i7 4790 (non-K) running at full Clock speed almost all the time

[79]

Hi,

I have a problem with i7 4790 (non-K) running at full Clock speed almost all the, even on Idle, or when CPU usage is around 1%

I have to mention that i did recently change a PSU and after that noticed this "issue".

Currently almost all cores are runnung around 4.0 Ghz ( guess that the turbo boost is on) at idle which is even more than when stress tested (around 3.8, 3.9 Ghz)

Power plan is set to Balanced and even after experimenting with C-modes in BIOS i did not found a soluition

Here is the screenshot of the "issue" from the Sys stabiltiy test of AIDA64:
https://i.imgflip.com/1am49z.jpg

 

[Decends]

What motherboard do you have, and do you have the XMP (eXtreme Memory Profile) activated?

 

[79]

ASRock H97 Pro4.

Yes XMP profile is activated

 

[Decends]

ASRock H97 Pro4.

Yes XMP profile is activated

Try searching for a feature somewhere along the line of "Enhanced Turbo Core" or something of that nature. By default there is a setting like that in some motherboards that is automatically switched on when XMP is. When that feature is activated, it makes all the cores turbo close to max turbo instead of 1 core. I'm not 100% certain since your's is a H97 which usually doesn't have OC settings.

 

[79]

ASRock H97 Pro4.

Yes XMP profile is activated

Try searching for a feature somewhere along the line of "Enhanced Turbo Core" or something of that nature. By default there is a setting like that in some motherboards that is automatically switched on when XMP is. When that feature is activated, it makes all the cores turbo close to max turbo instead of 1 core. I'm not 100% certain since your's is a H97 which usually doesn't have OC settings.

Yea the H97 MoBo does not have the OC settings available and i could not found any similar option like Enhanced Turbo Core

 

[panathas]

Try updating the BIOS if there is a newer version. If that doesn't work or if you have the latest version, try resetting the CMOS. Also even though you have balanced power plan enabled try using the power saver plan. If that works maybe a wrong option has been enabled in the balanced setting and you have to check all the available options and settings in the balanced power plan and find out which one is responsible.

 

[79]

Try updating the BIOS if there is a newer version. If that doesn't work or if you have the latest version, try resetting the CMOS. Also even though you have balanced power plan enabled try using the power saver plan. If that works maybe a wrong option has been enabled in the balanced setting and you have to check all the available options and settings in the balanced power plan and find out which one is responsible.

After I change the power plan to "Power Saver" all CPU clocks fall immediately to cca 800 Mhz.
Switching back to "Balanced" the opposite, CPU clocks are then cca 4 GHz.

So I guess, checking all the available options and settings in the balanced power and comparing them to the power saver will find me a solution.
Thanks, I Will Repost when i find a definite conclusion


EDIT: I have copied the every exact same setting from the "Power saver" to the "Balanced" one as a test, and the issue is still the same :/ , the clocks do not drop below cca 4 GHz

 

[panathas]

As I said previously try updating the BIOS and if that doesn't work try resetting the CMOS. As for the balanced power settings, go to its options and try finding Processor Power Management. There in the minimum processor state the setting must be 5%. If it is indeed 5% then something else may be happening. If all the above fail, try reinstalling the motherboard chipset's driver. You can find the latest version at the ASRock's site. There you'll also find the latest BIOS version as well.

 

[79]

As I said previously try updating the BIOS and if that doesn't work try resetting the CMOS. As for the balanced power settings, go to its options and try finding Processor Power Management. There in the minimum processor state the setting must be 5%. If it is indeed 5% then something else may be happening. If all the above fail, try reinstalling the motherboard chipset's driver. You can find the latest version at the ASRock's site. There you'll also find the latest BIOS version as well.

Unfortunately, it did not help.
I did a BIOS update to the newest version for my MoBo and reseted CMOS,
The min setting of balanced power option is set to 5%.

As you can see from the screenshot, the clock speed falls in certain occasions but keeps holding on the full speed most of the time: https://i.imgflip.com/1an1va.jpg

 

[panathas]

What's your CPU usage in idle? Are you sure that you don't have a program or background activity causing this? Have you reinstalled chipset drivers? Maybe something is going on with ACPI or a registry setting somehow got corrupt so reinstall every chipset driver you can find at ASRock's website.

You said you installed a new PSU? Why? Was the previous one defective? Are you sure that the new one is haswell ready? What's the model? Do you still have the old one? You could try reinstalling the old one and finding out if the PSU is indeed responsible for this odd CPU behaviour.

If all else fail you have to get into your BIOS and check every setting available one by one. You have to make sure that you know what each setting does. It's not difficult and most settings must have a description. You could also consult your manual. Likely since your board doesn't allow overclocking it should have fewer available settings and options. Some boards even the ones with no overclocking options, have settings that allow the CPU to work at max turbo boost all the time, regardless what the actual load is. Your board must have such an option which is not considered actual overclocking since it just keeps the turbo boost on all the time, find it. As someone else said, some boards connect this option with XMP, perhaps you could try disabling XMP as a test and see what happens. Finally check the power management section in your BIOS and make sure that all the power saving option and states of your CPU/board are enabled.

As a final note, balanced power and power saver options in windows power management don't have a big difference especially in desktop PCs. In laptops it's an entire different story. If you can't find a solution, maybe you could enable the power saver option and customise some for its settings according to your needs. Good luck.

 

[Khaleal]

Try resetting BIOS settings and see if that helps.

 

[79]

What's your CPU usage in idle? Are you sure that you don't have a program or background activity causing this? Have you reinstalled chipset drivers? Maybe something is going on with ACPI or a registry setting somehow got corrupt so reinstall every chipset driver you can find at ASRock's website.

You said you installed a new PSU? Why? Was the previous one defective? Are you sure that the new one is haswell ready? What's the model? Do you still have the old one? You could try reinstalling the old one and finding out if the PSU is indeed responsible for this odd CPU behaviour.

If all else fail you have to get into your BIOS and check every setting available one by one. You have to make sure that you know what each setting does. It's not difficult and most settings must have a description. You could also consult your manual. Likely since your board doesn't allow overclocking it should have fewer available settings and options. Some boards even the ones with no overclocking options, have settings that allow the CPU to work at max turbo boost all the time, regardless what the actual load is. Your board must have such an option which is not considered actual overclocking since it just keeps the turbo boost on all the time, find it. As someone else said, some boards connect this option with XMP, perhaps you could try disabling XMP as a test and see what happens. Finally check the power management section in your BIOS and make sure that all the power saving option and states of your CPU/board are enabled.

As a final note, balanced power and power saver options in windows power management don't have a big difference especially in desktop PCs. In laptops it's an entire different story. If you can't find a solution, maybe you could enable the power saver option and customise some for its settings according to your needs. Good luck.

My CPU usage at idle has been before this issue 800 Mhz (which is also the minimum setting in BIOS the CPU can go down). Since this issue appeared it is always 4 Ghz, even at idle.

The only thing reamining is the MoBo Chipset driver reinstallation, but since i have small experience with this i will need to take some researching before.

The previous PSU was Coolermaster B600 ver.2 and it was functioning very good, but i had the opportunity to buy the Antec EDG 650 (haswell ready and in Tier 2 of Tom's hardware big psu list) modular psu , so i did and notice this issue after it.

The last thing i did was changed the CPU connector on my PSU from rail 12V1 to 12V2 to even try remove this option. Issue still the same

I have tried disabling XMP, loading deafults, enabling-then disabling all C power saving option states in BIOS.
I tried even disabling Turbo Boost, and guess what, issue stayed the same but without the additional 400 Mhz, so all clocks were always at 3.6 Ghz (stock speed) at Idle all the time..

I will try to put back the old PSU and figure out is that the reason for the issue.
If that does not solve the case then, as you mentioned, either Power save mode will have to do, or reinstalling windows !

 

[panathas]

Of course you could always reinstall windows, if it is really a windows issue. But what happens if it isn't? Also you always want to avoid all the windows/program reinstalling hassle and only leave it as a last resort.

It's not difficult to install chipset and motherboard drivers. It's a lot easier than BIOS updating. You just download them from your motherboard's page at ASRock's site and then you do the installation. Fox example I just checked the windows 7 64bit download page (if you have other OS, choose accordingly) http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H97%20Pro4/?cat=Download&os=Win764. There you should download everything that you need. The versions you may have on your system maybe a lot older than those on the site so they may help with future issues. You just download and install them one by one. They will automatically replace the previous versions. Just don't install the vga drivers if you are using a PCIE GPU and the sound drivers if you are using an extenral sound card etc.

Below drivers are utilities and you may need some of them. Checking utilities I just show ASRock A-Tuning. Do you have this installed or any other similar utility on your system. Check your taskbar. This utility has settings that can bypass windows power plan configuration and cause that CPU behaviour. If you have such a utility running you should check its settings. An easy way to find out if this is caused by random software is to disable all programs starting automatically with windows through the msconfig utility. If that fixes the issue then it's definitely software related and not driver, windows or BIOS related. Just make sure you have the proper power savings settings and CPU C-states always enabled in the BIOS though. You may somehow fix the issue but never realise it.

 

[79]

Of course you could always reinstall windows, if it is really a windows issue. But what happens if it isn't? Also you always want to avoid all the windows/program reinstalling hassle and only leave it as a last resort.

It's not difficult to install chipset and motherboard drivers. It's a lot easier than BIOS updating. You just download them from your motherboard's page at ASRock's site and then you do the installation. Fox example I just checked the windows 7 64bit download page (if you have other OS, choose accordingly) http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H97%20Pro4/?cat=Download&os=Win764. There you should download everything that you need. The versions you may have on your system maybe a lot older than those on the site so they may help with future issues. You just download and install them one by one. They will automatically replace the previous versions. Just don't install the vga drivers if you are using a PCIE GPU and the sound drivers if you are using an extenral sound card etc.

Below drivers are utilities and you may need some of them. Checking utilities I just show ASRock A-Tuning. Do you have this installed or any other similar utility on your system. Check your taskbar. This utility has settings that can bypass windows power plan configuration and cause that CPU behaviour. If you have such a utility running you should check its settings. An easy way to find out if this is caused by random software is to disable all programs starting automatically with windows through the msconfig utility. If that fixes the issue then it's definitely software related and not driver, windows or BIOS related. Just make sure you have the proper power savings settings and CPU C-states always enabled in the BIOS though. You may somehow fix the issue but never realise it.

I have updated all applicable Chipsets for my MoBo (except audio and VGA per your instruction).
Regarding utilites, i do not have a single one installed, including the ASRock A-Tuning, even knowing this i have tried to disable all non-microsoft software via msconfig as a test and nothing helped

I do want to thank You for your constructive help and tips, but unfortunately i think i am giving up a little on this after all these attempts and it looks like that the windows reinstallation is the only thing left

 

[panathas]

I'm sorry that I couldn't help you any further. You can always use the power saver mode as a temporary solution and see how it goes. If you are not happy with it, then you can proceed with the windows re-installation. Good luck.