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Joined on 05/13/2007
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Speedstep Problem

04 Aug 2007 12:30AM
Okay here goes: I think I'm having serious issues with Speedstep.  My current laptop is a Dell Inspiron 600m using an Intel Centrino Mobile processor, which obviously has Speedstep.  It came default from the factory with Speedstep enabled in BIOS.  A few months ago I started having a problem, while gaming or anything CPU intensive, where my CPU load jumped and stayed at 100% while the frequency lowered along with the voltage.
 
Normally, according to CPU-Z, my Core Speed is 2.0 GHZ with Speedstep enabled.  With Speedstep disabled the Core Speed is stuck at 600 MHz.  The problem thus lies in I need to keep Speedstep enabled for gaming.
 
Now my problem that exists is every so often after being under load (even ~30% load will do it) the Core Speed drops to 600 MHz and the system becomes unusable for a few minutes till the Core Speed returns to 2.0 GHz.  I've done a lot of research on Speedstep and have tried various things:
1.) taken out the battery completely while running on AC
2.) every single power management setting that the laptop has
3.) made sure there were no "power saving" options enabled in BIOS
 
And probably a few other things.  Regardless, I still get the problem.  I know how Speedstep works and totally understand it; however, why is it dropping my Core Speed while the CPU is in the middle of gaming and under load?
 
How can I get it repaired?  Dell technical support has yet to find a solution.
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15 Replies:

Joined on 10/21/2004
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Re: Speedstep Problem

05 Aug 2007 12:23PM
when gaming with a laptop it is not recommended that you keep Speedstep enabled since speed step is a battery savings device when your system is unplugged and not suitable for any kind of 3D gaming.
 
To disable Speedstep: Right click upon desktop> select properties> select screen saver> select power> in the power schemes drop down box select Home/Office Desk> select apply then OK and close the property box> reboot your system and when you have returned to your desktop Speed step will have been disabled allowing you the frequency that was built into your CPU.


Message Edited by fiber4now on 08-05-2007 07:32 AM
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Joined on 05/13/2007
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Re: Speedstep Problem

05 Aug 2007 02:37PM
I know it's a battery saving feature, but something is wrong.  Regardless, I don't game on my battery and this problem happens when I'm running on pure AC power... without the battery even in the system.
 
Disabling Speedstep forces my laptop to run at 600 MHz (instead of 2.0 GHz with it on); that's unacceptable.
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Joined on 12/06/2002
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Re: Speedstep Problem

06 Aug 2007 12:02AM

Use Speedswitch XP and force ON FAST ALL THE TIME NO SLEEP for battery or for powered.

http://www.diefer.de/speedswitchxp/index.html

With Vista I have no idea what you do.



Message Edited by SpeedStep on 08-05-2007 08:02 PM
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Texas
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Re: Speedstep Problem

06 Aug 2007 04:14PM

kojak488 wrote:

 
Disabling Speedstep forces my laptop to run at 600 MHz (instead of 2.0 GHz with it on); that's unacceptable.

 Disabling speedstep in the bios will cause the CPU to revert to its lowest setting. Use power management in the OS as fiber4now said if you want to stop it from throttling down.

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South Jersey
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Re: Speedstep Problem

06 Aug 2007 06:25PM
Is there a way to do the same with a C2D based XPS 410 ?
 
I have already tried using the described method, and spent some time on the phone with tech support.
 

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Re: Speedstep Problem

06 Aug 2007 08:42PM

contrvlr wrote:
Is there a way to do the same with a C2D based XPS 410 ?
 
I have already tried using the described method, and spent some time on the phone with tech support.
 


 What exactly is it doing and what problem is it causing?

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South Jersey
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Re: Speedstep Problem

06 Aug 2007 09:29PM
I have the same problem, where EIST is keeping my 2.13 running at 1.6 , and none of the power settings do anything to keep it at a constant 2.13. After an hour on the phone with tech support the problem was not resolved and the tech promised to research it and get back to me, that was last Tuesday and still no return call.
The power settings change has worked on my P4 based laptops, but for some reason won't on the  C2D desktop.

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Re: Speedstep Problem

06 Aug 2007 09:56PM
contrvlr
 
 Let me rephrase the question, what other "then you don't want it to throttle" problems is it causing?

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Re: Speedstep Problem

06 Aug 2007 10:27PM
It causes me no problems, I use mine only for web browsing anymore, my brother says that he is experiencing slow downs while running Clarion, and can only contribute it to Speedstep.
We've checked and there are no proccesses running other than what are needed.
The machine has a clean install of XP Pro and Norton Corporate for virus protection. 

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Re: Speedstep Problem

06 Aug 2007 10:50PM
contrvlr
 
 I think the first step would be to see what kind of CPU usage he's getting while running Clarion. You could use Throttle Watch, just start it, press [f5], [F5] will start throttle watch recording a log file. When he's done using Clarion check the log and see if he's maxing out his CPU or not and if its switching speeds while he works.

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South Jersey
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Re: Speedstep Problem

06 Aug 2007 10:55PM
Googled it and got the link , I'll have him try it out later.
 
Thanks for the responses Jimmy.:smileyhappy:

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Re: Speedstep Problem

08 Aug 2007 05:49PM

contrvlr wrote:
It causes me no problems, I use mine only for web browsing anymore, my brother says that he is experiencing slow downs while running Clarion, and can only contribute it to Speedstep.
We've checked and there are no proccesses running other than what are needed.
The machine has a clean install of XP Pro and Norton Corporate for virus protection. 




I would call it "Norton slow down crash and corrupt registry cancer.
Mcafee is just as bad. And removing it is almost impossble.

I use zonelabs security suite. You can truely turn it off when you are running
games and it doesnt slow things down to a crawl.
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Re: Speedstep Problem

08 Aug 2007 06:26PM
I've used Norton "Corporate" for years and it doesn't cause any slowdowns, I made mention of it so that it was known that I have virus protection.
It's not the full Security Suite that is known to slow things down, and Mcafee isn't just as bad, it's much worse.

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Re: Speedstep Problem

08 Aug 2007 06:32PM
I've got Symantec's corporate version too, and haven't seen any issues. Well...the newest one seemed to kill my XP install until I got it off of there, but 10.1 or whatever seems to run fine.

The Mac version seems to be...I don'e know. Last night I caught it using like 70% of the CPU (an admitedly old CPU) doing...I don't know what. I'd copied across a ton of files (thousands), and noticed the hard drive was chugging, and saw that. Disabled it, and when I later enabled it, it went back to normal.
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