Laptop CPU always seems to be underclocked? HELP

[farhan]

Hey Guys. I have a Lenovo Flex 2-14 Inch Laptop. With Intel Core i7 4510U which should be running at 2 GHz as it was on the specs list and also written on the intel website. But mine seems to be running at only 800 MHz . Even when it is plugged in and under 100% load. I have tried switching between different power modes. i have used CPUZ and Real temp and it both says the same frequency. But when i go to my system properties it says 2.00 GHz. But its never running at that speed. Its always between 798-800 MHz. I have used prime95 to put it under load. I have attached screenshots. Please Help. How can I fix this? 

[Sam Z Man]

It looks like it may need some cleaning

[lazypc]

When it gets overheated it can thermal throttle down the clock speed... Typically means that it needs a good cleaning, although on a laptop that can be hairy if your not comfortable with the disassembly/reassembly.

 

I'll post a photo in a moment showing why you should never set laptops on fabric surfaces that can pull in lint.

[lazypc]

[Robin88]

Hey Guys. I have a Lenovo Flex 2-14 Inch Laptop. With Intel Core i7 4510U which should be running at 2 GHz as it was on the specs list and also written on the intel website. But mine seems to be running at only 800 MHz . Even when it is plugged in and under 100% load. I have tried switching between different power modes. i have used CPUZ and Real temp and it both says the same frequency. But when i go to my system properties it says 2.00 GHz. But its never running at that speed. Its always between 798-800 MHz. I have used prime95 to put it under load. I have attached screenshots. Please Help. How can I fix this? 

It doesn't look like it's overheating, if it did it would clock up to 2GHz, the temperature would then spike to 100+C and then the CPU would throttle down to 800MHz, but it doesn't seem to be happening in your case.

Can you check to see what power settings you're using please? if you right click on the battery icon in the task bar it should say whether you're using power saver or high performance or balanced, and if you're using balanced or power saver then can you change it to High Performance and see if that changes anything. More specifically can you check that the CPU is allowed to go to 100% in the advanced power settings menu in the Control Panel.

[othertomperson]

When it gets overheated it can thermal throttle down the clock speed... Typically means that it needs a good cleaning, although on a laptop that can be hairy if your not comfortable with the disassembly/reassembly.

 

I'll post a photo in a moment showing why you should never set laptops on fabric surfaces that can pull in lint.

 

Did you look at the pictures? It's nowhere near TJ Max.

[Robin88]

Did you look at the pictures? It's nowhere near TJ Max.

Agreed, it's getting amazing temperatures for a laptop, and even if it was clocking properly I doubt it would exceed 80C, it's a power saver issue as far as I can tell, and even then I might be wrong also, cause it seems he has already tried changing power states, so it could be a BIOS setting, some laptops when you disable Intel's power saving measure they lock the CPU at x8 multipliers.

It would be nice if people would actually read the OP's post before commenting, this is clearly not overheating, and I seriously doubt that the OP is such an idiot that would know what Prime95 is and how to use it and still not know when his laptop is overheating.

[pebble guy]

What powerplan is you using??

[farhan]

It doesn't look like it's overheating, if it did it would clock up to 2GHz, the temperature would then spike to 100+C and then the CPU would throttle down to 800MHz, but it doesn't seem to be happening in your case.

Can you check to see what power settings you're using please? if you right click on the battery icon in the task bar it should say whether you're using power saver or high performance or balanced, and if you're using balanced or power saver then can you change it to High Performance and see if that changes anything. More specifically can you check that the CPU is allowed to go to 100% in the advanced power settings menu in the Control Panel.

 

 

Agreed, it's getting amazing temperatures for a laptop, and even if it was clocking properly I doubt it would exceed 80C, it's a power saver issue as far as I can tell, and even then I might be wrong also, cause it seems he has already tried changing power states, so it could be a BIOS setting, some laptops when you disable Intel's power saving measure they lock the CPU at x8 multipliers.

It would be nice if people would actually read the OP's post before commenting, this is clearly not overheating, and I seriously doubt that the OP is such an idiot that would know what Prime95 is and how to use it and still not know when his laptop is overheating.

 

 

What powerplan is you using??

Hey guys, thanks for the reply... I am using high performance indeed.I have checked processor power management under the power options and everything seems fine. it was allowed up to 100 percent. I even changed the minimum to 100 percent to see what happens but its still the same. Also , my multiplier always seems to be stuck at 8x . Is it something to do with the voltage? Or could i check the BIOS for something? Thanks. You guys are super helpful

[SkilledRebuilds]

Hey guys, thanks for the reply... I am using high performance indeed.I have checked processor power management under the power options and everything seems fine. it was allowed up to 100 percent. I even changed the minimum to 100 percent to see what happens but its still the same. Is it something to do with the voltage? Or could i check the BIOS for something? Thanks. You guys are super helpful

Could very well be a bios enabled power saving feature... that overrides Windows or plain does what it does regardless of what you tell windows.

 

Disable speedstep in Bios or use the software below (Don't know what its called, maybe already installed)

 

System information and diagnostics tools tell that processor works at half of speed.

SOLUTION: http://support.lenovo.com/au/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/flex-series/flex-2-14-notebook-lenovo/documents/HT062568?tabName=Solutions

 

This is a designed feature for all laptops having Intel Speed Step feature (currently - all Atom and Core 2 Duo-based processors except Celeron series). Processor will run at full speed only if heavy task is launched. If customer complains that even heavy tasks do not enable full speed of CPU, then Energy Management settings should be checked - some profiles have lowest CU speed enabled by default with no option to rise it until profile settings are changed. This is designed for power saving purposes.

 

 

Do you have this Software?

Note the MAX CPU speed being Auto.... set to High.

 

 

How to enter bios from Windows8 system

http://support.lenovo.com/au/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/flex-series/flex-2-14-notebook-lenovo/documents/HT101636?tabName=Solutions

[farhan]

Could very well be a bios enabled power saving feature... that overrides Windows or plain does what it does regardless of what you tell windows.

yeah probably.. ill check. but one more thing.. my multiplier always seems to be stuck at 8x ..

[monaka25]

               My I3-4150 will be a lot lower clocked when not needed. Seee if it runs at 2GHZ while running a CPU benchmark, like heavy load(not popular, no score, but works good to see if a cpu is stable. I use it to test temps usually ).

 

http://www.jam-software.com/heavyload/

[SkilledRebuilds]

yeah probably.. ill check. but one more thing.. my multiplier always seems to be stuck at 8x ..

Added more to my post.. check above plz.

 

 

               My I3-4150 will be a lot lower clocked when not needed. Seee if it runs at 2GHZ while running a CPU benchmark, like heavy load(not popular, no score, but works good to see if a cpu is stable. I use it to test temps usually ).

 

http://www.jam-software.com/heavyload/

He has, runs at 800mhz under load.

[farhan]

Could very well be a bios enabled power saving feature... that overrides Windows or plain does what it does regardless of what you tell windows.

 

Disable speedstep in Bios or use the software below (Don't know what its called, maybe already installed)

 

System information and diagnostics tools tell that processor works at half of speed.

SOLUTION: http://support.lenovo.com/au/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/flex-series/flex-2-14-notebook-lenovo/documents/HT062568?tabName=Solutions

 

This is a designed feature for all laptops having Intel Speed Step feature (currently - all Atom and Core 2 Duo-based processors except Celeron series). Processor will run at full speed only if heavy task is launched. If customer complains that even heavy tasks do not enable full speed of CPU, then Energy Management settings should be checked - some profiles have lowest CU speed enabled by default with no option to rise it until profile settings are changed. This is designed for power saving purposes.

 

 

Do you have this Software?

Note the MAX CPU speed being Auto.... set to High.

 

 

How to enter bios from Windows8 system

http://support.lenovo.com/au/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/flex-series/flex-2-14-notebook-lenovo/documents/HT101636?tabName=Solutions

no i actually dont have the software.. im currently downloading. ill check it ut and let you know ... thanks!

[farhan]

Added more to my post.. check above plz.

 

 

He has, runs at 800mhz under load.

hey ive installed it , ive checked it out. but still its the same...

 

EDIT: Should i try updating my chipset drivers?

[farhan]

hey ive installed it , ive checked it out. but still its the same...

 

EDIT: Should i try updating my chipset drivers?

 

 

no i actually dont have the software.. im currently downloading. ill check it ut and let you know ... thanks!

 

 

Added more to my post.. check above plz.

 

 

He has, runs at 800mhz under load.

 

 

Could very well be a bios enabled power saving feature... that overrides Windows or plain does what it does regardless of what you tell windows.

 

Disable speedstep in Bios or use the software below (Don't know what its called, maybe already installed)

 

System information and diagnostics tools tell that processor works at half of speed.

SOLUTION: http://support.lenovo.com/au/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/flex-series/flex-2-14-notebook-lenovo/documents/HT062568?tabName=Solutions

 

This is a designed feature for all laptops having Intel Speed Step feature (currently - all Atom and Core 2 Duo-based processors except Celeron series). Processor will run at full speed only if heavy task is launched. If customer complains that even heavy tasks do not enable full speed of CPU, then Energy Management settings should be checked - some profiles have lowest CU speed enabled by default with no option to rise it until profile settings are changed. This is designed for power saving purposes.

 

 

Do you have this Software?

Note the MAX CPU speed being Auto.... set to High.

 

 

How to enter bios from Windows8 system

http://support.lenovo.com/au/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/flex-series/flex-2-14-notebook-lenovo/documents/HT101636?tabName=Solutions

found the problem.. apparently it was causing due to something called BD PROCOHOT. And i have used throttlestop to temporarily fix it.. bu t there should be a permanent fix or a bios level fix rather.

[SkilledRebuilds]

found the problem.. apparently it was causing due to something called BD PROCOHOT. And i have used throttlestop to temporarily fix it.. bu t there should be a permanent fix or a bios level fix rather.

BD PROCHOT stands for bi-directional prochot.

PROCHOT stands for processor hot which is the signal that is activated within the CPU when it reaches approximately 100C to 105C depending on the model number.

 

This signal is what initiates thermal throttling so the CPU can slow down and keep from over heating. Intel included a bi-directional feature so if something else like a GPU is running too hot, it would be able to send a PROCHOT signal directly to the CPU and force it to cool down so the entire laptop cools down. Very few laptops seem to use this type of throttling.

 

Disabling this will allow your CPU to continue to run at full speed. Disabling this will not prevent your CPU from thermal throttling at its normal Intel set thermal throttle temperature. By default this is locked and you will need to go into the Options window to unlock it so you can toggle it on and off.

 

Taken from - http://forum.techinferno.com/throttlestop-realtemp-discussion/23-throttlestop-guide.html

 

 

Seems what you have done is all you can do... I read more into it, but apart from running it on startup (hit or miss that it actually starts tho) it seems that this is the way to go. (Which you've done)

[Robin88]

found the problem.. apparently it was causing due to something called BD PROCOHOT. And i have used throttlestop to temporarily fix it.. bu t there should be a permanent fix or a bios level fix rather.

PROCHOT is being triggered? That's very odd, at those low temperatures it should not be triggered and certainly should not be on constantly. I would definitely try a BIOS update if there is one, just don't use Windows based BIOS flashing tools please.

PROCHOT is a CPU protection mechanism that when the CPU reaches a certain temperature as set by Intel, will cause the CPU to immediately step the clock speeds down to it's lowest value and drop the voltage down as well, but the way your computer is acting is as though it's permanently on, and it shouldn't do that, PROCHOT stands for Processor Hot, and should disable once temperatures have dropped to a reasonable level, but in your case it sounds like there's a bug in the BIOS and is causing PROCHOT to be constantly enabled.

[farhan]

BD PROCHOT stands for bi-directional prochot.

PROCHOT stands for processor hot which is the signal that is activated within the CPU when it reaches approximately 100C to 105C depending on the model number.

 

This signal is what initiates thermal throttling so the CPU can slow down and keep from over heating. Intel included a bi-directional feature so if something else like a GPU is running too hot, it would be able to send a PROCHOT signal directly to the CPU and force it to cool down so the entire laptop cools down. Very few laptops seem to use this type of throttling.

 

Disabling this will allow your CPU to continue to run at full speed. Disabling this will not prevent your CPU from thermal throttling at its normal Intel set thermal throttle temperature. By default this is locked and you will need to go into the Options window to unlock it so you can toggle it on and off.

 

Taken from - http://forum.techinferno.com/throttlestop-realtemp-discussion/23-throttlestop-guide.html

 

 

Seems what you have done is all you can do... I read more into it, but apart from running it on startup (hit or miss that it actually starts tho) it seems that this is the way to go. (Which you've done)

 

 

PROCHOT is being triggered? That's very odd, at those low temperatures it should not be triggered and certainly should not be on constantly. I would definitely try a BIOS update if there is one, just don't use Windows based BIOS flashing tools please.

PROCHOT is a CPU protection mechanism that when the CPU reaches a certain temperature as set by Intel, will cause the CPU to immediately step the clock speeds down to it's lowest value and drop the voltage down as well, but the way your computer is acting is as though it's permanently on, and it shouldn't do that, PROCHOT stands for Processor Hot, and should disable once temperatures have dropped to a reasonable level, but in your case it sounds like there's a bug in the BIOS and is causing PROCHOT to be constantly enabled.

hmm. the cpu is definitely not running hot... as you said, the temperature of the gpu might be a factor. this laptop has a geforce 840m ... but i dont think thats the case because my laptop runs cold as ice even when it is doing the weird bd procohot thingy.. so the bios bug could be something. but i have updated my bios. and it doesnt fix anything.. and to Robin88= what other ways are there to flash bios? Thank you guys, Cant stress enough how much you guys have helped me out..

[SkilledRebuilds]

It sucks you can't do much about it,.. but at least you've made some headway to unlock it to proper performance mode, instead of being stuck with 800mhz for life.

[farhan]

It sucks you can't do much about it,.. but at least you've made some headway to unlock it to proper performance mode, instead of being stuck with 800mhz for life.

haha, yeah.. being stuck at 800mHz would definitely suck.. lol .. thanks man... you've helped me a lot

[Robin88]

hmm. the cpu is definitely not running hot... as you said, the temperature of the gpu might be a factor. this laptop has a geforce 840m ... but i dont think thats the case because my laptop runs cold as ice even when it is doing the weird bd procohot thingy.. so the bios bug could be something. but i have updated my bios. and it doesnt fix anything.. and to Robin88= what other ways are there to flash bios? Thank you guys, Cant stress enough how much you guys have helped me out..

Usually you make a bootable flash drive with a copy of FreeDOS or MS-DOS on it and run the flash utility that way, but there is usually a built in utility in the BIOS to flash it, which is even more reliable but still has its risks.

Sometimes though OEMs like HP only supply BIOS updates as a Windows utility and you can only flash it that way, and I guess that it's the same for you, in which I case I strongly recommend you aviod flashing the BIOS as much as possible, you got away with it this time but it'll fail eventually and you'll brick your device and there's no fixing it.

As a last resort can you download GPU-z and check the temperatues of the GPU please? I'm not convinced it's the GPU, but I've been wrong before and I could very well be wrong now, so check the GPU and let us know. Cheers

And you're very much welcome, it's a shame we can't really offer a real fix for you, but at least we've narrowed down what might be causing it.

[othertomperson]

It's always possible that one of more of the temperature sensors involved is faulty?

[farhan]

Usually you make a bootable flash drive with a copy of FreeDOS or MS-DOS on it and run the flash utility that way, but there is usually a built in utility in the BIOS to flash it, which is even more reliable but still has its risks.

Sometimes though OEMs like HP only supply BIOS updates as a Windows utility and you can only flash it that way, and I guess that it's the same for you, in which I case I strongly recommend you aviod flashing the BIOS as much as possible, you got away with it this time but it'll fail eventually and you'll brick your device and there's no fixing it.

As a last resort can you download GPU-z and check the temperatues of the GPU please? I'm not convinced it's the GPU, but I've been wrong before and I could very well be wrong now, so check the GPU and let us know. Cheers

And you're very much welcome, it's a shame we can't really offer a real fix for you, but at least we've narrowed down what might be causing it.

i installed gpu z ... and its says a reading of 45 degrees when idle.. i dont think its the cause of the problem... but i could be wrong... 45 degrees is no where near "too hot" is it?

[Robin88]

i installed gpu z ... and its says a reading of 45 degrees when idle.. i dont think its the cause of the problem... but i could be wrong... 45 degrees is no where near "too hot" is it?

Could you check it at full load please? Run something like Unigine Heaven or Valley to check, although tbh it doesn't sound like it would be overheating, but without the full load numbers it's difficult to tell.

45C is fine at idle btw, in fact for a laptop those are great numbers, but it's at full load we need to check.