AmigaOneXE High CPU

[cehofer]

Ever since I have had my A1XE, it seems to have very high CPU usage.  Playing video especially will peg the CPU at 100%.  I am not using any of the onboard devices except the NIC. 

Startech PCIUSB7
EIDE SIIG
SoundBlaster Live 5.1

It seems disk transfers are using PIO but says UDMA is available.  Can I force it to use the SIIG in DMA mode with something like "nvsetvar sii0680_xfer GGGG"?

 4.System:> idetool -l sii0680ide.device
-------------------Unit 0 information------------------------
    Flags : $00000187 - present, LBA48 used, supports DMA, ATA, supports cache flush, interrupts used,
    Xfer mode : best pio 12 (PIO 4, 16 MB/s) / best dma 69 (UDMA 5, 100 MB/s) / current 12 (PIO 4, 16 MB/s)
    Total blocks : 312581808
    Blocksize : 512
    Power mode  : 2 / idle (ready for operation)
    IO1 / IO2 / BMCR @ : $802400 / $80240A / $802420
    spurious interrupts: 0
    bounced misaligned cache line start DMA requests: 0
    bounced misaligned cache line end DMA requests: 0
    bounced non-contiguous buffer DMA requests: 0
*** Error opening device sii0680ide.device / unit 1
-------------------Unit 2 information------------------------
    Flags : $0000011D - present, supports DMA, removable media, ATAPI, interrupts used,
    Xfer mode : best pio 12 (PIO 4, 16 MB/s) / best dma 66 (UDMA 2, 33 MB/s) / current 12 (PIO 4, 16 MB/s)
    Total blocks : 0
    Blocksize : 0
    SCSI devtyp : 5
    Packet size : 12
    Current medium read speed  : x 65535 ('65535' stands for max.)
    Current medium write speed : x 65535 (idem)
    Power mode  : 2 / idle (ready for operation)
    IO1 / IO2 / BMCR @ : $802410 / $80241A / $802428
    spurious interrupts: 0
    bounced misaligned cache line start DMA requests: 0
    bounced misaligned cache line end DMA requests: 0
    bounced non-contiguous buffer DMA requests: 0


4.System:> nvgetvar
bootcmd=menu; run menuboot_cmd
bootdelay=0
baudrate=115200
preboot=
stdout=vga
stdin=ps2kbd
ide_doreset=on
ide_cd_timeout=30
menucmd=menu
bootmethod=boota
ethact=3Com 3c920c#0
boot1=psii
boot_config=Default
boota_timeout=10
serial1_address=3f8
serial2_address=2f8
parallel_mode=0
parallel_address=378
usb0_enable=on
usb1_enable=off
usb_use_header=0
ide_maxbus=0
ide_swap=0
ethaddr=00:09:D2:11:03:70
ipaddr=<unset>
serverip=<unset>
boot_method=boota
menuboot_delay=3
os4_commandline=debuglevel=0
bootargs=root=/dev/ram rw ramdisk=4096
pci_irqa=9
pci_irqa_select=level
pci_irqb=10
pci_irqb_select=level
pci_irqc=11
pci_irqc_select=level
pci_irqd=7
pci_irqd_select=level
agp_enable=on
agp_sideband=off
agp_speed=2x
boot2=
boot3=
video_num=1
video_activate=pci
limit_memory=1024
use_memory_limit=no

[cehofer]

I guess I will need a A1XE/OS4.1 Guru

[cehofer]

You are correct about uBoot.  It was there for the 0680 and others and PIO was selected as the prefered xfer.  I switched it to DMA.

Earlier, I had found in SysMon that I could add the following to the startup-sequence to do the same thing.

IDETOOL -X sii0680ide.device 0 69 >NIL:
IDETOOL -X sii0680ide.device 2 66 >NIL:

It WB boots super fast now.  It seems very stable too.  I will test more.

So this is what it put in my nvgetvar:
Mine would have worked but I put sii0680ide-xfer=F0C0 instead of sii0680ide_xfer=F0C0

12.System:> nvgetvar
a1ide_xfer=0000
bootcmd=menu; run menuboot_cmd
bootdelay=0
baudrate=115200
preboot=
sii0680ide_maxbus=2
sii0680ide_xfer=F0C0/b]
stdout=vga
stdin=ps2kbd
ide_doreset=on
ide_cd_timeout=30
menucmd=menu
bootmethod=boota
ethact=3Com 3c920c#0
boot1=psii
boot_config=Default
boota_timeout=10
serial1_address=3f8
serial2_address=2f8
parallel_mode=0
parallel_address=378
usb0_enable=on
usb1_enable=off
usb_use_header=0
ide_maxbus=0
ide_swap=0
ethaddr=00:09:D2:11:03:70
ipaddr=<unset>
serverip=<unset>
boot_method=boota
menuboot_delay=3
os4_commandline=debuglevel=0
bootargs=root=/dev/ram rw ramdisk=4096
pci_irqa=9
pci_irqa_select=level
pci_irqb=10
pci_irqb_select=level
pci_irqc=11
pci_irqc_select=level
pci_irqd=7
pci_irqd_select=level
agp_enable=on
agp_sideband=off
agp_speed=2x
boot2=
boot3=
video_num=1
video_activate=pci
limit_memory=1024
use_memory_limit=no
12.System:>

[cehofer]

Can somebody explain to me the AGP port on the XE?  I have had A1XEG4 since 2009.  I have done a lot of work on it to make it stable.  Maybe I should showcase my XE and explain all I have done to make it stable.  It has a few quirks but for the most part it is very stable.  The biggest pitfalls I found with it were memory and the harddrive.   I also will totally disagree that you can only use 1 memory stick for a total of 512Mb of ram.  I have had for years now 2 sticks running 2GB of RAM.  I actually found the memory issue using the serial port to a terminal on boot.  The next huge instability was the HD that came with the box.  It was an old Maxtore and I replaced it with a Seagate 316002 160GB Eide.  I actually have a SATA SIIG 3112 that I was going to swap to see what happens.  The other early on thing I did was shorten the teflon post on the CPU to make the module sit parallel to the MB.  When I got this machine it wouldn't boot at all but as soon as I removed the cpu and reseated it, it started working.

So back to the AGP port.  I was told early on NOT to use the AGP port and use only a PCI Graphics card.  I am currently using a Radeon 9200M 256MB.  I would also take any advice on how to optimize the Graphics to get the most out of this card.

Since I do not use any of the onboard devices except the NIC am I correct on assuming that DMA is not an issue and AGP should be fair game?  I think this would open me up to more modern and faster Radeon cards.  I saw an old post on another board where they said AGP was fair game if the DMA issue was fixed.   I can't tell you if the "fix" was applied to my board without removing it.

[cehofer]

I have read that where that if you use an AGP card the PCI slot is disabled.  Is there any benefit to using an AGP since it is only x2?  I have a 9200M 256MB and trying to get the most out of it.  It seems a waste of a port that you lose a port depending on what video card you buy.

I have 4.1FE2U Enhancer 1.5, Radeon V2.  Would it benefit me at all to buy Enhancer 2.0?  2.0 contains Radeon V3 and Warp3d.  Do programs like Emotion, DVPlayer, and various games take advantage of the new driver?  Depending on the video played in Emotion, it varies between 50% to 90%.  If I use DVPlayer, it is 70 - 100% but pretty much 100%.   I see videos on Youtube of XEs where they are outperforming my XE running a couple windows of video.   One thing I cannot do is play Emotion full screen, flip back to WB and then pull down WB and expose Emotion of the video playing.  Should I be able to?  I see that on X5000 and SAM460XE/CEs.  I thought I had it fixed once I switched my HD to DMA.

[cehofer]

I agree CANDI itself kills my processor.  I had to shut it off.