[SOLVED] Core i7 930, All 4 cores stuck at 1599 MHz

[g1Coggin]

I have an older Gigabyte x58-USB3 MB with Core i7 930 2.8Ghz processor and Windows 10. No matter what I do I can't get the core speed to change from 1599 MHz in Hardware Monitor. Even when I run the Stress Test in CPU-Z the Utilization goes to 100% on all 8 threads but the 4 Core Clocks stay at 1599 MHz.
I've updated the bios from F4 to F5C and it made no difference.
Any helpful input would be appreciated.

 

[Eximo]

Check Windows performance settings. Might have flipped to a power save mode. (Why Microsoft still can't distinguish between desktops and laptops I will never know)

BIOS flash should have cleared up anything else...

Latest round of Windows updates are known to cause many strange problems, consider rolling it back to last month's patch level.

Make sure your CPU cooler is still fully seated and the fan is working properly. When in doubt, re-apply thermal compound.

 

[Andrei N]

Sounds like a power issue. I've seen something similar on an i3 stuck on 900 MHz, the PSU was broken.

 

[maxamillionfeettall]

hwmonitor has my cpu at 1660 at all times, cpu-z sometimes as well, but coretemp and speccy seems to show it at the right speed, so maybe its just the program, might be worth a look before checking out the psu.

 

[g1Coggin]

Check Windows performance settings. Might have flipped to a power save mode. (Why Microsoft still can't distinguish between desktops and laptops I will never know)

BIOS flash should have cleared up anything else...

Latest round of Windows updates are known to cause many strange problems, consider rolling it back to last month's patch level.

Make sure your CPU cooler is still fully seated and the fan is working properly. When in doubt, re-apply thermal compound.

Yeah, I set the performance min and max to 100%. No difference. One thing I've noticed is that CPU-Z shows my multiplier at 12 but the BIOS shows it at 22. Is there a process in windows that changes the CPU multiplier?
I was able to get the clock speed to move a little using Gigabytes EasyTune 6 but I got a blue screen when the Clock speed went above 1700MHz. Something definitely has this thing locked down.

 

[g1Coggin]

hwmonitor has my cpu at 1660 at all times, cpu-z sometimes as well, but coretemp and speccy seems to show it at the right speed, so maybe its just the program, might be worth a look before checking out the psu.

Hardware monitor, Speccy, CPU-Z and even the Performance tab in Task Manager all show the same clock speed and it never moves.

 

[maxamillionfeettall]

hm, speedstep disabled in bios?

 

[g1Coggin]

Sounds like a power issue. I've seen something similar on an i3 stuck on 900 MHz, the PSU was broken.

Hadn't thought of that but I did just rule it out. Swapped in a different supply and it still won't move from 1599 MHz. Weird.

 

[Eximo]

Maybe try taking the CPU out of the socket and re-seating it?

Grab a linux distro and run that to rule out a software problem.

 

[ElectrO_90]

Windows normally varies the multiplier - so something isn't upping the multiplier - it has to be a BIOS setting.... I hope

 

[g1Coggin]

Windows normally varies the multiplier - so something isn't upping the multiplier - it has to be a BIOS setting.... I hope

BIOS shows the multiplier at 22 and the clock at 2.9GHz. It also shows completely different voltages than CPU-Z or HWMonitor. Gonna try ubuntu live and see what kind of readings I get.

 

[g1Coggin]

Maybe try taking the CPU out of the socket and re-seating it?

Grab a linux distro and run that to rule out a software problem.

This was a great suggestion. I loaded up Ubuntu live and it shows the same thing. cpuinfo lists all cores running at 1599 MHz.
Definitely something strange going on since the BIOS shows it running normal at 2.9 GHz and all the voltages are different than what HWMonitor shows.

 

[g1Coggin]

Finally!! Fixed it. I had to disable thermal monitoring in the bios. After that my speed went up to 2.9Ghz.
For the Gigabyte X58-USB3 motherboard the setting is here:
MB Intelligent Tweaker (M.I.T.)->Advanced Frequency Settings->Advanced CPU Core Freatures and change CPU Thermal Monitor to Disabled.

I know my system is not even close to overheating. I don't know why this throttled my speed. I have an Arctic Cooler Freezer Pro on top of this wimpy Core i7 930 and the max temps I get while doing the CPU-Z stress tests are 68 to 69 degrees. At idle it's down to 45 to 47 degrees.

Love the faster speed!

 

[Eximo]

Hmm, I wonder if the motherboard's temperature sensor malfunctioned. Do you see any oddly high (or low) temperatures on some of the other sensors in something like hardware monitor?

 

[g1Coggin]

Hmm, I wonder if the motherboard's temperature sensor malfunctioned. Do you see any oddly high (or low) temperatures on some of the other sensors in something like hardware monitor?

It's possible the sensor has malfunctioned although I'm guessing it has something to do with Gigabyte not producing drivers for windows 10 for this MB. It's possible there is just something off in this area with the drivers being used.