my new EP35-DS3R with the F2 BIOS and XP SP3 I don't have any latency problems. It spikes up to 674us occasionally, most spikes are under 500us. It is worse than my cheap ASRock 775Dual-VSTA board though, which strangely had far fewer spikes, even though it was slow at everything else.

 

[cactusdog]

Any computer running normally shouldnt have any regular spikes really.

 

[Alaa]

I have regular spikes under 500us. Normal?
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/3435/imagecs7.jpg

 

[DarkRogue]

I think "Normal" would be if it's consistently below 50us or so.. But I could be wrong, I'm not sure how or when DPC latency becomes a problem. It just seems from this thread that regular high spikes result in many problems. I myself have regular mid-low spikes that thankfully don't affect anything noticeably yet, but I'm still hoping for Gigabyte to issue a fix soon. I wonder if Colin has been tracking this thread or not, it doesn't seem like Gigabyte has any official forum anywhere.

 

[FellowTraveller]

I'm still unable to pinpoint the cause of the spikes under 32-bit Vista with my GA-P35-DS4. With the beta bios, they are all but eliminated under XP and 64-bit Vista, but I continue to get 1000us spikes at regular (roughly 10-second) intervals under Vista x86. I'm using the same hardware and drivers (albeit 32-bit versions) and have tried disabling them one-by-one to no avail. Has anyone else seen the same phenomena?