Question CPU clock speed low when plugged in, but temperatures are normal

Jul 14, 2025
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First time posting and I'm relatively inexperienced with hardware, apologies if I mess anything up (and also for how much detail I'm putting in this - I figure maybe some part of it will be helpful???)

I have a HP Omen 16-b0009na, which has an Intel i7 11800H and a NVIDIA RTX 3060, and I've had the laptop for almost exactly three years. It's running Windows 10. For a few months it's been slowing down massively to a pace that I'd comfortably call "half speed", affecting both visuals and audio. Booting is also extremely slow. This only happens when the laptop is plugged in - when it's running on battery, everything works fine. It started out only happening when Task Manager opened, but in the past month has been happening constantly, specifically whenever something slightly strenuous happens (such as opening a program). At its worst, it happens 100% of the time the laptop is on. Playing any game is impossible. Very rarely it works fine for one or two boots, then goes back to slowing down again.

I've figured out from looking at MSI Afterburner's monitors that the CPU clock speed is reducing when the slowdown happens, from 2.3 to 0.8GHz. Every thread I've found about that happening without overheating comes up with "disable Intel Adaptive Thermal Monitor", which I can't do because HP loves to entirely lock BIOS settings down - it's nowhere in the very short list of settings. I downloaded ThrottleStop and changed some settings mentioned in this similar post, which did make the clock speed consistent and stopped the entire laptop from slowing down, but then the GPU starts to complain and cause roughly the same effect but just for whatever game I have open, making it still unplayable - apart from one random time where the slowdown didn't happen but the game ran at 30fps (I'd usually get at least 90fps). 75% of my laptop time is spent on games, so this is unacceptable for me. All settings I can find (in Omen Hub, NVIDIA Control Panel, and power plan settings) are set to use the NVIDIA GPU, not the integrated card.

At one point, updating all drivers fixed the issue for about a week, but then it came back full-force despite no more driver updates being available. My CPU and GPU temperatures hover around 40-60 Celsius depending on what I'm doing, so that shouldn't be the cause, although it has reached 90 degrees in the past while playing some games (this was before a recent thermal paste change).

It's very obvious that something is being throttled, but I have no idea why it's happening or how to fix it. My current theories include a broken CPU, a broken GPU, or the charger itself causing problems - it's a replacement charger from 2024, but not from an official HP store since they don't directly sell the charging brick for this laptop, so it could be a knockoff that's failing in weird ways.

A ThrottleStop log with default settings is here. It was recorded while opening the game Satisfactory and sitting on the menu screen, since that's a consistent way to trigger the slowdown. I also unplugged and plugged back in the charging cable multiple times during the log, to see if there's any difference (the log starts with the charger plugged in).

Thanks so much for any help - this is honestly driving me a bit insane.
 
Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

My CPU and GPU temperatures hover around 40-60 Celsius depending on what I'm doing, so that shouldn't be the cause, although it has reached 90 degrees in the past while playing some games (this was before a recent thermal paste change).
Would be a good idea to undervolt your GPU to help dump less heat into the heatpipe assembly.

or the charger itself causing problems - it's a replacement charger from 2024, but not from an official HP store since they don't directly sell the charging brick for this laptop, so it could be a knockoff that's failing in weird ways.
Mind sharing a link to the adapter you speak of?

As for your laptop, are you on the latest BIOS version for it?
 
You mentioned you are using a non hp power cord. Did this happen at the same time you started using the cord? (Immediately)
Nope, I got the charger in mid-2024 and these problems started this year.

Would be a good idea to undervolt your GPU to help dump less heat into the heatpipe assembly.
Do you have a link to a good tutorial for this? I'm aware of the concept but a little scared of jumping into it.

Mind sharing a link to the adapter you speak of?

As for your laptop, are you on the latest BIOS version for it?
I'm on the latest BIOS version afaik, and the adapter is this one. It has all the HP branding, but it's always possible it's a knockoff since it's a third-party store.
 
or the charger itself causing problems - it's a replacement charger from 2024
I inherited a Yoga 500 laptop with two genuine OEM Lenovo PSUs. Both PSUs charged the laptop battery, but with one of them connected, the CPU stayed at 800MHz all the time. As soon as I unplugged the charger, the CPU boosted up to normal frequencies on the battery supply.

Switching to the second Lenovo charger cured the problem. No more fixed 800MHz operation.

Some laptop suppliers (HP or Dell?) have a fixed value resistor connected across two pins in the DC power connector that plugs into the laptop. I believe this resistor defines the power output capability of the PSU.

If you plug a 65W charger in place of a 95W charger, the laptop generates a warning message saying battery charging may be compromised.

I suggest buying a replacement OEM HP PSU (not a clone) and see what happens. I've bought several second-hand OEM PSUs this way on eBay and taken a chance. They've all turned out fine. I look for 100% feedback for private sellers or businesses buying old office computers with good feedback.
 
I suggest buying a replacement OEM HP PSU (not a clone) and see what happens. I've bought several second-hand OEM PSUs this way on eBay and taken a chance. They've all turned out fine. I look for 100% feedback for private sellers or businesses buying old office computers with good feedback.
Yeah, I guess this is probably the best course of action. It's good to hear that someone else has had such a similar problem though, hopefully that means the solution will be the same.