[SOLVED] Cannot undervolt i7-9750h after BIOS update [Dell G7 7590] [1.11.1->1.12.0]

[Arthav24]

Before updating my bios to 1.12.0 from 1.11.1 I could change the voltage offset for both CPU and Cache , which was -0.125 Volts for both using Intel XTU and later ThrottleStop(8.71). But surprisingly after Update CPU seems to just ignore the offset and the settings in XTU are greyed out.
I tried clean windows install of version 1909 as well as reflashing the bios and even downgrading it but nothing helped. Also I cleared the CMOS too.
Please help me to undervolt my i7 as it thermal throttles very easily without undervolt.
Images https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tc2pNlhS1sRIDf3Nw3hf6x2syXSrROkg

 

[caspinks98]

I've got the same laptop and have this problem too. Had a -0.150 undervolt applied through Throttlestop, did this BIOS update today from 1.9 to 1.12 and now can't undervolt at all. Reverted back to 1.9 but still can't apply the undervolt. A quick Google seems to show that Intel might have patched undervolting to prevent the Plundervolt security issues.

I hope someone has a way around it as my laptop gets way too hot without the undervolt

 

[caspinks98]

I've managed to fix it!

After I reverted back to the 1.9 BIOS, I went into the BIOS settings and reset to default and now ThrottleStop applies my undervolt again! My temps also seem to be much better after doing the reset too. e.g. GRID 2019 used to hit 90°C CPU and 74°C GPU at Ultra High settings with the -0.150 undervolt but now hovers around 75°C CPU and 66°C GPU so something in my BIOS must have screwed up somewhere.

Hope this helps!

 

[lga1156_ftw]

Do you guys use any laptop cooling pads? I have kootek cooling pad and it decrease temps like 5-25celsius on cpu / gpu depending on the laptop model.

Another thing which helps is to use liquid metal instead of thermal paste between cpu/ gpu die and heatsink, improves temps significantly (you will lose warranty)

 

[Arthav24]

I've managed to fix it!

After I reverted back to the 1.9 BIOS, I went into the BIOS settings and reset to default and now ThrottleStop applies my undervolt again! My temps also seem to be much better after doing the reset too. e.g. GRID 2019 used to hit 90°C CPU and 74°C GPU at Ultra High settings with the -0.150 undervolt but now hovers around 75°C CPU and 66°C GPU so something in my BIOS must have screwed up somewhere.

Hope this helps!

Yes it worked for me too .
microcode 0cC6 allows undervolting while 0xCA blocks it. Although till now only Dell pushed the update to block it if windows also pushed the update to ensure blocking then it will be gone for good. I feel Dell should incorporated undervolting through bios for advance user in high end laptops like G7, as its more secure way of doing it.
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/undervolting-not-working.264318/#post-4218007
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/throttlestop-undervolting-isnt-changing-anything.264262/

 

[sizzling]

Do you guys use any laptop cooling pads? I have kootek cooling pad and it decrease temps like 5-25celsius on cpu / gpu depending on the laptop model.

Another thing which helps is to use liquid metal instead of thermal paste between cpu/ gpu die and heatsink, improves temps significantly (you will lose warranty)

I recently tried this on my Dell G5 with a 9750h. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0...Zqg&hsa_cr_id=5901408490502&ref_=sb_s_sparkle

The maximum difference it made was 1c. The G5 takes air in from underneath and out the side so it is the correct configuration but the difference was barely measurable.

 

[Arthav24]

I recently tried this on my Dell G5 with a 9750h. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0...Zqg&hsa_cr_id=5901408490502&ref_=sb_s_sparkle

The maximum difference it made was 1c. The G5 takes air in from underneath and out the side so it is the correct configuration but the difference was barely measurable.

Yeah its correct the G5s and G7s take fresh air from bottom and throw hot air from sides and back. I don't know why it didn't work out . I was also thinking to buy laptop stand and Noctua fans , but first I will repaste it with Thermal Grizzly kryonaut. It should bring temps under 80 C .
Moreover I think I should repaste it soon before Microsoft plans to push update and block undervolting.

 

[caspinks98]

I recently tried this on my Dell G5 with a 9750h. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0...Zqg&hsa_cr_id=5901408490502&ref_=sb_s_sparkle

The maximum difference it made was 1c. The G5 takes air in from underneath and out the side so it is the correct configuration but the difference was barely measurable.

I've got a similar cooling pad to that and the difference it makes is about 3°C at most (but hey 3° cooler is still a small benefit haha). I'm just happy with whatever my BIOS reset did yesterday because to be 15°C cooler and not have any performance loss is great.

 

[lga1156_ftw]

I have no experience with other than kootek cooling pad and it lowered temps significantly In all about 10 laptops i tested it on. Its the 5 fan model

 

[lga1156_ftw]

Most of them where cheaper i5 i3 cpu and less power consumptiok needed

 

[SamirD]

Why did you upgrade the bios in the first place? Unless there's a feature you need, you don't want to because of things like this. Routers can be the same way.

 

[lga1156_ftw]

Yeah its correct the G5s and G7s take fresh air from bottom and throw hot air from sides and back. I don't know why it didn't work out . I was also thinking to buy laptop stand and Noctua fans , but first I will repaste it with Thermal Grizzly kryonaut. It should bring temps under 80 C .
Moreover I think I should repaste it soon before Microsoft plans to push update and block undervolting.

[EDIT ; misread your post about using thermal grizzly, thought you write conductonaut instead of kryonaut which is not conductive, go ahead son]

. You might also look into updating heatsink, sometimes there is other models fitting with little modification.

 

[lga1156_ftw]

Looks like the bastards left the vrm cooling worse for i7 model : https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-...ng-on-the-configuration-you-buy.427869.0.html

I never had this model, so what kind of temperatures you get on the PCH chip and VRM or are there sensors in the motherboard? Try hwmonitor and hwinfo64

 

[Daniel3191]

Why did you upgrade the bios in the first place? Unless there's a feature you need, you don't want to because of things like this. Routers can be the same way.

Windows update

 

[Daniel3191]

I downgraded mine to 1.9 but throttlestop still doesn't work. I mean I limited my CPU to 3.5 to prevent throttling and the CPU still goes above the limit (sometimes it reaches 4ghz).

 

[WillyR]

I downgraded mine to 1.9 but throttlestop still doesn't work. I mean I limited my CPU to 3.5 to prevent throttling and the CPU still goes above the limit (sometimes it reaches 4ghz).

Hi Daniel,

Once you’ve reverted back to the old BIOS Version, restart your PC, go back into the bios and revert the bios settings to default again (reset).

that should work!
By the way.. to all..

the only way for me to get the temps down is if I turn down the TURBO boost. Regardless if I undervolt or not -.125 or -.150 ..
Also changing my clock settings from 45 44 43 32 41 40

to

41 41 40 40 39 39

turbo boost is at 30 / 50

Cinebench r20 scores are roughly at 2700-2800
Can I ask what everyone else is getting? What are your settings for unvervolting?

 

[WillyR]

I've managed to fix it!

After I reverted back to the 1.9 BIOS, I went into the BIOS settings and reset to default and now ThrottleStop applies my undervolt again! My temps also seem to be much better after doing the reset too. e.g. GRID 2019 used to hit 90°C CPU and 74°C GPU at Ultra High settings with the -0.150 undervolt but now hovers around 75°C CPU and 66°C GPU so something in my BIOS must have screwed up somewhere.

Hope this helps!

what are your trottlestop settings?

 

[Justandrei]

Literally made an account just for this post.

Gf's laptop, bios version 1.12. Did a factory reset in bios settings and i can undervolt again.

Hope that helps people.

 

[Daniel3191]

Hi Daniel,

Once you’ve reverted back to the old BIOS Version, restart your PC, go back into the bios and revert the bios settings to default again (reset).

that should work!
By the way.. to all..

the only way for me to get the temps down is if I turn down the TURBO boost. Regardless if I undervolt or not -.125 or -.150 ..
Also changing my clock settings from 45 44 43 32 41 40

to

41 41 40 40 39 39

turbo boost is at 30 / 50

Cinebench r20 scores are roughly at 2700-2800
Can I ask what everyone else is getting? What are your settings for unvervolting?

Can you post your TS settings? Im getting 2100s on my 8750h... and its hitting 95c.

 

[caspinks98]

what are your trottlestop settings?

Hi there! My Throttlestop settings as of current are -150mV on the CPU core and cache, and -50mV on the integrated GPU. I've played around with the Speedshift value too as was still hitting 90C in GTAV but ultimately left that down to the BIOS as it was causing lower performance in my VR games and weirdly enough Minecraft

 

[WillyR]

Hi there! My Throttlestop settings as of current are -150mV on the CPU core and cache, and -50mV on the integrated GPU. I've played around with the Speedshift value too as was still hitting 90C in GTAV but ultimately left that down to the BIOS as it was causing lower performance in my VR games and weirdly enough Minecraft

Cool thanks for that ... Also want to give an update. I'm using the latest BIOS with my voltage settings unlocked!!!

My windows 10 machine decided to download the firmware and install it. Previously it did this more than 5 times, after a while, when it installed, I would automatically go into the device manager and uninstall it / remove the updated firmware so it wouldn't install upon the reboot.

4 days ago, it did it again, although it rebooted and installed the latest Dell Bios - Dell Bios 1.12.0 07/02/2020 - But before this updated, I ensured I had installed the latest version of the ALIENWARE Command Center on my Dell G7. When it rebooted, my clocks were still unlocked, settings unlocked and I could still play around with my voltages.

Weird, but yeah, now I'm using the latest BIOS with it being unlocked. FYI- I had to annoyingly downgrade the BIOS everytime it automatically updated to the latest version. This time I didnt need to, but everytime it did, i would need to restore the BIOS to factory. Hopefully you get lucky....

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PNrwMQ3fSCg8WIjaj-3V35nkaIRU4Qhf

ThrottleStop.jpg

drive.google.com

https://drive.google.com/open?id=16gn8Gs-NMzplxOeY4sBlYgD-C7YBelmt

ThrottleStop3.jpg

drive.google.com

 

[caspinks98]

Cool thanks for that ... Also want to give an update. I'm using the latest BIOS with my voltage settings unlocked!!!

My windows 10 machine decided to download the firmware and install it. Previously it did this more than 5 times, after a while, when it installed, I would automatically go into the device manager and uninstall it / remove the updated firmware so it wouldn't install upon the reboot.

4 days ago, it did it again, although it rebooted and installed the latest Dell Bios - Dell Bios 1.12.0 07/02/2020 - But before this updated, I ensured I had installed the latest version of the ALIENWARE Command Center on my Dell G7. When it rebooted, my clocks were still unlocked, settings unlocked and I could still play around with my voltages.

Weird, but yeah, now I'm using the latest BIOS with it being unlocked. FYI- I had to annoyingly downgrade the BIOS everytime it automatically updated to the latest version. This time I didnt need to, but everytime it did, i would need to restore the BIOS to factory. Hopefully you get lucky....

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PNrwMQ3fSCg8WIjaj-3V35nkaIRU4Qhf

ThrottleStop.jpg

drive.google.com

https://drive.google.com/open?id=16gn8Gs-NMzplxOeY4sBlYgD-C7YBelmt

ThrottleStop3.jpg

drive.google.com

Is there any temperature benefit to 1.12 in your opinion? I thought my temps had gotten better but after a while they've become how they were before. Project Cars 2 in VR used to peak at about 85C on the CPU for me but now has instances where it hovers at 95C unless I severely throttle the CPU with Speedshift in Throttlestop

 

[WillyR]

Is there any temperature benefit to 1.12 in your opinion? I thought my temps had gotten better but after a while they've become how they were before. Project Cars 2 in VR used to peak at about 85C on the CPU for me but now has instances where it hovers at 95C unless I severely throttle the CPU with Speedshift in Throttlestop

Other than the security fixes I didnt notice anything different. Otherwise, I'm just happy that I'm using the latest version and it being unlocked. Good luck!

 

[caspinks98]

Other than the security fixes I didnt notice anything different. Otherwise, I'm just happy that I'm using the latest version and it being unlocked. Good luck!

Fair dos! I ended up just staying on 1.9 but I did repaste the laptop with Arctix MX-4, much better temps now. Seems whatever stock thermal paste Dell used was a bit useless. My idle temps have dropped from 45C to 36C and when gaming my temps rarely go over 80C now, even in VR games. If they do it's only ever brief spikes to 86C and then back down again.

If you feel comfortable doing a thermal repaste then I'd definitely recommend it! The G7 7590 is surprisingly easy to tear down.

 

[WillyR]

Fair dos! I ended up just staying on 1.9 but I did repaste the laptop with Arctix MX-4, much better temps now. Seems whatever stock thermal paste Dell used was a bit useless. My idle temps have dropped from 45C to 36C and when gaming my temps rarely go over 80C now, even in VR games. If they do it's only ever brief spikes to 86C and then back down again.

If you feel comfortable doing a thermal repaste then I'd definitely recommend it! The G7 7590 is surprisingly easy to tear down.

Thanks Cas! Do you have any articles / videos of the tear down?