cpu Laptop CPU always running below base clock

[Zero Fox]

I have a 'HP Envy 17-1190nr 3D Edition' that my friend gave me (because he bought a Predator Elios and doesn't need this one) and I'm looking for possible uses with this, specially after my main PC broke...

 

CPU: Intel Core i7 Q720 @1.60GHz

RAM: 8GB DDR3

GPU: AMD Radeon Mobility HD 5800 series (apparently 5830)

OS1: Windows 10 Pro, version 1803

OS2: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

 

On a Sunday, I took this to a LAN party and play a couple of old games with it, I think I took it to its limit because it ran hot (like constant 100 degrees C on CPU and GPU) for some hours. The next day I encountered a problem with the GPU were it would be stuck at 300MHz under any load, I have dealt with that before but wasn't really sure how did I resolve it, but this time my CPU was also running below its clock speed, running between 1.1 and 1.4GHz on idle. I started running benchmarks and games and these loads would just push the clock ever lower, according to the Task Manager, HWmonitor and MSI Afterburner my CPU under load its stuck at 931MHz, taking into account that the turbo is ~2.7GHz, this is insanely slow!

 

I googled the problem, the common solution to this is play with the power options: Power Plan, processor state... but that doesn't change anything, also I ran the 7-Zip benchmark on Ubuntu and resulted in the same, the CPU getting stuck at 931MHz, which got me worried of a fatal hardware problem. One of the latest solutions i found was turning off the Intel Power Management driver on Windows, this resulted in, just as booting on Safe Mode, the CPU stuck at its base clock of 1.60GHz, this is useful when I need the laptop, but its not a complete solution and it never reach the turbo speed.

 

Do you think I can make it run like before? Or is this laptop doomed and won't be fix without spending money on it?

 

Here are 2 screenshots: the 1st is running a 7-Zip benchmark while monitoring the CPU with thermals; the 2nd is playing Sekiro at 1366x768 (i think) while monitoring the CPU and GPU with thermals.

[Jurrunio]

Maybe VRM overheating? Fix the thermals first, even if you managed to make it clock higher that's still a problem.

[Zero Fox]

5 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Maybe VRM overheating? Fix the thermals first, even if you managed to make it clock higher that's still a problem.

After a quick google search I saw that VRMs are chips around the CPU (apparently), what do you me recommend to do? Should I just re-apply thermal paste?

[Jurrunio]

Just now, Zero Fox said:

After a quick google search I saw that VRMs are chips around the CPU (apparently), what do you me recommend to do? Should I just re-apply thermal paste?

Redo the thermal paste is a must. VRMs are covered with thermal pads to get contact to the heat-dissipating plate, check if those got bad.

[Zero Fox]

2 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Redo the thermal paste is a must. VRMs are covered with thermal pads to get contact to the heat-dissipating plate, check if those got bad.

Ok, will try

[Zero Fox]

3 hours ago, Jurrunio said:

Redo the thermal paste is a must. VRMs are covered with thermal pads to get contact to the heat-dissipating plate, check if those got bad.

Well, the thermal paste I have just applied sucks, the CPU is still working below base clock and still reach temps of 71 degrees, the GPU is also working below of its base clock but with slightly lower temps. I also have my doubts about the cooling fan, it doesn't seen to reach its max RPM, only when the PC is shutting down (~2 seconds away from shutting down completely) is where sometimes I hear it really spinning up.

 

A maybe important note I forgot: when I receive this laptop the battery was damage and can only power the laptop for around 10 seconds.

[Jurrunio]

1 hour ago, Zero Fox said:

Well, the thermal paste I have just applied sucks, the CPU is still working below base clock and still reach temps of 71 degrees, the GPU is also working below of its base clock but with slightly lower temps. I also have my doubts about the cooling fan, it doesn't seen to reach its max RPM, only when the PC is shutting down (~2 seconds away from shutting down completely) is where sometimes I hear it really spinning up.

 

A maybe important note I forgot: when I receive this laptop the battery was damage and can only power the laptop for around 10 seconds.

not enough mounting pressure? not enough paste?

 

there are laptops that dont work properly without working battery but that's rare. Usually taking that out can solve the problem

[unclewebb]

Try running ThrottleStop and make sure BD PROCHOT is not checked.  Run 1 Thread of the built in TS Bench test and while that test is running, take a screenshot so I can have a look.  If you are still having problems, check the Set Multiplier option and increase that to the maximum value and grab another screenshot.

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-throttlestop/

 

 

[Zero Fox]

5 hours ago, Jurrunio said:

not enough mounting pressure? not enough paste?

 

there are laptops that dont work properly without working battery but that's rare. Usually taking that out can solve the problem

There was enough paste, but I think I putted too much pressure, which led to the paste just splat/spray (idk how to say it) away from the die, I will work on that.

 

Thanks for your constant replies by the way

[Zero Fox]

4 hours ago, unclewebb said:

Try running ThrottleStop and make sure BD PROCHOT is not checked.  Run 1 Thread of the built in TS Bench test and while that test is running, take a screenshot so I can have a look.  If you are still having problems, check the Set Multiplier option and increase that to the maximum value and grab another screenshot.

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-throttlestop/

 

 

Ok, I manage some progress... (what does 'BD PROCHOT' mens and what do that check do?)

 

When I opened the BD PROCHOT was checked so I unchecked it, I ran the bench with the CPU stuck at 1.4GHz during most of the bench; I then turn the multiplier from 11 to 13T which was the highest and there were a change, now my CPU was reaching its base clock and a little above that, I ran the bench again and this time it was reaching its max turbo clock while changing back and forth between 1.8 and 2.7GHz (like a usual modern CPU behaves, instead of the clock fixed in a frequency). I didn't took screenshots there, also a process was hogging one of my disks so I rebooted the system, and the CPU was back to its problem state between 1.1 and 1.4GHz, apparently it only work as intended when I turn on ThrottleStop... 

 

I ran both benchs again and notice the unlocked multiplier bench put my CPU up to ~95 degrees in lees than a minute, I assume all of this is really a thermal problem...

[Jurrunio]

Bd Prochot is thermal throttling and doesnt include thermal shutdown. You disabled it

[unclewebb]

In your first screenshot, ThrottleStop shows a Set Multiplier value of 11.  When you first run ThrottleStop, it would have read this value from the CPU.  This seems to be your problem.

 

The Core i7-720QM has a default multiplier of 12.  (12 x 133.33 MHz = 1.60 GHz)

 

On the 1st Gen Core i CPUs, in order for Turbo Boost to work correctly, the multiplier request register must be set to 1 number greater than the default multiplier value.  (12 + 1 = 13)  Setting the Set Multiplier value in ThrottleStop to 13 T is what you need to do.  The T just stands for turbo.  For the CPU to use your requested Set Multiplier value, you also have to have SpeedStep enabled.  Some people do funny things like disable SpeedStep in the bios without really understanding it.  If you might have done that, make sure SpeedStep is enabled in the bios.

 

For 1st Gen Core i, there was no fine control over turbo boost.  It was either full turbo boost or no turbo boost and nothing in between.  A setting of 12 gets you a maximum multiplier of 12 but a setting of 13 T allows the CPU to use full turbo boost.  When a single core is active, it can use a multiplier as high as 21.  You will never see the full 21 in ThrottleStop because there are always hundreds of Windows tasks running in the background.  When these wake up and need to be processed, additional cores become active and the maximum multiplier automatically drops.  Your screenshot showing a multiplier over 18 is normal for a 720QM.  The higher the better.  If you can reduce the background activity, you will see the multiplier go higher.  When your computer is idle, it should only need to be spending about 0.5% or less of its time in the C0 state.  Any more than that is a sign of too much crap running in the background.

 

The official thermal throttling temperature is 100°C.  Cores hitting 99°C is definitely a problem.  The 720QM is a 45 Watt processor and they are known to run hot in some laptops.  Replace the thermal paste with the best stuff you can find and see if you can modify your laptop for better airflow.  Blowing out the dust is a good place to start.  When not stress testing, your CPU core temps will probably not reach 100°C so you might be OK as is. 

 

BD PROCHOT stands for bi-directional processor hot.  It is a signal path to your CPU.  Other sensors on your motherboard can send a signal to your CPU using the BD PROCHOT signal path which will force your CPU to throttle and slow down to a crawl.  I do not think that this is the main problem.  It might only be the Set Multiplier value that is screwed up.  Do some more testing to find out if it is Set Multiplier or BD PROCHOT at fault. 

 

If the bios is not setting your CPU multipliers correctly then yes, you will need to always run ThrottleStop to handle that problem for you.  That's better than a slow and sluggish CPU and it is easy to auto start ThrottleStop with Windows by using the Task Scheduler.  Here is a guide.

 

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

 

 

 

 

[Zero Fox]

Thank you both @Jurrunio and @unclewebb for helping me with this issue.

 

Well, conclusion time:

 

I re-did the thermal pastes, this time both CPU and GPU gave lower idle and loaded temps, the CPU is still reaching ~97 degrees on a bad day, I need to clean the fan and replace the VRMs thermal pad. However both devices have problems to reach their respective clocks by themselves, I have to use ThrottleStop with the multiplier set to 13T for the CPU, and MSI Afterburner with custom overclocking enable for the GPU (found about that today), so I'm still curious of why these devices can't work properly on their own like they use to~2 weeks ago.