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DairyCreamer
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Stuttering/Delays While Browsing

Sun Jul 17, 2011 10:54 am

This is killing me... and I don't know where it came from.

Either I'm noticing it more now, or it's gotten worse lately. Win7 x64. Firefox 5.

When I'm browsing, it seems fairly regular that I'll try and be scrolling a webpage, and the computer idles for a second, then catches up. Or, I'm typing something (like right now), and the computer pauses, then eventually catches up to what I was typing. Or even if I just click a tab or a new webpage at the wrong time... it just freezes. Hell, it's happened at least a half dozen times while I type this.

I notice there is a small spot of fairly regular SSD "thrashing" going on when this occurs. My boot drive (also where FF is located) is a 64 GB C300. My D drive is a 128 GB Intel 320 series. Boot has ~40 GB free, D has 24 GB free.

How can I evaluate the cause of this stuttering, because there's no earthly reason for it to be present, and it's really starting to get on my nerves.
 
Zoomastigophora
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Re: Stuttering/Delays While Browsing

Sun Jul 17, 2011 11:09 am

Try keeping resource monitor up and watching for any processes that are hitting the disk hard when the computer freezes. I've noticed something similar on my work machine which has a 64GB Kingston V-series SSD - when I generate a lot of disk writes compiling code, the entire system freezes up while the SSD thrashes. Since write operations are the only thing could block on an SSD (read blocks would be so small as to be imperceptible) due to needing to clear flash cells, the only thing I could think that could cause the whole system to freeze is some weirdness in the AHCI drivers that causes the whole operating system to wait on it. My system has the Intel chipset drivers installed, and if you have a similar system, you might also try rolling back Microsoft's AHCI drivers.
 
DairyCreamer
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Re: Stuttering/Delays While Browsing

Sun Jul 17, 2011 3:10 pm

Yah, I definitely have the intel drivers installed.

As I have not reverted anything like this before... would I just go and uninstall the chipset drivers as a whole in order to revert the AHCI?
 
Zoomastigophora
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Re: Stuttering/Delays While Browsing

Sun Jul 17, 2011 4:50 pm

DairyCreamer wrote:
Yah, I definitely have the intel drivers installed.

As I have not reverted anything like this before... would I just go and uninstall the chipset drivers as a whole in order to revert the AHCI?

I'm not quite sure what the recommended procedure for this would be. What I've done before is gone into Device Manager, expanded the IDE ATA/ATAPI tree, and kept uninstalling the SATA/AHCI (whatever yours would be called) controller drivers until the Microsoft ones got installed. If there's a little check box that says "Delete drivers as well" or something along those lines when it prompts to confirm the uninstallation of the drivers, be sure to check that as well.
 
DairyCreamer
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Re: Stuttering/Delays While Browsing

Sun Jul 17, 2011 5:48 pm

Just want to make sure before I launch ahead with this...

Is there any detrimental risk to the data on my HDDs performing this procedure?

Am I going to drastically affect performance, besides of course solving the aforementioned problem?

Thanks much!
 
Zoomastigophora
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Re: Stuttering/Delays While Browsing

Sun Jul 17, 2011 11:10 pm

DairyCreamer wrote:
Just want to make sure before I launch ahead with this...

Is there any detrimental risk to the data on my HDDs performing this procedure?

Am I going to drastically affect performance, besides of course solving the aforementioned problem?

Thanks much!

I really have no idea. My suspicion is no, but you can never be too safe with data so backup whatever you need to. For what it's worth, I didn't experience any issues when I did my rolling back. There's also no guarantee that rolling back to Microsoft's drivers will fix anything.
 
Bensam123
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Re: Stuttering/Delays While Browsing

Sun Jul 17, 2011 11:45 pm

I don't know how this relates to your HD, but I've noticed stuttering when dealing with accelerated flash content. Usually this relates to movies, but sometimes other content, usually when it's off screen. More so when I'm trying to run an actual 3D application other then it. This same sort of thing happens when dealing with accelerated PhysX content (when it tries to offload it to the GPU) in game. A more specific scenario has taken place with me while trying to play Rise of Legends and a computer with accelerated PhysX was actually causing other computers connected to the game to stutter. We turned it off and it fixed everything.

Now I don't know all of what this means, but I thought I would input this from my own personal experience. It seems like GPUs have a problem when trying to offload multiple things to them.

It could just be you have a failing SSD and your FF installation just happens to be on a bad part of the drive.

I don't know what AHCI would have to do with any of this. If this specific scenario is only occurring when he's using FF.
 
Plazmodeus
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Re: Stuttering/Delays While Browsing

Mon Jul 18, 2011 12:08 am

I am having asimilar problem with a similar configuration. The common denominator seems to be Win7 x64/Firefox5/SSD. I just did a clean install of my entire OS drive and the problem continues.
i9 9900k | 64GB G-Skill 3200 | Asus Rog Strix Z390E Gamer | Corsair rm850x | Corsair Graphite 600T |
Boot: Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB | Work: Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB | Media: 2x HGST Ultrastar 8Tb | RTX3070 8gb | Dell p2715q | Dell u2711 |
 
DairyCreamer
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Re: Stuttering/Delays While Browsing

Mon Jul 18, 2011 8:48 am

Guess I'll get used to Chrome then?
 
Plazmodeus
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Re: Stuttering/Delays While Browsing

Mon Jul 18, 2011 1:00 pm

I don't know, this feels like a major bug. Any recommendations for the TR Forum elders on where one might go to research and/or log this problem?
i9 9900k | 64GB G-Skill 3200 | Asus Rog Strix Z390E Gamer | Corsair rm850x | Corsair Graphite 600T |
Boot: Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB | Work: Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB | Media: 2x HGST Ultrastar 8Tb | RTX3070 8gb | Dell p2715q | Dell u2711 |
 
Plazmodeus
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Re: Stuttering/Delays While Browsing

Mon Jul 18, 2011 3:02 pm

Hey Creamer, just out of curiosity, what mobo and bios are you using? I ask because it is possible that this is a intel chipset+SSD problem that might be exposed by something firefox does. We are both using Sata 6gbs SSD's and this problem started for me when I installed my Vertex 3.
i9 9900k | 64GB G-Skill 3200 | Asus Rog Strix Z390E Gamer | Corsair rm850x | Corsair Graphite 600T |
Boot: Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB | Work: Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB | Media: 2x HGST Ultrastar 8Tb | RTX3070 8gb | Dell p2715q | Dell u2711 |
 
Plazmodeus
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Re: Stuttering/Delays While Browsing

Mon Jul 18, 2011 6:37 pm

Ok, I have found a solution to the problem, at least for me.

The problem is that the Intel IA Stor drivers tend to put all drives in a low power mode called 'LPM' (those Intel guys don't mess around with cryptic acronyms). The drive basically gets turned off and then has to be reactivated when it is accessed, causing the delay. There are two ways to deal with the problem, both of which can be found here:

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum ... viewfull=1#post657175

and here:

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum ... ing-issues

Forget that these are OCZ specific links, the problem can be found with regards to many brands of SSD's, including Crucial. I enabled hotswapping on the sata port with my SSD and the problem went away. I also added the registry keywords that tell IASTOR to disable LPM on the SSD as well. It hasn't stuttered since.

-(A)-
i9 9900k | 64GB G-Skill 3200 | Asus Rog Strix Z390E Gamer | Corsair rm850x | Corsair Graphite 600T |
Boot: Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB | Work: Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB | Media: 2x HGST Ultrastar 8Tb | RTX3070 8gb | Dell p2715q | Dell u2711 |
 
highlandr
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Re: Stuttering/Delays While Browsing

Mon Jul 18, 2011 9:05 pm

Another thing to consider is Firefox's hardware acceleration. This started in FF4, so it isn't specific to 5, but I noticed in a number of places that disabling that made firefox in particular MUCH more responsive. It also renders fonts correctly that way too.

Doesn't look like your problem, but it may help someone else...
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