Massive drop in CPU speed when switching from plugged in to battery during gaming

[nisbaj]

I've got a HP g4 laptop with Intel i5 3230m 2.6GHz, 4GB DDR3 RAM and AMD Switchable Graphics combination of AMD Radeon HD 7670m and Intel HD 4000. Lately I've noticed that there is a huge drop in CPU speed when, say there is a power cutoff during gaming. When plugged in to power supply, the CPU works fine and games run with a solid 60fps but if the power supply is cutoff, after a few seconds, the frame rate drops to 2fps and the sound becomes jarred. At this point, the cpu speed in task manager shows 0.16GHz (the usage is still ~6% though) and the entire system slows down, and becomes almost unresponsive.

To confirm that it is a on battery issue, I did this : I started a game (Skyrim) and played it plugged in for a while, then I removed the charger and sure enough, the problem started. Then I reconnected the charger and no more problem. The game went from completely unplayable to completely fine.

I'm wondering if this is simply a cpu problem or is it more gpu related. Maybe the gpu just shuts off? The drivers as of this post are Catalyst 15.4 beta. I've tried changing the options in catalyst control center and intel graphics control center by choosing best performance on battery in power settings. I've also reviewed the windows power plan policy to see if anything there is giving this problem.

I've had this laptop for 1.5 years now and it is starting to have slight overheating problems also. I have cleaned the fans and it has helped slightly but it does overheat after long usage. Could the problem be related to the overheating? I am planning to but a laptop cooling pad soon.

I haven't had any problem with the battery. On purchase, the battery lasted 4.5 hrs on power saver plan and now it lasts a good 4 hrs.

Is my problem hardware related or a driver issue? Or a combination of both?

I don't play games on battery but my area has frequent power cutoffs and so during gaming, this problem is expected. I don't want to ignore this and let this do more damage to the system.

I haven't decided if I should do a fresh reinstall of the os (Win 8.1) to see if that helps. If need be, I might try that.

Any idea as to what the problem might be? Any solution to this?

 

[bjsm]

Go to power options, choose the plan you are using, choose change plan settings, go to advanced options. Find processor power management make sure you set it right (put the minimum at 100%). Also when gaming you should use optimal performance mode and set your cpu to work at 100% even on battery or plugged in.

Let us know

 

[utgotye]

FYI, this will turn a 3-4 hour charge into 60 - 90 minutes on most 3/4 cell lion batteries.

 

[nisbaj]

Go to power options, choose the plan you are using, choose change plan settings, go to advanced options. Find processor power management make sure you set it right. Also we gaming you should use optimal performance mode and set your cpu to work at 100% even on battery or plugged in.

Let us know

I looked into that and saw three options, Minimum State, Cooling Policy and Maximum State each having plugged in and battery options. The minimum state were set to 5% for both, and maximum state were set to 100% for both. In the cooling policy though, i found that cooling was set to active in plugged in and passive in battery. After setting both to active, i started a game and on battery, the problem did go away. I'm not completely convinced yet, I'll try on a few other game and see if the problem is really gone.

But as of yet, thanks for the help.

 

[bjsm]

Go to power options, choose the plan you are using, choose change plan settings, go to advanced options. Find processor power management make sure you set it right. Also we gaming you should use optimal performance mode and set your cpu to work at 100% even on battery or plugged in.

Let us know

I looked into that and saw three options, Minimum State, Cooling Policy and Maximum State each having plugged in and battery options. The minimum state were set to 5% for both, and maximum state were set to 100% for both. In the cooling policy though, i found that cooling was set to active in plugged in and passive in battery. After setting both to active, i started a game and on battery, the problem did go away. I'm not completely convinced yet, I'll try on a few other game and see if the problem is really gone.

But as of yet, thanks for the help.

Try setting the minimum to 100%

 

[nisbaj]

FYI, this will turn a 3-4 hour char into 60 - 90 minutes on most 3/4 cell lion batteries.

I don't understand what you're trying to say.

 

[bjsm]

If you use the optimal perfomance option and set the processor to 100% it will shorten your battery life while on battery. This is what hes saying

 

[nisbaj]

If you use the optimal perfomance option and set the processor to 100% it will shorten your battery life while on battery. This is what hes saying

Most of the time, I use it in the default power saver plan. I use the high performance and balanced plans only when gaming. When on battery, I'm always in power saver mode and i also close most background processes to maximize battery. Battery life isn't a problem, atleast not yet. Also I don't plan on gaming while on battery so no worries there. Even before the problem started, when power cutoff during gaming, i'd usually just close the game.