P3D running but CPU not running at max speed

[Ray Proudfoot 8,964]

I found an advert in a local paper by a Microsoft Certified software engineer. He lives local and is coming on Monday. He will only charge if he fixes the problem. And out of professional pride he said that even if it takes him 5 hours he'll only charge me for the one hour. £60.

I decided there was no point going back to Chillblast for now as they would probably want the PC back and without all my USB devices they probably wouldn't see the problem.

Roll on Monday.

[SteveW 1,792]

He'll probably have a few USB parts and some software tools to trace the problem pretty quickly. Probably before you made his cup of tea. Hopefully it's not a hardware problem and he can leave it working fully..

[Ted Striker 338]

Ray, I’ve had those DCom errors in my windows 7 event viewer for a long time and have never been able to determine the cause. They don’t appear to  be affecting the performance of my machine though. I’m curious as to what Your Microsoft expert has to say about them.

Ted

[Ray Proudfoot 8,964]

@SteveW, he and I share the same opinion of the quality of Microsoft support. Not a patch on what it was back when Bill Gates was in charge. He mentioned he has some software that can interrogate the problem and hopefully fix it. Of course if it's a Windows 10 issue and he fixes it then he could be back after the next update! Hopefully not.

@Ted Striker, I've been told not to worry about those DCOM errors. Funny that I never had any of them on a home-built Windows 7 PC. Speaks volumes about Windows 10. I'll ask him about them if I remember.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Although I can fix dxdiag quickly it is nagging away at me and I want a solution. I've tried all I know so I hope this chap will have a solution. Hopefully nothing nasty.

[Ted Striker 338]

2 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I've been told not to worry about those DCOM errors.

Yes, I have read that also, but it just bugs the engineer in me that they are triggered at every boot-up. I couldn't find any solutions on the internet, just a lot of people experiencing them. One of these days I will just have to take the time to dive deep into the system with process monitor. I just mentioned it as they aren't exclusive to windows 10. I have had them with windows 7 for about a year. Not a major problem but an irritant like a fly that won't stop buzzing your head.

Ted

[Ray Proudfoot 8,964]

Ted,

One of the help releases issued by Microsoft supplied a script you can modify and then run at bootup that will suppress them from appearing in Event Viewer. One day I might create it but I can live with it.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,964]

THE PROBLEM HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED AND RESOLVED. 👍

What was it? Well now that I know the answer it had to be something unique to my system. Clearly not the Saitek Yoke or Throttles, CH Pro Pedals or the GoFlight modules.

The engineer spent nearly two hours trying different things all associated with USB drivers. None worked until we decided to take the D-Link powered USB hub out of the equation and replace it with a couple of very old powered hubs I haven't used in over 5 years. I've had the D-Link hub since Oct 2013 but it appears to be incompatible with Windows 10.

With the older hubs no further disconnects or reconnects happened when Windows booted up and dxdiag.exe ran cleanly. The D-Link hub was the culprit but was instantly reconnecting the devices which is why the yoke, throttles and pedals continued to work.

So something that cost me £20 has now cost £64 but he was very good in not charging more than 1 hours work. I'm a relieved man I can tell you. He's sending me a link to a powered Amazon hub he recommends that is very simple and won't cause the problems the D-Link one did.

All's well that ends well.

 

[SteveW 1,792]

Good. Replacing the hubs was among the first things I suggested.

[Cruachan 705]

Hi Ray,

Great news! I feel your relief! To be honest I’m always a wee bit sceptical when self-professed experts are let loose on our systems. I guess your Microsoft Certified Software Engineer has proved to be one of those rare exceptions and, quite evidently, worth his weight in gold!

I’ve often wondered what I would do when faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem such as the one you have had to deal with. There is just so much that can be achieved, even with remote access. Sometimes it’s necessary to have actual physical contact with that errant machine before a working diagnosis can be made.

Another black mark against Windows 10? Or was it a case of the D-link hub driver being out-of-date or simply incompatible with Win 10? Not that MS would give two hoots! Surprised the manufacturer hadn’t attempted to update their drivers, but then they want you to spend more cash, don’t they?

Regards,

Mike

[SteveW 1,792]

So now if you are looking at CPU throughput Ray, you look at individual LPs, not the overall CPU %. You check and make settings to ensure you are not running 100% on any LP for best results.

12 minutes ago, Cruachan said:

Hi Ray,

Great news! I feel your relief! To be honest I’m always a wee bit sceptical when self-professed experts are let loose on our systems. I guess your Microsoft Certified Software Engineer has proved to be one of those rare exceptions and, quite evidently, worth his weight in gold!

I’ve often wondered what I would do when faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem such as the one you have had to deal with. There is just so much that can be achieved, even with remote access. Sometimes it’s necessary to have actual physical contact with that errant machine before a working diagnosis can be made.

Another black mark against Windows 10? Or was it a case of the D-link hub driver being out-of-date or simply incompatible with Win 10? Not that MS would give two hoots! Surprised the manufacturer hadn’t attempted to update their drivers, but then they want you to spend more cash, don’t they?

Regards,

Mike

Still knocking MS? Not their problem at all.

Of course those manufactures not keeping up with driver updates haven't told you their hardware won't accept an update required to interface with newer systems so they don't offer one then. That's why I told Ray to swap out the hub with a newer one...

Edited January 7, 2019 by SteveW

[Ray Proudfoot 8,964]

18 minutes ago, SteveW said:

Good. Replacing the hubs was among the first things I suggested.

But when the GoFlight modules (all connected via the D-Link hub) behaved okay I discounted the hub as a possible cause. It's only when another USB device was connected (but not to the hub) the problem reappeared.

Of all the devices I had the D-Link hub was the last thing I considered to be the problem.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,964]

19 minutes ago, Cruachan said:

Hi Ray,

Great news! I feel your relief! To be honest I’m always a wee bit sceptical when self-professed experts are let loose on our systems. I guess your Microsoft Certified Software Engineer has proved to be one of those rare exceptions and, quite evidently, worth his weight in gold!

I’ve often wondered what I would do when faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem such as the one you have had to deal with. There is just so much that can be achieved, even with remote access. Sometimes it’s necessary to have actual physical contact with that errant machine before a working diagnosis can be made.

Another black mark against Windows 10? Or was it a case of the D-link hub driver being out-of-date or simply incompatible with Win 10? Not that MS would give two hoots! Surprised the manufacturer hadn’t attempted to update their drivers, but then they want you to spend more cash, don’t they?

Regards,

Mike

Yes, it needed physical presence. A Team Viewer session would have been useless. I'm just lucky this guy advertised in a free local magazine and he lives just 2 miles away!

It was the D-Link hub itself being incompatible with W10. He thought it may have a chip in it that 'talks' to the OS and whlst it was fine with Windows 7 it wasn't with 10. The older less sophisticated spare hubs I have worked because they're simpler. The D-Link didn't come with any drivers and I did check a while back on their site.

This is what he recommended. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Powered-Charging-Smartphones-including-Orico/dp/B0725WHBX6/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1546874801&sr=8-13&keywords=powered+usb+hub

[Ray Proudfoot 8,964]

11 minutes ago, SteveW said:

So now if you are looking at CPU throughput Ray, you look at individual LPs, not the overall CPU %. You check and make settings to ensure you are not running 100% on any LP for best results.

Now running 4.4 and all VPs are working, not just 0 and 2 (mostly) as was the case with 4.3.

[SteveW 1,792]

I see what you are saying, and I quite agree. When there's more than one variable adding to the problem the obviousness of the cause is taken out of focus. However, any attempt I made to fix such a problem involves moving out the hubs and USB devices completely in the first place and building up one by one. Having a kit of spare USB devices in my bag means I can get to that elimination very quickly.

Edited January 7, 2019 by SteveW

[Cruachan 705]

21 minutes ago, SteveW said:

Still knocking MS? Not their problem at all.

Hi Steve,

Lol! I guess MS still have a lot of work to do to win me over where Windows 10 is concerned. To be fair, I did present it as a question as relating to Ray’s problem, or as I thought, and you have answered it.

Best regards,

Mike 😀