# AMD 2.5Ghz System - CONSTANT ~62% System CPU Usage

## Bangz

Ever since I restored my ghost of my gentoo setup, it's been running like complete crap.  I never bother to check top, but first thing I did was try XFce4, a lighter WM from KDE, helped a little.  

Then I tried changing my kernel to the ck-souces from gaming, haven't noticed much of a difference.

Anyways, I'm back in KDE and I oped up top and to my suprisement, it sits on 62%-65% "System" CPU Usage.    None of the listed programs in top are showing that much Usage.

```

Tasks:  59 total,   2 running,  56 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie

Cpu(s):   2.6% user,  63.7% system,   0.0% nice,  33.7% idle

Mem:    514676k total,   205148k used,   309528k free,     7196k buffers

Swap:  1028124k total,        0k used,  1028124k free,    94616k cached

```

I'm not very happy.  Something is making my system in X run like complete shit.  I'm not doing any emerging or anything and my mouse feels laggy and bumpy  :Sad: 

This is all on one of the beastiest system you can put together.

Athlon XP 2100+ Overclocked to 2.5Ghz

512Mb DDR RAM (Running as 200fsb, cas2-3-3-9)

Gigabyte 7N400 Pro (nForce2)

Western Digital 800JB * 2

Audigy2

Intel 82558 Pro/100 NIC

Appreciate any inpuit  :Smile: 

----------

## carbon

type top and click enter will tells you which process is using up all the cpu.

----------

## Bangz

```

top - 13:06:39 up 10:41,  1 user,  load average: 0.29, 0.17, 0.06

Tasks:  59 total,   1 running,  57 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie

Cpu(s):   5.9% user,  63.8% system,   0.0% nice,  30.3% idle

Mem:    514676k total,   214400k used,   300276k free,     7996k buffers

Swap:  1028124k total,        0k used,  1028124k free,    96140k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  Command

 3220 root      15   0  294m  38m 5188 S 12.5  7.6   6:49.60 X

 4005 bangers   15   0 19060  18m  17m S  8.2  3.7   0:02.25 kdeinit

 3386 bangers   15   0  5616 5616 4248 S  2.0  1.1   0:44.26 artsd

 3403 bangers   15   0 13176  12m 7300 S  1.0  2.6   7:27.15 xchat-2

 4009 bangers   16   0   996  996  796 R  1.0  0.2   0:05.22 top

 3394 bangers   15   0 18272  17m  16m S  0.7  3.6   0:09.08 kdeinit

 3363 bangers   15   0 13440  13m  12m S  0.3  2.6   0:00.14 kdeinit

 3392 bangers   15   0 17824  17m  16m S  0.3  3.5   0:04.82 kdeinit

    1 root      15   0   488  488  440 S  0.0  0.1   0:05.60 init

    2 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 migration_CPU0

    3 root      15   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.15 keventd

    4 root      34  19     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.66 ksoftirqd_CPU0

    5 root      25   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kswapd

    6 root      25   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 bdflush

    7 root      15   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.20 kupdated

    8 root      15   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.23 pagebufd

    9 root      25   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 xfslogd/0

   10 root      25   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 xfsdatad/0

   12 root      15   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 khubd

   13 root      16   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:01.19 kjournald

  150 root      15   0   916  916  608 S  0.0  0.2   0:00.02 devfsd

 2853 root      15   0   600  600  520 S  0.0  0.1   0:00.01 metalog

 2855 root      15   0   476  476  432 S  0.0  0.1   0:00.00 metalog

 2940 root      15   0   660  660  556 S  0.0  0.1   0:00.09 cron

 3097 xfs       15   0  6268 6268  860 S  0.0  1.2   0:00.61 xfs

 3107 root      16   0  1216 1216  992 S  0.0  0.2   0:00.12 login

 3108 root      15   0   476  476  424 S  0.0  0.1   0:00.00 agetty
```

As I said.  All the processes top list's is only for current user.  the system processes which are using 65% aren't being shown  :Sad: 

----------

## Bangz

OK, an update.  

When I reboot my system and sit in terminal, I still get the ~60% 'system' CPU usage in top.

This is without X or KDE running.

ps -aux reports nothing different.

top still is reporting nothing which explains the 60% system CPU.

Anyone  :Sad:   This is out of my scope.

Should also add, I've tried boot into a different kernel which didn't change anything.  One thing though, the two kernels I booted with were gaming sources and ck-sources, both using the same .config file...

----------

## Santabutthead

 *Quote:*   

> top still is reporting nothing which explains the 60% system CPU. 

 

I was having this same problem until my IDE chipset (nforce2) was supported, so you my want to make sure you're not using a generic IDE chipset in your kernel, and it really sounds like a kernel problem if that's not it.

Good luck!

 :Twisted Evil:  Santabutthead  :Twisted Evil: 

http://musicpd.org

----------

## paolo

Try:

```
cat /proc/interrupts
```

and a minute later again

```
cat /proc/interrupts
```

.

Then show us your kernel with 

```
uname -a
```

.

ByEZz,

Paolo

----------

## Bangz

 *Santabutthead wrote:*   

>  *Quote:*   top still is reporting nothing which explains the 60% system CPU.  
> 
> I was having this same problem until my IDE chipset (nforce2) was supported, so you my want to make sure you're not using a generic IDE chipset in your kernel, and it really sounds like a kernel problem if that's not it.
> 
> Good luck!
> ...

 

I've tried a few kernels throughout the day, all using the same .config (parsed with make oldconfig) and the problem still exist.

How do I find out which IDE chipset driver the kernel is using?  Which kernel has good nForce2 support?

----------

## Bangz

 *paolo wrote:*   

> Try:
> 
> ```
> cat /proc/interrupts
> ```
> ...

 

```

> cat /proc/interrupts 

           CPU0       

  0:      88691    IO-APIC-edge  timer

  1:       2055    IO-APIC-edge  keyboard

  2:          0          XT-PIC  cascade

  3:      15007    IO-APIC-edge  usb-ohci

  5:          0    IO-APIC-edge  ehci-hcd

  7:          0    IO-APIC-edge  usb-ohci

 14:       5277    IO-APIC-edge  ide0

 15:         18    IO-APIC-edge  ide1

 17:  162590389   IO-APIC-level  Audigy

 19:  161785591   IO-APIC-level  eth0, nvidia

NMI:          0 

LOC:      88647 

ERR:          0

MIS:          0

```

<minute later>

```

-> cat /proc/interrupts 

           CPU0       

  0:      93480    IO-APIC-edge  timer

  1:       2335    IO-APIC-edge  keyboard

  2:          0          XT-PIC  cascade

  3:      17075    IO-APIC-edge  usb-ohci

  5:          0    IO-APIC-edge  ehci-hcd

  7:          0    IO-APIC-edge  usb-ohci

 14:       5290    IO-APIC-edge  ide0

 15:         18    IO-APIC-edge  ide1

 17:  171370907   IO-APIC-level  Audigy

 19:  170568382   IO-APIC-level  eth0, nvidia

NMI:          0 

LOC:      93437 

ERR:          0

MIS:          0

```

> uname -a

```
Linux bangers.home.threeten.com 2.4.21 #1 SMP Sun Aug 10 13:12:32 EST 2003 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2700+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux
```

Currently trying the vanilla 2.4.21 kernel.

```

top - 13:45:41 up 16 min,  4 users,  load average: 0.02, 0.05, 0.06

Tasks:  52 total,   2 running,  50 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie

Cpu(s):  10.0% user,  55.1% system,   0.0% nice,  34.9% idle

Mem:    515284k total,   145448k used,   369836k free,     5676k buffers

Swap:  1028124k total,        0k used,  1028124k free,    69656k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  Command           

 3332 bangers   17   0 25596  24m  16m S 19.3  5.0   0:33.89 MozillaFirebird   

 3215 root       9   0  285m  29m 5168 S  1.3  5.8   0:39.44 X                 

 3524 bangers    9   0 12004  11m 7008 S  0.7  2.3   0:05.35 xchat             

 3611 root      11   0   964  964  792 R  0.7  0.2   0:00.27 top               

 3538 bangers    9   0  3376 3376 2656 R  0.3  0.7   0:00.37 xterm             

    1 root       9   0   488  488  440 S  0.0  0.1   0:04.63 init              

    2 root       9   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.01 keventd           

    3 root      19  19     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.03 ksoftirqd_CPU0    

    4 root       9   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kswapd            

    5 root       9   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 bdflush           

    6 root       9   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kupdated          

    8 root       9   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 khubd             

    9 root       9   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.01 kjournald         

  146 root       9   0   912  912  608 S  0.0  0.2   0:00.02 devfsd            

 2844 root       9   0   568  568  508 S  0.0  0.1   0:00.00 metalog           

 2848 root       9   0   476  476  432 S  0.0  0.1   0:00.00 metalog           

 2931 root       8   0   660  660  556 S  0.0  0.1   0:00.00 cron              

```

----------

## paolo

 *Bangz wrote:*   

> 
> 
> ```
> 
> > cat /proc/interrupts 
> ...

 

There's an interrupt prob with these irqs.

I'm not so expert... try having assigned a single interrupt (using BIOS) for each of these pci board, for example.

(Ffirst of all search this forum for this prob, then the web, then you'll have the solution  :Smile:  )

ByEZz,

Paolo

----------

## Peach

I had a problem similar to this due to an error selecting the cpu family in the Processor Type and Features on the kernel config

can u pls post your dmesg output?

----------

## patson

Somehow I doubt you're running two CPUs

You can gain extra speed by disabling Symmetric multiprocessing support. You'll also gain APM support (your machine will power off correctly).

I'd advice you to get kernel 2.6.0, tho, as nforce is better supported there. I'm idling at 99.7-100.0% with X now.

AXP 2500+ (not overclocked)

Epox 8RDA3I (nForce2 Ultra 400)

384Mb DDR-266

GeForce 4 Ti

Linux 2.6.0

running the testing packages (ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86")

----------

## Lasitus

Havn't seen it mentioned so, is DMA enabled?

```
hdparm -d /dev/hd??
```

----------

