PerformanceTest Fails to start CPU 100% - System Mechanic 7 Iolo DMV service problem

[David (PassMark)]

This is a post about an issue we have become aware of today.

The System Mechanic 7 product from a company known as Iolo can interfere with the PerformanceTest functioning (and other software for that matter).

The symptoms of the problem are

1. PerformanceTest fails to start.
2. There are no error messages and no windows that open. Nothing to indicate the nature of the failure
3. The CPU usage hits 100% and stays there. (If you have dual core CPU's you'll see usage stuck at 50%)
4. The the windows task manager you'll see the pt.exe task running but nothing else happening. It looks like it is looping.

The cause of the problem seems to be that System Mechanic 7 contains a Windows service called, iolo DMV Service, IOLODMVSVC.EXE. This service starts itself when windows boots up.

Fixing the problem requires you to uninstall System Mechanic 7 and then manually disable the iolo DMV service from the Windows Control panel / Administrative tools window.

More details about System Mechanic 7 screwing things up can be found here.

[Charlie_D]

System Mechanic 7 Ver 7.5.10 dated 4-4-08, no longer stops Performance Test from working.

[tchak54]

Hello,

I was about to try out PT today but I have the same problem as described in this article except I have never heard of or installed System Mechanic on my PC.

I am running Windows XP sp3, freshly formatted (1 week ago) with only drivers updates and common software installed (Windows Media, Quicktime, MSN, etc).

I have verified installed software, running services and scanned entire PC for ioloHL.dll or anything else from Zoom's article.

Can you help me track down what is causing this issue?

Max

[David (PassMark)]

Can you turn on DEBUGMODE, try to start the application, then send us the log, or post the log here. Details of DEBUG MODE can be found here.

[tchak54]

0.000s - DEBUG: Starting...
0.016s - DEBUG: PerformanceTest 6.1 build 1017
0.016s - DEBUG OS: Windows XP (WIN32)
0.032s - DEBUG Path: C:\Program Files\PerformanceTest
0.032s - DEBUG Command line: "C:\Program Files\PerformanceTest\pt.exe" DEBUGMODE
0.094s - DEBUG: Getting CPU info
0.172s - DEBUG: Getting CPU info
0.188s - CPU Cores 1: 4121
0.188s - 0 - C: 2, L: 1, HS: 0, CP: 1
0.188s - DEBUG: Get CPU info:17
0.188s - DEBUG: Get CPU info Get Process (4294967295, 0)
0.235s - DEBUG: Get CPU info Get Process Affinity Mask (1 0)
0.235s - DEBUG: Get CPU info: dwProcessAffinity = 3, dwSystemAffinity = 3
0.235s - DEBUG: Get CPU info:21
0.235s - DEBUG: Get CPU info:22


The trace file did not write anything after that.

[Ian (PassMark)]

We can see where the problem is occuring, but not yet why it is occuring. The problem occurs when trying to lock the PerformanceTest program to run in a particular CPU (CPU #1). I have not seen this behaviour before. We will need to add a bit more debug code to try and work out what is occuring.

What CPU configuration do you have. e.g. 2 x Pentium 4 CPU's with Hyperthreading enabled in BIOS.

Thanks.
Ian

[tchak54]

Hello Ian

I have a Pentium 4 3.20ghz with Hyperthreading enabled.

I don't know if this can help but it have a single CPU but when looking for details in device manager to post here I noticed it displays as two cpus (?).

Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5GD1-VM Rev 1.xx

Let me know if you need anything else to help with the investigation.

Max

[Ian (PassMark)]

We have created a new build of PerformanceTest that includes some additional debug information related to this problem. Could you please try this with DEBUGMODE and post the log file as before.
http://www.passmark.com/ftp/petst611018.exe

Also, can you confirm that the CPU is really at 100% as per the original post of this Forum thread.

Thanks.
Ian

[tchak54]

CPU usage hits 50% and stays there.

In original post it stated a similar problem with dual cores (If you have dual core CPU's you'll see usage stuck at 50%) which is strange because I have a single core CPU.

Here is the trace:

0.000s - DEBUG: Starting...
0.031s - DEBUG: PerformanceTest 6.1 build 1018
0.031s - DEBUG OS: Windows XP (WIN32)
0.031s - DEBUG Path: C:\Program Files\PerformanceTest
0.031s - DEBUG Command line: "C:\Program Files\PerformanceTest\pt.exe" DEBUGMODE
0.047s - DEBUG: Getting CPU info
0.047s - DEBUG: Getting CPU info
0.062s - CPU Cores 1: 4121
0.062s - 0 - C: 2, L: 1, HS: 0, CP: 1
0.078s - DEBUG: Get CPU info:17
0.078s - DEBUG: Get CPU info Get Process (4294967295, 0)
0.094s - DEBUG: Get CPU info Get Process Affinity Mask (1 0)
0.094s - DEBUG: Get CPU info: dwProcessAffinity = 3, dwSystemAffinity = 3
0.109s - DEBUG: Get CPU info:21
0.109s - DEBUG: Get CPU info:22
0.125s - DEBUG: Get CPU info 22a: handle = ffffffff, AffinityMask = 1 (3)

[Ian (PassMark)]

Hmmm...
Well we can see exactly where the problem is occurring, but it all looks like it should be OK. We have not changed this part of the software for over 5 years and have around 800 users download the software each day, without any reports of this problem. The problem occurs when setting PerformanceTest to run on a specific CPU. But while I don't know what causes this problem, it seems almost certain it has something to do with your system.

What antivirus software and security software do you have running in the background?

I would try disabling Hyperthreading in BIOS to see if that made a difference. You might also check that you have the latest version of BIOS for your motherboard.

If anyone else has this problem starting PerformanceTest, with DEBUG mode ending on "DEBUG: Get CPU info 22" or "DEBUG: Get CPU info 22a" then please let us know.

Regards,
Ian