Intel Core I5 520M Lag Issues

madshark · #1 04-23-2011, 03:41 PM

I really hope someone can help me out here because I've spent the last three days trying to get this mess to work and if I install OSX one more time I hit a grand total of 50 Installs. Argh.

The only good thing after all that is I know exactly what the issue is.

My laptop specs:
Toshiba U500
Intel Core i5 520M
Nvidia 310m
500Gb Toshiba Hdd
4Gb Ram

Right so basically the issue is that the processor doesn't seem to be working right for some issue. Ive tried both, Vanilla with an official apple retail disk and hazard,atkos distros. All of em give the same issue.

If I have core multiprocessing turned on in the bios the system lags. Animations mouse etc. Further more Safari Finder and itunes all crash within about 30 seconds of being used and I have to force close. Knock the multicores off and everything works just fine.

The processor and everything else except the sound gets natively detected by 10.6.7 Like I said I almost have a perfect vanilla install. I used tonymacs boot cd and post installer for the install. I extracted my DSDT via windows and thn patched it using dsdtautopatcher from PCWIZ.

The only thing that I do notice at boot that could shed some light is that after the dsdt.aml is loaded it says ACPI Table not present I think It scrolls too fast for me to even get a pause in.

OSX boots up absolutely fast with the cores disabled and not. Furthermore even with the cores enabled suddenly the lag stops for a few seconds. I.E after installing a pkg or kext. Returns after a few seconds tho.

Now the question is what can I do? I've tried everything (boot flags, modified kernels and bootloaders/ Disabler Kext, VoodooPower, NullCPU) before posting in the forums for help. Some one please shed some light

Thank You

fumoboy007 · #2 04-25-2011, 04:41 AM

Sounds like a TSC synchronization problem. To be sure, boot up with both cores, open Terminal.app, and then type

Code:

cat /var/log/kernel.log

If you see something like

Code:

MAC Framework successfully initialized
using 16384 buffer headers and 4096 cluster IO buffer headers
Unsynchronized TSC for cpu 1: 0x00000017b7359087, delta 0xfffffffffff4494d

then you have a TSC synchronization problem. In that case, compile the sources found here and use the resulting VoodooTSCSync.kext.

madshark · #3 04-25-2011, 09:12 AM

fumoboy007 You've seriously done a world of good for my osx installation and I cant thank you enough.

It does seem to be the Unsynchronized TSC for cpu 1 and I checked the voodoo TSCSyn out. I got lost completely when you said compile the sources. Is there anyay you can direct me in the right direction of getting it done? Because I installed a kext I found on here but it seems to be for core2. But it did fix all the lag issues. Yet the Unsynchronized TSC for cpu 1 still shows. So its obviously the wrong cpu info in the plist. So yup any help regarding that would be highly appreciated. Thanks again.

Update : I ran some geekbench tests the results are below.

Update 1 : Without Voodoo TSCSync + No multiprocessing geekbench score = 1964 (No Lag)
Update 2 : Without Voodoo TSCSync + Multiprocessing geekbench score = 7844 (Lags)
Update 3 : With Voodoo TSCSync (core2) + Multiprocessing geekbench score = 3485 ( No lag)

fumoboy007 · #4 04-25-2011, 07:37 PM

Nah, the code for VoodooTSCSync is generic, meaning it'll work on any multi-core CPU. Also, the "Unsynchronized TSC" message will still pop up but you should also see "VoodooTSCSyn::doTsc(): stamp_tsc was called: 2 times" which means your TSC has been synchronized. So, no worries.

Regarding your GeekBench scores, I have no idea why single-core scores better than dual-core. Sorry.

madshark · #5 04-26-2011, 05:52 AM

I see. Ok. Yes I do see the stamp message.

Just one more question the kext download said :

Quote:

This is for a core2duo only.. If you have issues w/ more than 2 cores check the Info.plist and the IOCPUNumber that the kext will match on.

And the IOCPUNUmber on the kext = 1 now I have a Core i5 which is two cores with an emulation to 4. My Profiler reads 1 processor two cores. And MSR tools only shows a single CPU0

Without the TSCSync it shows CPU0 and CPU1 so I reckon theres some thing missing which is why the geekscore is half with the kext running. Makes sense that with one CPU itll be at half the power?

So the question is where on earth do I find an IOCPUNumber ? I'd logically think its 2. But I'm too chicken to try it because this thing works like a charm at the moment >,<

Update :
I did a little reading and tried the IOCPU = 3 which is what they suggested on the voodoo forums for 4 cores. I got a kernel panic on boot. I retried with cpus=1/2 both booted up with one core geekbench scores dropped to a further half. cpus=4 gives me a kernel panic(im not sure even if thats valid)

I also noticed on boot that AppleACPICPU enables 4 Processor IDs which means it is seeing 4 cores? :S

Just for my information do you have any idea what a core i5 should display as ? cpu =1 cores =4 yes? I remember it displaying like that on windows. Either way switching back to IOCPU = 1 till someone can shed some light. I appreciate your time and help. Thank you so much.