R devel - Jan 2007 - Whine in dual core Windows PC if R uses full CPU capacity

Dear R-developers,

the following may seem a weird question for R-devel – 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 – a high-pitched noise like a whine – I have so far 
observed running simulations in R only and couldn’t reproduce with any other 
software (sometimes 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 – 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). I’ve also stopped R when the computer 
just whined and started SAS, fully using the CPU as well – 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 – running 
another simulation under full load on R in a quiet way – started whining at 
the moment it switched to the new type of simulation.

The hardware technician I’ve asked about this issue does not have any idea and 
suspects R to do something peculiar that causes the noise. It’s not the 
mainboards fault (that has already been changed for another reason, and the 
behavior remains). I can’t definitely locate the source of the sound. I 
suspect that 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 „AI Gear“ to reduce the processor’s speed from 2.4GHz 
to 1.7GHz when I want to concentrate – then the whine is gone (but the 
simulation is slower).

Does anyone have any idea – 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@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@tfh-berlin.de 
www: www.tfh-berlin.de/~groemp/ 
******************************

 

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On 1/15/2007 12:02 PM, Ulrike Gr?mping wrote:
> Dear R-developers,
> 
> the following may seem a weird question for R-devel ? 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 ? a high-pitched noise like a whine ? I have so far
> observed running simulations in R only and couldn?t reproduce with any
other
> software (sometimes 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 ? 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). I?ve also stopped R when the
computer
> just whined and started SAS, fully using the CPU as well ? no whine. Shut
down
> SAS, restart R ? 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 ? running 
> another simulation under full load on R in a quiet way ? started whining at
> the moment it switched to the new type of simulation.
> 
> The hardware technician I?ve asked about this issue does not have any idea
and
> suspects R to do something peculiar that causes the noise. It?s not the 
> mainboards fault (that has already been changed for another reason, and the
> behavior remains). I can?t definitely locate the source of the sound. I 
> suspect that 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 ?AI Gear? to reduce the processor?s speed from
2.4GHz
> to 1.7GHz when I want to concentrate ? 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 ? or hints regarding what else I could think
about ?
> 
> Regards, Ulrike
> 
> ****************************** 
> Prof. Dr. Ulrike Gr?mping 
> 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 Gr?mping 
> Fachbereich II 
> TFH Berlin 
> Luxemburger Str. 10 
> 13353 Berlin 
> mail: groemping at tfh-berlin.de 
> www: www.tfh-berlin.de/~groemp/ 
> ******************************
> 
>  
> 
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel

Ulrike,

It can happen that different types of simulations and programs can put 
load on different regions of the CPU and comsume different amounts of 
power or simply are causing different patterns in the power consumptions


Two things might cause the noise (at least, I have seen these things in 
Dortmund before), given in the order I would look at it at:

1. the power supply
2. some "Spule" (sorry folks, I don't know the english word) on
the
mainboard (in most of the cases ASUS is quite OK and does not produce 
such stuff)

If the former, buy a better one, if the latter, you can put some paper 
or part of old cloth around it.

Best,
Uwe



Ulrike Gr?mping wrote:
> Dear R-developers,
> 
> the following may seem a weird question for R-devel ? 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 ? a high-pitched noise like a whine ? I have so far
> observed running simulations in R only and couldn?t reproduce with any
other
> software (sometimes 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 ? 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). I?ve also stopped R when the
computer
> just whined and started SAS, fully using the CPU as well ? no whine. Shut
down
> SAS, restart R ? 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 ? running 
> another simulation under full load on R in a quiet way ? started whining at
> the moment it switched to the new type of simulation.
> 
> The hardware technician I?ve asked about this issue does not have any idea
and
> suspects R to do something peculiar that causes the noise. It?s not the 
> mainboards fault (that has already been changed for another reason, and the
> behavior remains). I can?t definitely locate the source of the sound. I 
> suspect that 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 ?AI Gear? to reduce the processor?s speed from
2.4GHz
> to 1.7GHz when I want to concentrate ? then the whine is gone (but the 
> simulation is slower).
> 
> Does anyone have any idea ? or hints regarding what else I could think
about ?
> 
> Regards, Ulrike
> 
> ****************************** 
> Prof. Dr. Ulrike Gr?mping 
> 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 Gr?mping 
> Fachbereich II 
> TFH Berlin 
> Luxemburger Str. 10 
> 13353 Berlin 
> mail: groemping at tfh-berlin.de 
> www: www.tfh-berlin.de/~groemp/ 
> ******************************
> 
>  
> 
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel