[SOLVED] Why is my cpu clock stuck at 0.79 GHz?

irsssonnn · Oct 9, 2021

I am using a dell Inspiron 15 3251 laptop and experiencing some lag recently while doing simple tasks like playing YouTube video( video itself plays normally but the player interface is somewhat unresponsive). Also, while doing these the CPU usage not much(30-40%) but i am experiencing a kind of lag that i would get on 80% CPU usage. And, Minecraft which was running at 30-35 fps suddenly decides to run at 0-5fps.
i collected some data from monitoring software and based on it the issue might be related with CPU. The Intel i3-3217U is rated 1.80Ghz but in the hwmonitor the max clock speed shows798 MHz and it is kind of locked at that(doesn't decrease or fluctuate). Task manager shows the same clock speed. Moreover, the task manager shows different CPU usage(30-40%) than the hwmonitor (high usage 80-100%) while doing normal tasks. The cpuid also only shows 798 MHz. Somehow the CPU clock is being decreased and set to a constant speed that is half of original speed??
On top of these issues, the hwinfo app tells that integrated GPU not using physical PCIe bus or currently disabled because other GPU is enabled.
Also, I performedbenchmark test but the whole time i didn't the CPU usage rise up as it should(it didn't even reach 40%).
I installed throttlestop but didn't actually touch anything. I also did the balanced power plan setting and it was already 100% minimum is 5%.
I am really lost and don't know what I should do it.
Please help!!
Specs:
CPU: Intel i3-3217U @ 1.8 GHz
Ram: 16 GB ddr3 1600 MHz (2x8gb)
GPU: Intel HD 4000
storage: Crucial ssd 500gb SATA 2.5 in
data collected:

https://imgur.com/LkGI1Al

View: https://imgur.com/LkGI1Al

https://imgur.com/NC4Dq6u

View: https://imgur.com/NC4Dq6u

https://imgur.com/aMls1wx

View: https://imgur.com/aMls1wx

https://imgur.com/ygtAxYL

View: https://imgur.com/ygtAxYL

https://imgur.com/fcpCuU3

View: https://imgur.com/fcpCuU3

https://imgur.com/7DWssXG

View: https://imgur.com/7DWssXG

sizzling · Oct 9, 2021

Is Windows power plan set to balanced or high performance? If no try high performance.

irsssonnn · Oct 9, 2021

sizzling said:
Is Windows power plan set to balanced or high performance? If no try high performance.

I actually set maximum processor power to 100 % in balanced. Also, there is no option for high performance or power saver there is only balanced. I maybe because I don't have any battery in my laptop(AC power).

sizzling · Oct 9, 2021

irsssonnn said:
I actually set maximum processor power to 100 % in balanced. Also, there is no option for high performance or power saver there is only balanced. I maybe because I don't have any battery in my laptop(AC power).

I expect not having a battery in the laptop may have something to do with this. It could be defaulting to a low power state.

irsssonnn · Oct 9, 2021

sizzling said:
I expect not having a battery in the laptop may have something to do with this. It could be defaulting to a low power state.

It could be but why suddenly though? I have using it without battery for upto 2 years but problem didn't occur before.

sizzling · Oct 9, 2021

irsssonnn said:
It could be but why suddenly though? I have using it without battery for upto 2 years but problem didn't occur before.

In which case probably not that unless you have recently updated the BIOS. At this point I’d try resetting the BIOS to default settings, if that doesn’t work I’d do a fresh install of Windows to rule out a software problem.

uWebb429 · Oct 9, 2021

@irsssonnn - Your question was answered on Linus Tech Tips but I will answer it again here so others will know how to fix this common Dell problem.

ThrottleStop clearly shows BD PROCHOT throttling. This type of throttling in Dell laptops is almost always caused by the power adapter. If you are using a Dell power adapter, there is a little switch inside that tells your computer that it is a Dell power adapter and this cheap little switch has failed.

If you are not using a Dell power adapter then this switch does not exist so your laptop goes into full throttling mode.

Solution - Clear the BD PROCHOT check box in ThrottleStop. Here is a guide so you can add ThrottleStop to your Windows startup sequence and forget about this problem.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-throttlestop-guide.531329/#post-6865107

irsssonnn · Oct 9, 2021

sizzling said:
In which case probably not that unless you have recently updated the BIOS. At this point I’d try resetting the BIOS to default settings, if that doesn’t work I’d do a fresh install of Windows to rule out a software problem.

Thank you for your time.
I got the possible solution and i will try it out. Hopefully, it will work.
Thank you.

irsssonnn · Oct 9, 2021

uWebb429 said:
@irsssonnn - Your question was answered on Linus Tech Tips but I will answer it again here so others will know how to fix this common Dell problem.

ThrottleStop clearly shows BD PROCHOT throttling. This type of throttling in Dell laptops is almost always caused by the power adapter. If you are using a Dell power adapter, there is a little switch inside that tells your computer that it is a Dell power adapter and this cheap little switch has failed.

If you are not using a Dell power adapter then this switch does not exist so your laptop goes into full throttling mode.

Solution - Clear the BD PROCHOT check box in ThrottleStop. Here is a guide so you can add ThrottleStop to your Windows startup sequence and forget about this problem.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-throttlestop-guide.531329/#post-6865107

Thank your for your time. I'm sorry if it was a bother but I posted on multiple forums so that it would go unnoticed. Again, thank you for providing the solution. I will try this out and hopefully it will work.

sizzling · Oct 9, 2021

irsssonnn said:
Thank you for your time.
I got the possible solution and i will try it out. Hopefully, it will work.
Thank you.

What was the solution?

mdd1963 · Oct 9, 2021

I've seen more than one laptop sit stuck at ~800 MHz before installing assorted chipset specific drivers...

LeviTech · Oct 9, 2021

irsssonnn said:
Thank your for your time. I'm sorry if it was a bother but I posted on multiple forums so that it would go unnoticed. Again, thank you for providing the solution. I will try this out and hopefully it will work.

It worked? Let us know to gain more info in this tech world.

irsssonnn · Oct 9, 2021

MangaTech said:
It worked? Let us know to gain more info in this tech world.

As soon as I unchecked BD PROCHOT the reading showed 1780/90 MHz in both cpuz and task manager. I then setup throttlestop in task scheduler to start up. Thank you everyone for your help.
Also, i am concerned about the pkg power in the throttlestop which shows around 7-8 W. Is it normal i thought cpu power would be somewhat like 40-60W. Is there anything else wrong in the throttlestop app??

sizzling · Oct 9, 2021

irsssonnn said:
As soon as I unchecked BD PROCHOT the reading showed 1780/90 MHz in both cpuz and task manager. I then setup throttlestop in task scheduler to start up. Thank you everyone for your help.
Also, i am concerned about the pkg power in the throttlestop which shows around 7-8 W. Is it normal i thought cpu power would be somewhat like 40-60W. Is there anything else wrong in the throttlestop app??

Are you saying ThrottleStop allowed the cpu to run at 1.8GHz? If correct I don’t know how but something is wrong, you should not need ThrottleStop to allow a cpu to run at the correct speed. This might suggest ThrottleStop is overriding some power/heat protection.

As for wattage the cpu has a TDP of 17w, it’s a low power cpu. While TDP is different to the power it will use it gives a roughly idea.

uWebb429 · Oct 9, 2021

irsssonnn said:
power would be somewhat like 40-60W

The 3317U has a 17W TDP rating. It does not use Intel Turbo boost so not a chance it will ever need 40W to 60W to run at full speed. These CPUs are very efficient. The maximum CPU multiplier is 18.00. ThrottleStop should show this while the CPU is loaded running a stress test.

18.00 x 99.77 MHz = 1796 MHz

As long as your CPU is able to run at its full rated speed, power consumption does not matter.

irsssonnn said:
Is there anything else wrong

Probably not. Post a screenshot of ThrottleStop while the CPU is loaded so everyone can see that your computer is fixed now.

sizzling said:
you should not need ThrottleStop to allow a cpu to run at the correct speed.

The only possible way to fix this problem is to use ThrottleStop to disable the BD PROCHOT signal path.

Dell power adapters send a signal back to the computer that lets the computer know that the user is using a Genuine Dell OEM power adapter. This works great until this switch inside the power adapter fails. Then it starts incorrectly telling the computer that the user is no longer using a Dell power adapter. The computer has been programed to slow down to its minimum speed, 798 MHz, when this happens.

As a user, you can run out and buy a new power adapter. That might solve the problem for 6 months or a year but it is very likely that this problem will happen over and over again. It gets expensive having to replace perfectly good power adapters that are still quite capable of fully powering a laptop.

Using ThrottleStop to disable the BD PROCHOT signal path has been used to solve many different throttling problems. MSI desktop boards have a similar switch that fails, usually after the warranty is over. It is either throw the board in the garbage or fix it by using ThrottleStop. Easy choice for most people.

sizzling said:
ThrottleStop is overriding some power/heat protection.

When an Intel CPU gets too hot, it will thermal throttle and slow down to protect itself against any damage whether BD PROCHOT is enabled or disabled. I have never once heard about any damage from disabling BD PROCHOT. Most users are extremely happy that they can finally run their computer at its rated speed. BD PROCHOT throttling was a horrible idea that many manufacturers misused.

irsssonnn · Oct 9, 2021

sizzling said:
What was the solution?

unchecking the BD PROCHOT box in throttlestop.

irsssonnn · Oct 9, 2021

sizzling said:
Are you saying ThrottleStop allowed the cpu to run at 1.8GHz? If correct I don’t know how but something is wrong, you should not need ThrottleStop to allow a cpu to run at the correct speed. This might suggest ThrottleStop is overriding some power/heat protection.

As for wattage the cpu has a TDP of 17w, it’s a low power cpu. While TDP is different to the power it will use it gives a roughly idea.

I see. Thanks for the info.

irsssonnn · Oct 9, 2021

uWebb429 said:
Post a screenshot of ThrottleStop while the CPU is loaded so everyone can see that your computer is fixed now.

Thank you everyone for your support. My clock speed now reaches 1780/90 MHz after applying the solution.
These are the readings currently:

https://imgur.com/7fVPZjW