G5 5590 Firmware Update 0.1.12

Windows 10 pushed an update to me today and at first the update came back failed.
I just now finished it and it said successful. I suspect the fail caused my D drive to disappear.
Not really sure what the deal is there. But I did the update before seeing this post.
So hopefully the over heat is not an issue and it stops dropping my D drive.
It did have a firmware payload.

I am on a G7

Hello.

I've just installed BIOS 1.12.0 and now I can't undervolt my CPU anymore. Before the BIOS update I was able to underclock the CPU to -0.150 mV (Core/Cache Voltage Offset via Intel XTU), which is the only way I found to keep the CPU from thermal throttling. Now, the Intel XTU core voltage offset slider is disabled, furthermore I'm not able to rollback to a previous BIOS version (1.11.1 or 1.9.1). I got this error message while running the BIOS update: "ME Firmware EndUpdate Failed Error: 0x000001F3".

Windows device manager shows no errors on the Intel Management Engine Interface.

ThrottleStop also has no effect anymore.

Now, my CPU is thermal throttling like crazy! This is unacceptable, please help.

I've gattered more information that may help us. The 0.1.12.0 BIOS is correcting many (well known) security issues which are related to Intel CPUs. Maybe that's why it's not possible to roll the BIOS back to a previous version...

Just a heads up, do not bother taking this problem to Dell's tech support (Dell-Cares). They won't be able to help in any way. I had an extensive discussion with them which lead to the conclusion that the BIOS update causing CPU overheating/thermal throttling is a feature in the design...they expect it to happen, it is within the safe parameters they established.

I don't buy that and I said it to them, but to no avail.

My suggestion for anyone out there who is facing this problem is to install/run Dell Power Manager software and set it to "Quiet" or "Cool" on the Thermal Management tab. Both options will power throttle the CPU so the clock frequency will not max out, preventing it from thermal throttle.

I tried to explain to the tech support that the bios update removed from us the ability to undervolt the CPU via Intel XTU, which allowed to prevent thermal throttling without loosing performance. All they could say was that they were sorry.

Blame Intel, not Dell. 

This is to patch a security loophole nicknamed Plundervolt. An attacker can potentially undervolt just enough to cause some internal CPU security measures to malfunction and allow access to secure areas.

The "fix" is to disable voltage control altogether. 

Nope I still blame Dell, buddy. They are the ones who designed the cooler for this model, which isn't appropriate (for the Intel i7 9570H) now just as it wasn't before the firmware update. Take this notebook brand-new-out-of-the-box, set it for maximum performance and it will thermal throttle like hell!

I don't know about you, but I am not ok with that. I would not complain about not being able to undervolting the CPU anymore IF the CPU could run without overheating.

The stock thermal paste is not good, the stock cooler is not good and now we can't even undervolt...frustration.

I restored previous bios version, reset bios defaults, disabled "UEFI capsule firmware updates" and it works fine now.

Great news! I'm gonna try to do the same but I would appreciate if you could give us more details about this procedure you performed. I'm not sure I got it right...

I can confirm that suggestion by BamaRedDog works.

What I did:

1) Rolled back Firmware to 1.11

2) Booted to Win and checked that Voltage control doesn't work

3) Restarted to BIOS

4) Did Restore Settings to "Factory reset"

5) Upon automatic restart my G5 decided to self-update back to 1.12 (no idea why)

6) After it self-updated and restarted - Voltage control was functioning again (even though BIOS is at 1.12)

Based on that I guess that 1.12 by itself doesn't break voltage control, but some settings inside do, so some kind of reset is required.

Brilliant! Thanks DAllein, thanks BamaRedDog!

I followed the same steps and now I'm able to undervolt the CPU again. Temps are under control, no more thermal throttling.

Dell community is awesome...Dell's support, not at all! They should know this "trick" or, at least, recommended it for us alongside with some "do it at your own risk" warning. I bet the support "specialists" tier 1 can't even imagine this procedure is possible.

Much obliged for your assistance!

I just want to mention something that might be usefull here. A friend of mine tried the same procedure without performing the bios rollback and it worked. He has the same notebook version as I do.

It works! Factory setting in BIOS setting is the most important step!

thanks mate!

really hope Dell can fix this problem, otherwise the entire G series is a piece of sh!t. Without undervolting, G series are unusable and don’t worth to buy at all!

I don't know, but this worked for me:
I tried to roll back the bios, downloading the firmware that is in the dell page, after that the system told me that the update could not be done because it was not allowed, after that I entered the bios being still in 1.12 because the downgrade was not done, then I made a factory restore and the xtu options appeared again

I've just got my laptop yesterday, and it arrived with 0.1.12 already installed... 

It seems like there isn't any way for me to reinstall 01.11 and performing a factory restore still didn't show the options in Intel's xtu 

Update: I made some tests, I think the only thing to do is to enter in BIOS "F2", then "restore factory defaults" is important to be factory defaults not "bios defaults", please confirm me if it works! this should unlock the XTU