[jfosback]

Greetings-

I have a MacBook Pro 2GHz machine running 5.4.9 BOINC universal binary, 5.13 SETI Enhanced 24x7. Aside from heating my apartment, I used to average around 550 RAC.

Since upgrading from 10.4.6 to 10.4.7, my RAC has steadily fallen to around 350. Is anyone else experiencing this? I can only associate it to the 10.4.7 upgrade, since nothing else has changed.

Thanks!

-jason

[Billy]

Originally Posted by jfosback

Greetings-

I have a MacBook Pro 2GHz machine running 5.4.9 BOINC universal binary, 5.13 SETI Enhanced 24x7. Aside from heating my apartment, I used to average around 550 RAC.

Since upgrading from 10.4.6 to 10.4.7, my RAC has steadily fallen to around 350. Is anyone else experiencing this? I can only associate it to the 10.4.7 upgrade, since nothing else has changed.

Thanks!

-jason

That seems very wrong. I haven't noticed any difference since the .7 upgrade. Are you running both CPU's? Use activity monitor in your Utilities folder to look at the CPU performance. You should be getting about 12,000 to 13,000 cpuseconds for a 62 credit on some work units on Seti. If the WU's are smaller, the credits seem to be slightly lower proportionately, but not be too much. I have switched over to Einstein because it seems to be more effective on the Mac Core Duos, but I believe that others who are running Mac Core Duos on Seti are still getting the same performance.

[jfosback]

Originally Posted by Billy

That seems very wrong. I haven't noticed any difference since the .7 upgrade. Are you running both CPU's? Use activity monitor in your Utilities folder to look at the CPU performance. You should be getting about 12,000 to 13,000 cpuseconds for a 62 credit on some work units on Seti. If the WU's are smaller, the credits seem to be slightly lower proportionately, but not be too much. I have switched over to Einstein because it seems to be more effective on the Mac Core Duos, but I believe that others who are running Mac Core Duos on Seti are still getting the same performance.

Here's the link to my results:

MacBook Pro

I used to get around 12,000 to 13,000 cpuseconds for 62 credit, now I appear to be getting around 14,500 to 18,500 for half that, around 34 credit. I just don't get it. My CPU benchmark numbers have fallen significantly too.

Thanks!

-jason

[Billy]

Originally Posted by jfosback

Here's the link to my results:

MacBook Pro

I used to get around 12,000 to 13,000 cpuseconds for 62 credit, now I appear to be getting around 14,500 to 18,500 for half that, around 34 credit. I just don't get it. My CPU benchmark numbers have fallen significantly too.

Thanks!

-jason

Something is wrong. Maybe you are overheating and the CPU is being slowed down. Are you running any other programs? What do you see with the Activity Monitor program? It should have one Seti WU on each ÇPU.

[jfosback]

Originally Posted by Billy

Something is wrong. Maybe you are overheating and the CPU is being slowed down. Are you running any other programs? What do you see with the Activity Monitor program? It should have one Seti WU on each ÇPU.

Both top and the ActivityMonitor show both CPUs at constant 95%+ utilization. The computer is definitely running super hot; I installed a temperature monitor, and both cores are running around 90 Celsius. I wouldn't be surprised if something is getting throttled due to the temperature. Is there a way I can figure that out?

I'm not running any other programs. The only active applications are BOINCManager, Finder, and Dashboard. I have no other users logged in.

Thanks for your help!

-jason

[Billy]

Originally Posted by jfosback

Both top and the ActivityMonitor show both CPUs at constant 95%+ utilization. The computer is definitely running super hot; I installed a temperature monitor, and both cores are running around 90 Celsius. I wouldn't be surprised if something is getting throttled due to the temperature. Is there a way I can figure that out?

I'm not running any other programs. The only active applications are BOINCManager, Finder, and Dashboard. I have no other users logged in.

Thanks for your help!

-jason

Is there anything in the System Profiler that indicates a slowdown or other problem? There is a hardware test somewhere available in the sofrware, isn't there? Do you have a memory upgrade? What about the settings on your energy saver? It can be set for better performance versus better energy savings. 90 Celsius sounds like it is hot. I think I read that the limit is 100, which isn't too far away.

[Billy]

Maybe you should try a PMU reset.

[jfosback]

Originally Posted by Billy

Is there anything in the System Profiler that indicates a slowdown or other problem? There is a hardware test somewhere available in the sofrware, isn't there? Do you have a memory upgrade? What about the settings on your energy saver? It can be set for better performance versus better energy savings. 90 Celsius sounds like it is hot. I think I read that the limit is 100, which isn't too far away.

Nothing in the System Profiler that would indicate any issues. I've upgraded the internal hard drive to a 100GB 7,200 RPM drive (when I first bought the machine), but I haven't done anything yet about the excess CPU thermal paste. Something I should probably move up on my list of things to do.

I have 1.5GB of RAM in the machine, shipped from MacMall that way.

Energy Saver settings are set for better performance when plugged in. I turned off sleep, but left putting the hard drives to sleep turned on. Not much else I can tweak in there.

I haven't tried a PMU reset, could that actually help?! I'm not a Mac guy (mostly Windows and Unix) so it seems odd to me that could do anything to effect performance. Will I need to reinstall the Intel SMC patches if I do a PMU reset?

Thanks!

-jason

[Billy]

The PMU reset shouldn't affect anything, but it might help with the cooling by setting the fans on earlier, I'm not sure. I think that you just remove the battery and press the power button for 5 seconds. Thermal paste sounds like a major risk to me, but I am not too adventuresome. Maybe you should take it into the Apple store and have it looked at.

[jfosback]

Originally Posted by Billy

The PMU reset shouldn't affect anything, but it might help with the cooling by setting the fans on earlier, I'm not sure. I think that you just remove the battery and press the power button for 5 seconds. Thermal paste sounds like a major risk to me, but I am not too adventuresome. Maybe you should take it into the Apple store and have it looked at.

Ok, I did a PMU reset, and it didn't appear to help. I also downloaded the standalone 10.4.7 combined Intel updater and reinstalled the OS (just in case something was busted). I also did another PMU reset.

The problem still persists, no idea why SETI is running slowly. I'm beginning to think it's hardware related, especially if no one else has noticed a slowdown.

Can anyone recommend some diagnostic procedures or tools I could explore to determine if there's a hardware problem at fault? I'm tempted to proceed to the extreme step of reinstalling 10.4.6 to see if things speed up again, but I'd rather try other things first.

Thanks!

-jason

[jfosback]

Originally Posted by jfosback

Will I need to reinstall the Intel SMC patches if I do a PMU reset?

Incidentally, I verified that the Intel SMC firmware update was unaffected by the PMU reset.

[bolero]

I think 90 degrees is where cpu throttling kicks in, at 100 degrees the computer will switch off.
If you have installed a temperature monitor, chances are, that the speedit kernel extension was installed with this monitor.
So try to type the following commands in the terminal:

sysctl kern.cpu_minfreq
sysctl kern.cpu_maxfreq
sysctl kern.cpu_currentfreq

if currentfreq does not match maxfreq, you are not running at full speed.

[jfosback]

Originally Posted by bolero

I think 90 degrees is where cpu throttling kicks in, at 100 degrees the computer will switch off.
If you have installed a temperature monitor, chances are, that the speedit kernel extension was installed with this monitor.
So try to type the following commands in the terminal:

sysctl kern.cpu_minfreq
sysctl kern.cpu_maxfreq
sysctl kern.cpu_currentfreq

if currentfreq does not match maxfreq, you are not running at full speed.

Ok, I finally figured out how to load the kernel extension, and it appears my CPU is running at half speed:

kern.cpu_currentfreq: 1000
kern.cpu_log: 0
kern.cpu_minfreq: 1000
kern.cpu_maxfreq: 2000
kern.cpu_temp_is_valid: 1
kern.cpu_temp: 84

What would cause that and what should I do to fix it? Take it in to the Apple Store?

Thanks a ton!

-jason

[bolero]

Have you already performed a hardware test? If not, insert your Mac OSX Install Disk 1 and press 'D' during reboot.

Some time ago, I have read an article about a blocked vent at a mac book. Don't know ,whether this also applies to mac book pro, but might be worth a look.

I don't think that the switch to 10.4.7 has caused this problem. It might just be that the hot summer has caused the temperatures to rise to a critical level, so that finally throttling has kicked in.

Nevertheless the temperatures are too high, so in your stead, I would contact Apple to see what they say.

[jfosback]

Originally Posted by bolero

Nevertheless the temperatures are too high, so in your stead, I would contact Apple to see what they say.

Quick update: it definitely appears to be a hardware issue. Oddly enough, it occurred right around 6/28, the same time that I installed 10.4.7.

My computer is on its way to Texas to have some work done, hopefully the problem will be completely fixed when I get it back

Thanks!

-jason

[jfosback]

Another quick update, just to make sure there's no doubt: I just got my machine back from Apple, and things appear to be running at correct speeds.

Thanks again for all the assistance, it helped nail down the issue. BTW, it was faulty temperature sensors; they replaced both temperature sensors and fans, and now things are cooking along quite nicely ;-)

Thanks!

-jason

[beadman]

jfosback:
What temps are you showing now on the MBP. My MBP 2.1 consistently runs 88C on one processor and 84C on the other, with ocassional spikes of 2-3C higher than that on either of them.

beadman

[zombie67]

Originally Posted by beadman

jfosback:
What temps are you showing now on the MBP. My MBP 2.1 consistently runs 88C on one processor and 84C on the other, with ocassional spikes of 2-3C higher than that on either of them.

beadman

How does one measure temps?

TIA

[reader50]

Try CoreDuoTemp.

[jfosback]

Originally Posted by reader50

Try CoreDuoTemp.

After just getting the machine back from Apple, I'm still running at 81-86C on each core. Still smoking hot, but at least that's at 100% on both cores.

At some point, I may crack it open and check the thermal paste; however, after Apple's had it open twice now due to hot temperatures, I suspect these things just run hot, especially when crunching 100% of the time.

-jason

[zombie67]

Originally Posted by jfosback

After just getting the machine back from Apple, I'm still running at 81-86C on each core. Still smoking hot, but at least that's at 100% on both cores.

-jason

Edit: According to CoreDuoTemp, my MBP 17" is running at 90C on one, and 86C on the other.