[SOLVED] CPU randomly reduces clockspeed

[marci.petes]

NOTE: This is a laptop.

<--HOW IT HAPPENED-->

This started recently, and occured at seemingly random times. First, it was just when I was playing games like Terraria and Brawlhalla for hours. I checked CPU/GPU heat, CPU heat was 70°C at max, and GPU was about the same too. Then one day I just launched a game while there was basically nothing in the background except Chrome running with one tab, and it happened again. Then it just randomly started happening while I was lets say watching youtube.

<--WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENS-->

CPU usage in the task manager drops to ~22% (0.48 GHz) and everything kinda freezes and comes to halt, sometimes even apps crash. Game FPS drops to about 10 FPS. After about 10 seconds (shortest ~1 second, longest ~20 seconds), it returns back to normal. CPU usage in the task manager (mostly) doesn't reach 100% (about 70-80% most of the time)

<--WHAT I ALREADY TRIED-->

Since I don't know much about issues like this, all I tried was playing on lower graphics and continously observing CPU/GPU usage and heat. Nothing irregular happened, once the CPU and GPU heat reached 90°C when I was testing more resource intensive games, oddly it didnt happen in either of those cases.

<--TOOLS AND SPECS-->

Heat Measured with: HWiNFO, Speedfan
CPU: i5-5200U 2.20 GHz (Ran at 2.50 GHz since I bought it)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 840M
OS: Windows 10 Pro
Age: I think 4-5 yrs
Previous Issues: HDD Failure

<--IMAGE OF WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN TASK MANAGER-->

 

[rochismo]

seems like CPU throttling, i think you have the default windows power plan. You should change it to maximum performance plan. You can look it up on youtube or some guides, it's pretty easy.

 

[marci.petes]

seems like CPU throttling, i think you have the default windows power plan. You should change it to maximum performance plan. You can look it up on youtube or some guides, it's pretty easy.

I was using High Performance so far, maybe that'll help. Thank you for the suggestion I'll see if it works

 

[rochismo]

I was using High Performance so far, maybe that'll help. Thank you for the suggestion I'll see if it works

If it doesn't work try disabling HPET (High Precision Event Timer)

 

[marci.petes]

If it doesn't work try disabling HPET (High Precision Event Timer)

Just decided to run HWiNFO to see temps and uhhh this is kinda what I saw. Just ran google chrome, nothing else.

EDIT: Tried it with and without HPET, it happened both times.

 

[kerberos_20]

well, it looks like its time to clean up some dust and maybe new thermal paste

 

[rochismo]

May i ask, how old is the computer? because if it's old, unless you have experience by disassembling and assembling laptops, i would recomend buying a new one. But i'd say your laptop is 4 years old or something around that

 

[marci.petes]

May i ask, how old is the computer? because if it's old, unless you have experience by disassembling and assembling laptops, i would recomend buying a new one. But i'd say your laptop is 4 years old or something around that

Yes, it's about 4 yrs old. And I did plan on getting a better one, but I don't have the money for it yet. Just kinda wanna not kill this till I get that.

 

[marci.petes]

well, it looks like its time to clean up some dust and maybe new thermal paste

Will try, as soon as I get my hand on some thermal paste

 

[rochismo]

Will try, as soon as I get my hand on some thermal paste

If that's the case, i can guarantee you 95% it will fix the throttling issue, unless you have some weird configuration on your bios.

 

[marci.petes]

If that's the case, i can guarantee you 95% it will fix the throttling issue, unless you have some weird configuration on your bios.

The last time I touched my BIOS was when I did a hardware diagnosis, because the laptop wasn't starting (when the HDD failed) so doubt that would be an issue, but thanks for all the recommendations everyone