Learn about common problems

Symptom

The remote computer being monitored is offline.

Resolution

The interface will continue trying to monitor the instance and will find it when the computer is restarted in accordance with the /CheckOffline command-line parameter.

Symptom

I am unable to obtain remote counters.

Resolution

The interface is installed to run with the system account privileges as a service and the user account for interactive. Go to The PI Performance Monitor Service section for a description of the solution for services. Log on to the computer with a user account with sufficient privileges to run the interface interactively.

Symptom

The application or thread being monitored has stopped.

Resolution

The interface continues trying to monitor the instance and will find it when the process or thread is restarted. This condition may necessitate configuring the /ReloadPerfData command-line parameter.

Symptom

All values for my disks are zero.

Resolution

The counters for the Physical and Logical Disk objects don't work until the Disk Performance Statistics Driver in the I/O Manager disk stack is installed. Use the Diskperf utility to install the Disk Performance Statistics Driver, and then restart the computer.

Symptom

I have several disks, but values are only shown for the first disk in the set.

Resolution

When Diskperf was used, the standard option was specified, diskperf -y, which places the statistics collector above the fault tolerant driver, FTDISK. The statistics collector cannot see the different physical instances of the disk. Run Diskperf using the diskperf -ye option, then restart the computer. This places the statistics collector below the fault tolerant driver so it can see physical disks before they are combined into a volume set.

Symptom

%Disk Read Time and %Disk Write Time don't sum to %Disk Time

Resolution

All disk counters include time in the queue. When the queue gets long, the read and write time both include that time and don't sum to 100%. %Disk Read Time:_Total and %Disk Write Time:_Total sum to more than 100% because there is more than one instance of the physical or logical disk. The percentage counters are limited, by definition to 100% and cannot display higher values. Use the Avg. Disk Read Queue Length, Avg. Disk Write Queue Length, and Avg. Disk Queue Length counters instead. These report on the same data as the %Disk Time counters, but display the values in decimals that can exceed 1.0.

Symptom

Why is there a _Total instance on the ID counters? What would a total ID Thread counter show?

Resolution

Items in the Instances box are the same for all counters of an object. When an instance has no Resolution, as in the case of _Total for IDs, a zero value is displayed for the counter.

Symptom

Process: Pool Non-paged Bytes:_Total doesn't equal Memory: Pool Non-paged Bytes

Resolution

The Memory: Pool Non-paged Bytes value comes from an internal counter that counts each byte. The Process: Pool Non-paged Bytes counters are estimates from the Object Manager. The Object Manager counts accesses, not space, so its counts include requests to duplicate object handles as well as space for the object. Ignore the static value of the counters and, instead, monitor any changes in the values

Symptom

Where is the Processor Queue Length Counter?

Resolution

It's a System object counter. There is just one processor queue for all processors.

Symptom

Counter values for instances of an object are greater than those for the total

Resolution

The %Disk Time and %Processor Time counters are limited, by definition, to 100%. If there are multiple disks or processors, each could equal 100%, but the total counter cannot display the sum. Monitor the physical instances separately. For disks, use the Avg. Disk Queue Length counters instead of the %Disk Time counters. These display the totals as decimals, not percentages, so they can exceed 1.0. For processors, use the System: %Total Processor Time counter. This averages the active time of each processor over all processors.