CPU Running at 0.79GHz

[dariusjay.fox]

My CPU is running at 0.79GHz, and I can't seem to find anything that will fix it. This mainly happens during games, however it can happen when I'm just surfing the internet, youtube etc. When I first launch my computer this is non-existant for just about 15 minutes, but then it will drop back down to 0.79GHz. As I said above, this mainly happens ingame (Sometimes it will randomly be at the normal speed 2.50GHz or the turbo 3.50GHz), but when I close the game it goes back up to the turbo speed. This causes major FPS drops (~90 to <30) and is very irritating. I have my power plan on high performance. I am using a laptop, and also have noticed high temps.

Specs:
i7 4710HQ
GTX 970M
16gb RAM
No external cooling

I have:
Reinstalled windows
Used throttlestop
Tried balanced power plan
Cleaning the inside of the laptop (although not thoroughly)
Reinstalled the games that I have low mhz on
Used XTP (settings back to normal currently)

 

[cookiemania66]

Use HWInfo or Coretemp to monitor how hot your CPU does get.
If it does reach 100 Degree C or even hotter then it will start to throttle no matter what until it cools back down

 

[unclewebb]

I wish when people said things like, "used ThrottleStop", that they would post a picture of how they had the program setup. This program will not fix anything if you do not know how to use it.

Did you disable the BD PROCHOT function on the main screen? That is the most likely cause of the 800 MHz blues.

 

[dariusjay.fox]

I have never actually reached 100C, although I have gotten close (97C), and when I used throttlestop I did disable BD PROCHOT.
But it seems whenever I reach I high temperature it will throttle even if it goes back down to a lower temp. The throttling doesn't really stop until I reach 60C again (that doesn't ever happen when i'm gaming, but when I'm using the internet it goes down.) I have also noticed after gaming my computers fans will continue to be very loud until I completely reboot my computer or wait something like 3 hours.

 

[unclewebb]

Still waiting to see how you have ThrottleStop setup. In the FIVR window, set the Non Turbo Ratio to 1. Are you doing any under volting yet? That can make a big difference.

Post a ThrottleStop picture while your CPU is throttling and make sure the Limit Reasons window is open in your picture.

 

[zebarjadi.raouf]

1. Replace the thermal paste with something better like AS5, Z9, etc. Should bring temps down by 10c+ if you haven't done so for some time.

2. Use a laptop cooler pad. Anything is better than nothing. This should bring it down by another 10c+. You shouldn't game without one. Unless you're sitting on snow.

3. Try lowering the CPU's power usage. Control Panel > Power Options > Change plan setting (the one your using) > change advanced power settings > processor power management > lower the max state till it becomes cool enough.

 

[dariusjay.fox]

The Non Turbo Ratio helped a bit, but didnt fix it
Also, I don't want to invest in laptop cooling because I am saving for a new computer.

Throttlestop:
https://imgur.com/a/QOlcbc6

 

[zebarjadi.raouf]

Also, I don't want to invest in laptop cooling because I am saving for a new computer.

Cooling solutions I listed shouldn't cost too much. I said anything decent is better than nothing. You can whip up something good with around 25$. If you're not going to upgrade in a month or two, consider getting them.

For example, Arctic Silver 5 is one of the most popular pastes on the market. And it costs 6$.

The Non Turbo Ratio helped a bit, but didnt fix it.

Don't play around too much with BIOS or throttlestop if you're not an expert at troubleshooting or fixing stuff. Unlike PC, bricking a laptop is quite easy when you mess around with them.

 

[unclewebb]

ThrottleStop Limit Reasons shows that PL1 is red. This confirms that the long term turbo power limit is the cause of throttling. Intel recommends to manufacturers that this limit should be set equal to the processor's rated TDP.

https://ark.intel.com/products/78930/Intel-Core-i7-4710HQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_50-GHz

The Core i7-4710HQ has a TDP rating of 47 Watts so something is very wrong here. ThrottleStop shows that your CPU is PL1 throttling even though power consumption is only 11.6 Watts.

Post a screenshot of the ThrottleStop TPL window. If that looks OK then I will show you another test so you can try to get to the bottom of this problem. There is either a problem with your bios or the Intel DPTF driver has set the PL1 power limit way below spec.

Your 11.6 Watt - 80°C screenshot shows that either your thermal paste needs to be replaced or the heatsink and fan in your laptop is completely inadequate.

Here is how a similar 4700MQ runs. Just a hint of thermal throttling at the end of the 256M TS Bench test. The paste has never been replaced. It pulls 54.0 Watts for the entire test without triggering PL1 or PL2 throttling.

 

[dariusjay.fox]

ThrottleStop Limit Reasons shows that PL1 is red. This confirms that the long term turbo power limit is the cause of throttling. Intel recommends to manufacturers that this limit should be set equal to the processor's rated TDP.

https://ark.intel.com/products/78930/Intel-Core-i7-4710HQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_50-GHz

The Core i7-4710HQ has a TDP rating of 47 Watts so something is very wrong here. ThrottleStop shows that your CPU is PL1 throttling even though power consumption is only 11.6 Watts.

Post a screenshot of the ThrottleStop TPL window. If that looks OK then I will show you another test so you can try to get to the bottom of this problem. There is either a problem with your bios or the Intel DPTF driver has set the PL1 power limit way below spec.

Your 11.6 Watt - 80°C screenshot shows that either your thermal paste needs to be replaced or the heatsink and fan in your laptop is completely inadequate.

Here is how a similar 4700MQ runs. Just a hint of thermal throttling at the end of the 256M TS Bench test. The paste has never been replaced. It pulls 54.0 Watts for the entire test without triggering PL1 or PL2 throttling.

https://imgur.com/a/wbgzaJ0

 

[unclewebb]

The main power limits look completely normal. There is a secondary set of turbo power limits and if you want to see what those are set to, you will need to use the RWEverything tool. It is free.

http://rweverything.com/

After you run it, click on the Memory Dump icon (third icon from the top left). This should open up the Memory window.

Click on the dword 32 bit button. In the Address box type in,

00000000FED15900

The MMIO power limits are at FED159A0 about half way down that page. Your screenshot should look something like this.

There might be a problem with the secondary power limits set in this memory location. A screenshot of RWEverything will help me get this figured out. If there is a problem, setting

FED159A0 to 00000000

and setting the one beside it

FED159A4 to 80000000

might help with the problem you are having.

 

[dariusjay.fox]

The main power limits look completely normal. There is a secondary set of turbo power limits and if you want to see what those are set to, you will need to use the RWEverything tool. It is free.

http://rweverything.com/

After you run it, click on the Memory Dump icon (third icon from the top left). This should open up the Memory window.

Click on the dword 32 bit button. In the Address box type in,

00000000FED15900

The MMIO power limits are at FED159A0 about half way down that page. Your screenshot should look something like this.

There might be a problem with the secondary power limits set in this memory location. A screenshot of RWEverything will help me get this figured out. If there is a problem, setting

FED159A0 to 00000000

and setting the one beside it

FED159A4 to 80000000

might help with the problem you are having.

https://imgur.com/a/UIwzhLz
Thank you so much for helping me, by the way.

 

[unclewebb]

Have a look at the screenshot I posted. In the box where it says
Address=00000000FED15900

Click on that box and enter in that exact value. There should be 8 zeros, followed by the letters FED, followed by the number 15900.
Your screenshot shows that you are looking at a totally different memory location. Post a new screenshot of that exact memory location.

 

[dariusjay.fox]

Have a look at the screenshot I posted. In the box where it says
Address=00000000FED15900

Click on that box and enter in that exact value. There should be 8 zeros, followed by the letters FED, followed by the number 15900.
Your screenshot shows that you are looking at a totally different memory location. Post a new screenshot of that exact memory location.

Sorry about that.
https://imgur.com/a/hRmremv

^ Sorry it is stretched, I play fortnite in 4:3 so I have to have my desktop stretched too

 

[unclewebb]

Your screenshot shows a problem. There are 2 values on line A0. Those are the long and short term turbo power limits.

It is very unusual to see that one of these power limits is set while the other limit is set to 0. They should either both be set or neither of them should be set. This is one obvious problem and this can be corrected but there might be other similar problems that are holding your CPU back.

Open up RWEverything and double click on the first value, 00018178, to edit it. Set this to 00000000 so it looks like the screenshot I posted above.

After that, double click on the value immediately to the right and open up the edit box. When done, you want it to look like this.

You can either double click on the highest bit, bit[31] to set it to 1, or you can enter 80 in the bottom box. It should show 80 00 00 00

You have to do these steps in order. Fix 00018178 first and then fix the one beside it. Bit[31] is called the lock bit so setting this bit will lock this power limit register at 0 so it will no longer be used until your next reboot.

Intel CPUs have multiple power limits stored in multiple places. If this one was set wrong by the manufacturer then there are likely others that are set wrong too. It is likely that fixing this one problem will not fix everything but you have to try something. For a quick test, open up the TS Bench and start a Normal, 8 Thread, 256M test. Open up the Limit Reasons box and watch to see what items light up in red. Also watch the CPU speed. Does the CPU multiplier originally start out high during this test and then drop down half way through the test or does it drop immediately? Be observant. Let me know anything you see that might give me a few more clues.

 

[dariusjay.fox]

I did the RWEverything thing, then I did a 256M 8 thread test. The CPU started at 3600MHz then "thermal" went red and it dropped to 3100 MHz. About 66% in, CORE POWER and GPU POWER went red, and the cpu speed locked at 2499 MHz until the end. Time was 56 seconds and the temps got up to 98C max.

 

[unclewebb]

Some progress. The only way to fix the thermal issue is to disassemble your laptop and replace the thermal paste. If it still overheats so easily then you have to become an engineer and dream up some new ways to improve cooling. The manufacturer did not put enough thought into their design. Some users have had to rework the bottom of their case to allow more air to get to the fan as well as prop up the back of the laptop.

How is actual gaming? 2500 MHz is a lot better than 800 MHz. Any improvements with your RWE settings?

 

[dariusjay.fox]

Yes, the gaming is improved, but not by much. It runs about 50 frames, but if I leave my computer on overnight or while I'm at school it will drop down because the temp is high. But I will also definitely look into replacing the thermal paste. Thanks!