My cpu usage is constantly 100%

[Ultra_Kouhai-san]

So here's the deal. I have a Dell Latitude E6430 with a i5-3320m and Intel HD4000 and 8GB DDR3 RAM. Last weekend my cousin gave me a nice pc case that I fixed up for him, but its specs were horrendous(AMD Athlon 64 x2, 1GB DDR2 RAM, it didn't even have a proper GPU). What was of noticeable value was that it was sporting 3 fans. So I got the "brilliant" idea of putting my laptop motherboard in this case, since it was suffering from overheating when I was playing games (Soulworker, Tales of Zestiria etc.) and this would undoubtfully help. So I took apart my laptop and found a nice fit for the mobo. The idea was to still use the laptop's display with the mobo in a seperate case since I don't have another display, and this, surprisingly, turned out quite well. I put the laptop chassis back together and it looks exactly like it did before, save for the wifi and LCD cables sticking out of the LAN and mic ports respectively. I connected the psu up to the 3 fans and they all started. Excellent. So I plug the mobo in via the charging cable and turn it on. It tells me the BIOS date and time is out(had to remove the CMOS) so I load the default values and continue. Upon reaching my desktop I notice 2 things: My CPU fan isn't working. It didn't bother me  since I have 3 other fans, one of which is blowing directly onto the heatsink. Second thing I notice is that my CPU usage is 100%(I have a Rainmeter floating icon on my desktop that tells me the CPU, RAM and SWAP usage). I googled around and tried everything that I came up to, nothing worked. Task Manager shows my CPU usage as between 0 and 20%, while the floating icon shows my CPU idling at 40%. What's strange is that in Task Manager the disk usage and the floating icon's CPU usage is identical, so I googled how to reduce disk usage, and once again tried everything that I saw necessary. It reduced disk usage, but the floating icon still shows my CPU idling at 40%. I take the floating icon to be the correct indicator since when I tried to play a 1080p BD 10bit HEVC video, the video track lagged. Badly. Whereas the day before I smoothed it over. Even the navigation in Explorer and the desktop lags, similar to a pentium 4 I once had. I'm running the newest build of Windows 10 if someone could help me I would deeply appreciate it, with the CPU usage mainly. I have a theory tho, ridiculous as it may be: I decided that since I'm still gonna use this case when I upgrade to proper pc parts, I'm not gonna make extra holes in it. Instead I opted for cable ties. Could the screws have some sort of grounding function for the CPU? As for the fan, I went into Legacy BIOS and under thermal log it simply said Fan 1 stopped. I hope the right person reads this since I wanna fix this as soon as possible. Thanks and regards.

[GeoffLucas]

have you tried seeing what is reported in the different programs when running any cpu benchmarks?  Though be careful not to burn it up if your cooler is having problems. 

 

I might also suggest checking temps before starting and seeing what those are at idle.

[unclewebb]

Many Dell laptops use clock modulation throttling.  Run ThrottleStop and see what it says.  If your CPU is being throttled internally to an uber low speed, every thing you do will make it feel like your computer is running in molasses.  Dragging windows around the desktop, etc. will be sluggish.  

 

Both columns in ThrottleStop, Clock Modulation and Chipset Clock Modulation should both show 100.0%.  If either of these columns is not showing 100.0 then you need to use ThrottleStop to fix that.  Put a check mark in the box that is not 100.0 and click on the Turn On button.

 

If this is the problem, post a couple of screenshots before and after you make this adjustment.  There might be another trick or two you can do with ThrottleStop to help your situation.  It is not unusual for a Dell laptop to throttle if something is not quite right with the power adapter.  Go into the bios and check for that problem.  Also make sure that BD PROCHOT is not checked in ThrottleStop.

 

If a CPU fan is not detected, it will likely go into limp mode.  ThrottleStop should be able to fix this.

[Ultra_Kouhai-san]

All right I tried to use the Throttlestop method. When I ran the app it said that both Clock Modulation and Chipset Clock Modulation were 100.0%. BD PROCHOT was checked tho so I unchecked it and saved. Screenshots of before and after I saved:

I can definitely see the cpu is throttling since its only running at 800MHz

[Ultra_Kouhai-san]

It seems to work fine now. Strange cuz all I did was check and uncheck both Clock Modulation and Chipset Modulation and it shot back to 3GHz for some reason. I'm not complaining.

[Ultra_Kouhai-san]

So after some more digging and restarts it seems that every time I start the pc up it throttles, and when I check Clock Modulation it returns to normal. I tried checking the box and clicking Turn On then restarted. No results. How can I finalise this, and what is actually happening?

[unclewebb]

Have a look at the first ThrottleStop screenshot you posted.  The right side of ThrottleStop shows your current CPU speed.  Check out the Mod column and check out the Chip column.  On a normal computer, both columns should show 100.0 for each and every thread. 

 

The Chip column looks good.  Each thread is showing 100.0 so there is no Chipset Clock Modulation throttling taking place.

 

Now look at the Mod column.  That column reports Clock Modulation throttling.  It is a way to slow the CPU down internally.  Instead of a column that shows 100.0, your CPU shows that Clock Modulation is 12.5%. 

 

The Core i5-3320M can run at 3300 MHz when 1 core is active and it will run at a maximum of 3100 MHz when 2 cores are active.  800 MHz is terrible but that only shows part of the problem.  12.5% clock modulation means the CPU is running internally at only 1/8th of 800 MHz which is only 100 MHz.  No wonder your computer feels so sluggish.  It should be running over 30 times faster than what it is.  That means a simple task that would take 2 seconds at normal speed will take 60 seconds at its throttled speed.  As soon as I started reading your first post, I knew this was likely going to be the problem.  The Dell Latitude E6400, E6410, E6420 and E6430 all have this exact same problem at times.  Clock modulation throttling is used excessively and it can take forever or longer before it returns to normal.  ThrottleStop was specifically written to help with these sort of throttling problems that plague many different Dell laptops.

 

5 hours ago, Ultra_Kouhai-san said:

It seems to work fine now.

Look at the picture in that post.  The multiplier is high and the Mod column is showing 100.0 like it should be showing.  No more clock modulation throttling going on.

 

4 hours ago, Ultra_Kouhai-san said:

How can I finalise this

You have three choices.  You can replace your power adapter, you can replace your motherboard or you can always use ThrottleStop.  The first two choices might not fix this problem and if replacing parts does fix this problem, it might only be a temporary fix.  A week later, the same sort of throttling problem might return.  

 

21 hours ago, Ultra_Kouhai-san said:

since it was suffering from overheating when I was playing games

It was probably not overheating.  Stressing the CPU and GPU simultaneously while gaming can easily trigger the clock modulation BS that Dell was famous for during this era of laptops.  Even with temps under control, this entire series of laptops could instantly drop down and get stuck at a tiny percentage of their rated speed.  Here is a thorough paper that fully documents this throttling problem.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tDRwD215OkMyx9BzTQRq1esBOXJrC4Dw/view?usp=sharing

 

To keep your computer running at its full rated speed, I recommend that you add ThrottleStop to your Windows startup sequence using the Task Scheduler so ThrottleStop is always running on your system.  Here is a guide on how to do that. 

 

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

 

ThrottleStop is an extremely efficient program when properly setup and considering the increase in performance it can deliver, it is well worth leaving it running.  

 

I would check the Clock Modulation box and make sure that is set to 100.0%.

I would check the Set Multiplier box and set that to 33T so you get maximum turbo boost.

Check SpeedStep.

C1E is optional.

Task Bar is optional.  I prefer to have ThrottleStop minimized to a Notification Area - System Tray icon.  You can find that in the Options window.    

Click on the Turn On button to take ThrottleStop out of Monitoring mode and put it into Active mode.  Click on Save and then use the Task Scheduler to auto start it.  Problem solved without having to spend any money.

[Ultra_Kouhai-san]

Thank you for correcting me where I misinterpreted information and thank you for the helpful resources. I'll definitely make use of it. And thank you for your time and help it is very appreciated.