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Any X2 users experience stutter like syndroms?

shoman24v

By shoman24v,
in OSx86 10.4 (Tiger)

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shoman24v
shoman24v
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You can't actually turn off a particular core in a dual core system. I'm not too keen on affinity stuff and how you can route all apps to one core, but I am pretty sure you can't just turn off a core.

 

You are good. You've caught us. Careless is just a clone of myself to agree to what is say. If the man sais it's working, why do you pollute this thread begging for proofs?

I can pollute this thread however much i'd like, it's mine :(

 

I'm not saying he's lying.... My machine is fast too, when it doesn't hiccup every few seconds.

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Careless
Careless
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You can't actually turn off a particular core in a dual core system. I'm not too keen on affinity stuff and how you can route all apps to one core, but I am pretty sure you can't just turn off a core.

I can pollute this thread however much i'd like, it's mine ;)

 

I'm not saying he's lying.... My machine is fast too, when it doesn't hiccup every few seconds.

 

 

you cant turn off a core. but you can route all the affinities. which would make sense, because then the TSC clock on the second core wouldnt have to be polled in order to see what speed it's running at, because it wouldnt be needed anyways.

 

and.... if you look in the previous page, i posted my entire plist in a "code" form within a post.

it hasnt changed since.

 

and it is working 100% for me.

thats all i can tell you. because other than adding idelhalt=0, i dont know what i did.

 

well i do know what i did.

i did nothing.

except for the idlehalt. and it works fine.

 

 

so thats all i can say :(

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Careless
Careless
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Yeah I don't know where to put all that code!!!

 

lol

 

ughhh. this is the LAST time im doing this. And i take NO RESPONSIBILITY in what happens to your computer.

 

1] open terminal, and stretch the size of the box... make it fairly large to avoid confusion later.

2] type: nano /library/preferences/systemconfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

3] enter your password

4] you're in nano. go to the line that says <key>Kernel Flags</key>

5] under that line, you will see <string></string>

6] change it to <string>platform=XXXXX idlehalt=0</string>

---- XXXX is your pick. ACPI or X86PC, and it is case sensitive. I have tried both with no difference.

7] if you didnt run it with the "platform" string before. just change it to <string>idlehalt=0</string>

8] press the key that does the "WriteOut" command (it is listed at the bottom of your screen)

---- on my keyboard, it is WindowsKey + O

9] it will ask you where you want to save. it should have the entire file location already there. press enter.

---- if you didnt make the screen large enough, it will say $plist. just press enter. it's all there.

10] press the key that does EXIT, on my keyboard, it is WindowsKey + X

11] you are back in terminal. type: exit

12] keep typing "exit" and pressing enter until it says [Processes Complete]

13] now you can close your terminal. and open your Finder.

14] go to /System/Library

15] delete Extensions.kextcache and Extensions.mkext, and empty them from trash (they will be rebuilt upon next restart)

16] shut down all programs, save your work. and shut down the OS.

17-a] restart your computer.

If you followed step 6, skip step 17-b and 18 If you did not skip step 6, please read and execute step 17-b and follow 18.

17-b] before entering MacOSX, press F8

---- now that you're in Darwin boot console, type: platform=XXXXX (choose one of the previous commands, either ACPI or X86PC)

18] experiment with running several xBench tests to see if the stuttering catches up to your processor and starts to take place. If it does.. reboot, and try the opposite of the platform you tried in step 17-b.

---- if you tried ACPI in step 17-b, go back and try X86PC this time.

---- if you tried X86PC in step 17-b, go back and try ACPI this time.

19-a] if this works for you, come back and thank me, aswell as post your results.

19-b] if this doesn't work for you, come back and thank me for typing this out anyways.

19-c] if it screwed up your computer completely, you can REALLY thank me, because this is what i did, and if it doesn't work for you, i really couldn't Careless

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shoman24v
shoman24v
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in osfmk/i386/machine_routines.c:
if (idlehalt || others_active) {
			DBGLOG(cpu_handle, cpu_number(), MP_IDLE);
			cpu_idle_handler();
			DBGLOG(cpu_handle, cpu_number(), MP_UNIDLE);
	} else {
			__asm__ volatile("sti");
	}

 

and

 

in osfmk/i386/i386_init.c:

if (PE_parse_boot_arg("cpus", &cpus)) {
			if ((0 < cpus) && (cpus < max_ncpus))
					max_ncpus = cpus;
	}

I was talking about this...lol

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sigxcpu
sigxcpu
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I was talking about this...lol

 

 

That code is from XNU sources and it shows what is happening with those paramers. You don't have to put it anywhere. If it does not make any sense to you, don't read it. It's not meant for you :star_smile:

 

btw, i've just reminded: wesley, you see that cpus=0 brings "automatic detection" on. you have to specify a number between 1 and the number of your cpus-1, which, for the most of us is "1" :pirate2:

 

in osfmk/i386/i386_init.c:

if (PE_parse_boot_arg("cpus", &cpus)) {
			if ((0 < cpus) && (cpus < max_ncpus))
					max_ncpus = cpus;
	}

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Careless
Careless
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I've just put cpus=1 in my boot parameters. It works like a charm. I just have one CPU in CHUD tools and there is no possibility to enable the second core.

 

wesley, try again :happymac:

 

i have two cpu's.

 

disabling one of then made the stutter go away.

but i went from 99 in xbench to 75

 

reenabling the second one on the fly, and the running xbench caused it to crash my system. just complete frozen. for minutes. mouse disappeared and everything.

 

so i ran the idlehalt=0, and i am now able to run full speed. both cores. getting 100 in xbench. with no stuttering at all.

 

so i KNOW this works. atleast for AMD Opteron 165's

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tomatoSoup
tomatoSoup
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AMD64 4200+ X2.

 

No stuttering at all...

It runs like a dream.

 

I gather this 'stuttering' is bad enough to be noticable. :D

 

I only boot with -v. Not that I have needed to see what's going on...

Mobo is a A8V-E SE with a VIA chipset.

 

I wonder your X2 problems occur on both nVidia (nForce4), as well as VIA chipsets.

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Careless
Careless
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AMD64 4200+ X2.

 

No stuttering at all...

It runs like a dream.

 

I gather this 'stuttering' is bad enough to be noticable. :blink:

 

I only boot with -v. Not that I have needed to see what's going on...

Mobo is a A8V-E SE with a VIA chipset.

 

I wonder your X2 problems occur on both nVidia (nForce4), as well as VIA chipsets.

 

 

right when you said VIA, i suspected it would be a problem with the nVidia chipsets aswell.

 

yep.. could be!

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randomperson21
randomperson21
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Well, after totally frying my osX setup, i did a reinstall and did some experimenting.

at install, i passed in platform=x86pc

then at boot, i passed in platform=X86PC idlehalt=0 fn=3 cpus=1

and everythings smooth as butter. writing this in osx now.

now theres most likely something i can take out of this boot string, and im going to put it in the startup file.

thanks for all the help!

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wesley
wesley
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Posted

I tried both 'original' nForce4 chipset and nForce4 410 (the one with integrated GF6100). Both result in stuttering. So we don't see this problem with VIA chipset or something?

 

Oh, and I'm currently far..... far away from my system (Lunar New Year holidays). Sorry for not being able to test right now.

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tomatoSoup
tomatoSoup
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perhaps a quick poll is in order... is anyone suffering this problem with a VIA chipset?

 

I opted for a VIA chipset because I read the nForce4 is plagued with problems.

One such problem is audio 'skipping' when the motherboard has a PCI sound card and a PCI-E gfx card installed.

This problem goes away when an X2 processor is installed. There's an nForce4 / X2 oddity for starters... :\

 

I also have the AMD Quiet n Cool technology disabled in BIOS. Don't know if this has been discussed or if it could be an issue.

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REVENGE
REVENGE
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FYI. This is a well documented and addressed issue in Windows XP. I didn't even know this issue existed until I was playing games on my X2. Here's the MS knowledge base article with a windows fix: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=896256. I don't fully understand the technicalities of this issue, but based on solutions implemented in other OSs, someone could try and come up with a fix.

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Careless
Careless
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FYI. This is a well documented and addressed issue in Windows XP. I didn't even know this issue existed until I was playing games on my X2. Here's the MS knowledge base article with a windows fix: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=896256. I don't fully understand the technicalities of this issue, but based on solutions implemented in other OSs, someone could try and come up with a fix.

 

yah that isnt really the same issue though. you can install the Cool n Quiet driver, then disable it in the registry like it shows there in the knowledge base, but that's only for games where frames per second are important, and stuff like that.

 

in windows it doesnt actually do much.

 

i experienced the "decreased performance" that it states there, and did the fix. it helped. but this is different. and so far, the idlehalt=0 cured my problems. so thats a fix for me! :pirate2: :D:star_smile::star_smile::star_smile:

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excalibur
excalibur
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I tried every suggestion in this thread and the conclusion is:

 

1) My experience only applies to X2 3800+ & NF4 Ultra.

2) Stuttering stops only when cpus=1 is set.

3) In order to turn switch between 1 & 2 CPUs, an easier way is to install Xcode 2.2 with CHUD. Installing a single CHUD 4.3.1 package crashed the machine and has to be restarted in safe mode to uninstall the package. Afterwards, a new preference "Processor" will let you select # of active CPUs. The only problem to me is that I have to select 1 CPU everytime I reboot the machine.

 

:poster_oops:

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Guest AaloPalto
Guest AaloPalto
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I tried every suggestion in this thread and the conclusion is:

 

1) My experience only applies to X2 3800+ & NF4 Ultra.

2) Stuttering stops only when cpus=1 is set.

3) In order to turn switch between 1 & 2 CPUs, an easier way is to install Xcode 2.2 with CHUD. Installing a single CHUD 4.3.1 package crashed the machine and has to be restarted in safe mode to uninstall the package. Afterwards, a new preference "Processor" will let you select # of active CPUs. The only problem to me is that I have to select 1 CPU everytime I reboot the machine.

 

:poster_oops:

 

Hrmm, just got an DC X2 for my maschine, same stutters.

 

Will try your tip, thx.

 

cu

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