[Rd] Whine in dual core Windows PC if R uses full CPU capacity

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 1/15/2007 2:38 PM, Ulrike Grömping wrote:
> Duncan, 
> thanks. Not knowing what is a quiet or noisy loop beforehand, I wouldn't like to do my programming around that theme though :-) 
> By the way, does your phrase "noisy CPUs" suggest noisy types of CPU or noisy individuals of generally ok types of CPU (you might not know that, though)?

I think I've only come across it a couple of times, and didn't have any 
replication, so I don't know if they were unusual individuals or a 
design problem.  From your description of replacing the mb, it sounds as 
though it's a design problem -- unless as Uwe suggested, it's a power 
supply or some other part that you didn't replace.

Duncan Murdoch

> Regards, Ulrike
> 
> ---------- Original Message -----------
> From: Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca> 
> To: Ulrike Grömping <groemping at tfh-berlin.de> 
> Cc: r-devel at r-project.org 
> Sent: Mon, 15 Jan 2007 13:07:10 -0500 
> Subject: Re: [Rd] Whine in dual core Windows PC if R uses full CPU capacity
> 
>> On 1/15/2007 12:02 PM, Ulrike Grömping wrote: 
>>> Dear R-developers, 
>>>
>>> the following may seem a weird question for R-devel [WINDOWS-1252?]– I try anyway, because it 
>>> does seem to be related to usage of R and R's way of interacting with the 
>>> hardware. 
>>>
>>> When running R (2.4.0) on my new dual core Windows XP system (Intel Core 2 Duo 
>>> E6600, Mainboard ASUS P5B, BeQuiet Power Unit), I observe various types of 
>>> sounds (not related to fans) when running at full usage of at least one of the 
>>> cores. 
>>>
>>> The most annoying sound [WINDOWS-1252?]– a high-pitched noise like a whine [WINDOWS-1252?]– I have so far 
>>> observed running simulations in R only and [WINDOWS-1252?]couldn’t reproduce with any other 
>>> software (sometimes [WINDOWS-1252?]it’s also more a rustle than a whine, that one is not 
>>> disturbing). I can clearly track it down to particular instances of R [WINDOWS-1252?]– as 
>>> soon as I left-click on a blue window bar in the affected R-Gui, the noise 
>>> stops (and there are sometimes other instances of R running in parallel which 
>>> are completely unrelated to the whine). [WINDOWS-1252?]I’ve also stopped R when the computer 
>>> just whined and started SAS, fully using the CPU as well [WINDOWS-1252?]– no whine. Shut down 
>>> SAS, restart R à whine again. Apparently, it can also be related to what 
>>> exactly R is doing at the particular moment. For example, I just discovered 
>>> that simulations of one type were finished, because the computer [WINDOWS-1252?]– running 
>>> another simulation under full load on R in a quiet way [WINDOWS-1252?]– started whining at 
>>> the moment it switched to the new type of simulation. 
>>>
>>> The hardware technician [WINDOWS-1252?]I’ve asked about this issue does not have any idea and 
>>> suspects R to do something peculiar that causes the noise. [WINDOWS-1252?]It’s not the 
>>> mainboards fault (that has already been changed for another reason, and the 
>>> behavior remains). I [WINDOWS-1252?]can’t definitely locate the source of the sound. I 
>>> suspect that [WINDOWS-1252?]it’s the Power Unit, but there are so many parts close together 
>>> that I am not really sure. 
>>>
>>> I do not know enough about interactions of R with hardware to know whether it 
>>> is even possible for anyone deeper into the matter to develop an idea what 
>>> could be behind this behavior. For the moment, I can get rid of the whine by 
>>> using the mainboard tool [WINDOWS-1252?]„AI [WINDOWS-1252?]Gear“ to reduce the [WINDOWS-1252?]processor’s speed from 2.4GHz 
>>> to 1.7GHz when I want to concentrate [WINDOWS-1252?]– then the whine is gone (but the 
>>> simulation is slower). 
>> I haven't heard this from R, but on occasion I've had noisy CPUs.  I 
>> suspect it's a case of some repetitive calculation leading to repetitive 
>> electric fields which happen to cause physical resonance of some part of 
>> your system.  That agrees with the observation that changing the speed 
>> changed the noisiness.  Another way to get rid of it would be to change 
>> the contents of the loop:  make it run faster or slower and the noise 
>> should go away. 
>>
>> Duncan Murdoch 
>>
>>> Does anyone have any idea [WINDOWS-1252?]– or hints regarding what else I could think about ? 
>>>
>>> Regards, Ulrike 
>>>
>>> ****************************** 
>>> Prof. Dr. Ulrike Grömping 
>>> Fachbereich II 
>>> TFH Berlin 
>>> Luxemburger Str. 10 
>>> 13353 Berlin 
>>> mail: groemping at tfh-berlin.de 
>>> www: www.tfh-berlin.de/~groemp/ 
>>> ****************************** 
>>>
>>> ------- End of Forwarded Message ------- 
>>>
>>> ****************************** 
>>> Prof. Dr. Ulrike Grömping 
>>> Fachbereich II 
>>> TFH Berlin 
>>> Luxemburger Str. 10 
>>> 13353 Berlin 
>>> mail: groemping at tfh-berlin.de 
>>> www: www.tfh-berlin.de/~groemp/ 
>>> ****************************** 
>>>
>>>   
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
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> ------- End of Original Message -------
>  
>