Windows 7 Interesting Problem on Intel Board

[hatty324]

I've been trying to install Windows 7 RC (Build 7100) on a brand new Dell box (model: Optiplex 760) for the past week or so. I've tried both 32-bit and 64-bit. The issue I'd been having was a very interesting one. What would happen is that any processes on the computer (logging in, the clock, installing applications, etc) would run extremely slow, if not motionless unless I was moving the mouse. For example, when logging in the circle that moves around showing you it is processing information, it would stall and only move forward if the mouse was moving.

I tried all of the latest drivers from Dell to no prevail. I then noticed that login scripts on the network were not working and this was found out to be because the clock was too far off. I then noticed that the clock would only count seconds if the mouse was moving, hence why the time was way off as I am not constantly moving the mouse.

Finally after a lot of head scratching and no luck on Google...I decided to look at all of the options in the BIOS. After booting to the BIOS I noticed two (2) different options that I thought could be causing issues:

Under Performance >
Intel SpeedStep & C States Control

Both were checked by default so first I unchecked both of them. When I booted into Windows it booted extremely fast and I watched the clock run for two (2) solid minutes without moving the mouse. I then booted back to the BIOS and turned on C States Control but left Intel SpeedStep off. This time when I booted in I got the same issue of a hault in processing unless the mouse was moved.

To be sure I had pinpointed the issue, I rebooted again and turned on Intel SpeedStep and off C States Control. When Windows 7 booted up, everything worked flawlessly. I came to the conclusion that Intel's C States Control causes issues with Windows 7 perfoming properly...at least on my Intel board from Dell.

In the BIOS this is what the details say under "C States Control":

"This option enables or disables additional processor sleep states. The operating system may optionally use these for additional power savings when idle."

So it seems that Windows 7 must be idling the processor when the computer does not have mouse movement...almost like a sleep mode.

Interesting issue, with interesting solution...just thought I'd share the information for anyone else out there experiencing something similar!

- Jason

 

[mike2k9]

So it seems that Windows 7 must be idling the processor when the computer does not have mouse movement...almost like a sleep mode.

Interesting indeed. But why would that throw your clock off time? When the computer idles/sleeps/standby/hibernate, the clock does not suffer. Have you run XP or Vista on that intel board and had that BIOS option turned on?

 

[hatty324]

You must not understand...the system would simply not run any process whatsoever unless the mouse was in movement....so the clock would not tick seconds unless the mouse was moving, looking at task manager, the cpus would not show updates unless the mouse was moving. If I went to install an application and walked away, it would be stuck on the same screen unless I moved the mouse throughout the length of the install. Ultimately the system basically "freezes" if you are not moving the mouse, but the second you move the mouse the system picks back up.

I have installed Windows XP on this same machine without any issues at all...have not tried Vista. That will be my next test. I'm assuming Vista is going to work fine. I think this is solely a Windows 7 issue.

 

[mike2k9]

I understand, i think, it just seems a bit confusing that "idling" would be causing the clock not to "tick" since the processor idles quite often anyway. It's almost as if that setting stops the processor completely, and for whatever reason it thinks if there is no mouse movements, then it doesn't need to be working. Odd.

Good information to have anyway.

 

[hatty324]

Quite odd indeed....which is why I had to post about it!

 

[lcolumbus]

Wow, it took me a long time to find this thread, but what hatty324 posted was right on the money. It wasn't until I searched for Windows 7 clock not working unless mouse moving (for which I just noticed the correlation) that I hit this thread. Other threads were saying it was the graphics card driver or the battery. However, the BIOS clock was fine and I had updated all drivers (All Windows troubleshooting options resulted in no problems identified). The most obvious symptom besides that the clock is very slow is that typing on the keyboard is very slow.
Thank you!

 

[dwunderlich]

Had this same issue recently on a Dell Optiplex 960 build. Great find. Thank you for posting.

 

[clintgann]

This is spot on, you just saved me a lot of stress of trying to figure this thing out. THANK YOU!

 

[locobans]

Thanks a lot right on the money!