Intel core i5-4210u 1.7ghz will only run at 0.8ghz

[damien.e.byrne]

Recently I noticed the performance of my laptop drop off a cliff and I had no idea why. I noticed the CPU speed is set to 0.8 ghz when it is a 1.7 ghz processor. I have no idea why it is set at that and I can't get it to change. I have run intels processor diagnostics tool and it passed all the tests and have done an XTU stress test for an hour and the CPU temperature only reached 59 degrees Celsius and reported 0% thermal throttling. I'm completely at a loss as to why it is stuck at 0.8 ghz. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[damien.e.byrne]

Establish the scope of the issue.

I'm still going to again recommend that you create a USB bootable flashdrive of the Intel diags and Memtest86. Check the Frequency changes when plugging in and just running off the battery. You really need to know if this is related to just hardware, or it's a Windows setting gone bonkers.

https://imgur.com/a/5QnveNa This is the Memtest86 result from the bootable drive. I'm not sure what this says about the issue or if it says anything at all.

 

[R0GG]

Nothing changed when I did this, is there anything else you can think of ?

I just applied it to a windows 10 laptop and it worked, you should have the option to adding custom plan now available, try to create one and to check if new settings are accessible within.

 

[damien.e.byrne]

Nothing changed when I did this, is there anything else you can think of ?

I just applied it to a windows 10 laptop and it worked, you should have the option to adding custom plan now available, try to create one and to check if new settings are accessible within.

No luck with this, I can create custom plans but it still has all the same setting options as before.

 

[damien.e.byrne]

Establish the scope of the issue.

I'm still going to again recommend that you create a USB bootable flashdrive of the Intel diags and Memtest86. Check the Frequency changes when plugging in and just running off the battery. You really need to know if this is related to just hardware, or it's a Windows setting gone bonkers.

Due to the results of all the tests and the fact that it runs at around 2.2 Ghz when it starts up or comes back from sleep suggests to me that it isn't a hardware issue and that some setting is definitely causing it to throttle or am I wrong in that conclusion ?

 

[stdragon]

Establish the scope of the issue.

I'm still going to again recommend that you create a USB bootable flashdrive of the Intel diags and Memtest86. Check the Frequency changes when plugging in and just running off the battery. You really need to know if this is related to just hardware, or it's a Windows setting gone bonkers.

Due to the results of all the tests and the fact that it runs at around 2.2 Ghz when it starts up or comes back from sleep suggests to me that it isn't a hardware issue and that some setting is definitely causing it to throttle or am I wrong in that conclusion ?

Exactly! That was the entire point; to verify whether or not this happening in all OS environments (meaning it's something fundamentally wrong with the hardware, or isolated to Windows.

Ok, so all indications now point to Windows or rather, something running in Windows causing the issue.

Being that you've already attempted various power management profiles and registry changes (and that should have fixed it), I'm thinking the problem might be caused by some other 3rd party power management utility. Have you checked the list of installed programs that might be causing the issue? Perhaps some HP utility? See if you can correlate about when you noticed this issue, and when the software was installed or updated based on the installation time in Program and Features list found in the Control Panel. It's possible some application or utility updated itself and there was a bug in it.

 

[R0GG]

Exactly, I am suspecting also some utility overriding registry settings on his laptop: changing Csenabled value to 0 should have granted him access to CPU power management and CPU clocks in every single power plan settings, where he could force his CPU not to throttle even in power saving mode!
Definitely should be some " house app" from laptop manufacturer lurking in the background forcing it's own power settings on windows, but the successful registry mod not able to update power plan settings is really strange.

 

[damien.e.byrne]

Exactly, I am suspecting also some utility overriding registry settings on his laptop: changing Csenabled value to 0 should have granted him access to CPU power management and CPU clocks in every single power plan settings, where he could force his CPU not to throttle even in power saving mode!
Definitely should be some " house app" from laptop manufacturer lurking in the background forcing it's own power settings on windows, but the successful registry mod not able to update power plan settings is really strange.

So because I did a clean install of windows, my program list was populated by only a few programs. I decided to have a look through the list of active processes for anything untoward and I saw that superfetch was using about 5-6% cpu capacity which i thought was a bit high. Now I don't know anything about it but I disabled it anyway and so far I haven't dropped CPU speed for about 30 minutes now. I will update if it comes back but it looks promising.
Nevermind I tried to load up a game and it immediately dropped to 0.8 again.

 

[R0GG]

try to check windows gaming app and xbox app whether they have full screen optimization enabled.

 

[damien.e.byrne]

So I've done some more testing and now I notice that I can maintain a speed of around 2.5 ghz for a while until cpu utilisation reaches 100% at which point it throttles down to 0.8 ghz and stays there. Is there any specific settings or programs that would cause this ?

 

[R0GG]

that is a sign of either some very probable thermo-throttling or power throttling if system is on battery and switching power plan when reaching some battery charge threshold. You can monitor all these events and so more testing using Intel tune up utility.

 

[damien.e.byrne]

that is a sign of either some very probable thermo-throttling or power throttling if system is on battery and switching power plan when reaching some battery charge threshold. You can monitor all these events and so more testing using Intel tune up utility.

So I did some more testing using XTU as I wanted to see the exact moment it dropped to 0.8 ghz and at that moment each time the thermal throttling notification flashed yellow and on for a split second. It is very quick so that is why I had never seen it before. However the package temperature each time I did this was between 51 and 53 degrees celcius which is surely way too low for thermal throttling. Do you think there may be a sensor error or something like that ? Thank you for all your help so far by the way.

 

[stdragon]

You've had this Laptop for several years, yes? When you're maxing out the CPU to 100%, do the fans kick in at maximum speed? If so, that could be a sign that the CPU can't stay cool enough.

You might need to clear the heat-sink exhaust vent of dust buildup. Using a can of compressed air, use short but quick bursts to dislodge any buildup that might be in there. Usually you will find a plume of dust exit the laptop when you do this. Do not use a continuous blowing of compressed air as it might damage the fan from high RPM. It's not a turbo charger 😉

 

[R0GG]

Pair a good undusting cleaning of your laptop fan with a nice quality fanned metalic cooling pad, game or heavily use your laptop only if plugged in with battery at 100% already as to minimize heat production from battery while charging when gaming and you probably won't see your CPU throttling again at 50 degrees.

 

[genz]

open command prompt as admin.

Type sfc /scannow

This will verify that there are no corrupt windows dlls causing this by hashing your Windows install.

If that doesn't fix it after a restart, get MSI afterburner and verify that your GPU is not throttling. If this is the case and you have a laptop, powermanagment can be linked between the two by the manufacturer (to stop a hot GPU causing a CPU to overheat next to it or on the same heatpipe). If it's the case you'll need a cleanup of your fans at the local tech shop and a fan lap cooler for gaming sessions (peanuts on ebay).

 

[unclewebb]

Did you use ThrottleStop to disable BD PROCHOT yet? This throttling method is the most likely reason for drops to 800 MHz. Intel XTU does not let you access this option.

Run Limit Reasons. You are likely going to see BD PROCHOT light up in red when your CPU drops to 800 MHz.

 

[damien.e.byrne]

So I tried everything you guys suggested and still could not get it to stop throttling. I bit the bullet and took it in to a repair shop and they took the laptop apart and cleaned and reseated the processor fan. It seems to have fixed the problem. The repair technician reckoned that the thermal compound on the fan had cracked and was unseating it. Thanks for all the help in any case.

 

[R0GG]

Good call, thanks for the feedback.

 

[vin.marfaing]

Recently I noticed the performance of my laptop drop off a cliff and I had no idea why. I noticed the CPU speed is set to 0.8 ghz when it is a 1.7 ghz processor. I have no idea why it is set at that and I can't get it to change. I have run intels processor diagnostics tool and it passed all the tests and have done an XTU stress test for an hour and the CPU temperature only reached 59 degrees Celsius and reported 0% thermal throttling. I'm completely at a loss as to why it is stuck at 0.8 ghz. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Since I had the same problem and found an easy solution. I just had to unplug and replug the power adapter. Maybe this will help someone. Answer found on:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-performance/processor-maximum-speed-locked-at-076-ghz Page 6 Answer from KarelRemeš.