6 Posts
1
27120
XPS 15 9560 Thermal Throttling caps CPU at 28% even when it's cool
Recently I found my XPS 15 slow and realized that the CPU was capped at 28% even when it's cool.
I tried changing performance setting to max, power setting to max, CPU max state to 100%, downgrading DPTF driver according to (https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-15-9570-i9-thermals-throttling-and-solutions/m-p/6116619/highlight/true#M13785) and (https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-13-9370-CPU-throttling/m-p/6072428#M10438), resetting bios, downgrading bios, resetting Windows 10, reinstalling Windows 10 (including downgrading Windows 10), none of them works.
Intel eXtreme Tuning tool says it's doing thermal throttling, and I tried disabling thermal throttling in registry (https://www.techconsumerguide.com/cpu-throttling-and-how-to-fix-it/) it allows 100% CPU utilization, but it is still feels slow and the device manager says CPU driver is not working after I changed it.
The only thing I tried and working well is by using ThrottleStop (uncheck the BD PROCHOT and then click Save). It no longer shows thermal throttling in Intel eXtreme Tuning tool and performance is restored. The only downside is the configuration is not persistent and I have to do this manually after every system boot.
Does anyone have a better solution to this?
Thanks,
Hal
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Specs:
BIOS: 1.18
Windows: Windows 10 Home 1909 18363.752
HalZ
6 Posts
0
April 12th, 2020 00:00
Thank you very much for explaining this in detail! After my posting, I found the tutorial to set ThrottleStop to start on login (start with system did not work) and it was working fine, until a Windows update that somehow took 6 hours with the slow CPU...
I then realized that maybe a CMOS reset could fix the issue, so I followed an instruction of resetting HW without having to unplug the button battery which is on the keyboard side of the motherboard. I did a 30-second unplugging power cord, unplugging the battery for 30 seconds, removed the RAMs for 30 seconds, pressing the power button for 30 seconds. Then I put the RAMs back and reconnected the battery. It won’t boot and shows 2 orange and 4 white led blinks. Then I unplugged the battery, reconnected the RAMs, and connected the power cable, it boots up this way. Then I unplugged the power cable and reconnected the battery, it powers on fine. So I put everything back together and went into Windows, disabled the ThrottleStop startup task and reboot, the CPU is still running at full performance and the Intel XTU does not say Thermal Throttle anymore.
It’s after several reboots now and the system is still running at full performance. I am not sure if the CMOS reset has fix the problem or if the procedure works for other dell laptops, but anyone who still has the problem can try it out.
Wesleyrpg
16 Posts
0
April 11th, 2020 05:00
hey there,
if your feeling brave you could take off the old thermal compound from your CPU/GPU (it's been on your CPU and GPU for quite a few years now!) and re-apply a good decent thermal paste like Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut. Be careful taking off the heatsink as it's VERY fragile and bends easily! (Don't ask how i know!)
If your not that brave then look at a Aluminium Laptop cooler, i found that worked well on my old 9560!
jssjz
2 Posts
0
April 11th, 2020 16:00
Hi, my laptop (same model) has had the exact same problem as of yesterday. If you find a solution could you please update here. Thank you!!
uwebb2
26 Posts
3
April 11th, 2020 20:00
A 7700HQ should be running at 3400 MHz when loaded. No surprise that your laptop feels slow and sluggish with it being locked to 800 MHz.
If you press the ThrottleStop Limits button and open up the Limit Reasons window you will likely see BD PROCHOT glowing in red. This stands for bi-directional processor hot. It is a signal path to the CPU. It allows other sensors within your computer to send throttling signals directly to your CPU. When one of these sensors goes bad, it will continuously send a throttling signal to your CPU regardless of its temperature.
Clearing the BD PROCHOT box in ThrottleStop prevents external throttling signals from reaching your CPU. If your CPU ever gets too hot, it will generate a PROCHOT signal and your CPU will still be able to thermal throttle whether BD PROCHOT is checked or not. Clearing BD PROCHOT will allow your CPU to run at its normal speed.
It will be a challenge finding someone at Dell that fully understands this problem. The sensor that has gone bad might be in your power adapter or it might be on your motherboard. All a tech can do is replace parts until the problem goes away.
ThrottleStop is the only software available that allows you to access this setting. Intel XTU does not let you adjust BD PROCHOT. You can easily add ThrottleStop to your Windows start up sequence and you can disable the system tray icon if you do not want or need to look at it. Problem solved.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-throttlestop-guide.531329/#post-6865107
I also recommend that you use ThrottleStop to enable Speed Shift. Most modern laptops enable Speed Shift automatically in the BIOS. Go into the ThrottleStop TPL window and you can enable Speed Shift there. After that, you should see SST in green on the main screen. You can check the Speed Shift EPP box and adjust that number beside it. An EPP setting of 0 is equivalent to maximum performance which is a good setting when plugged in. A setting of 80 is similar to the Windows Balanced power profile. An EPP setting of 128 or greater will prevent your CPU from achieving maximum performance.
What sort of better solution are you looking for? ThrottleStop is free. It properly reports what the problem is and provides you with a simple way to fix this problem. Any other options you find are either going to be a big hassle or way more expensive.
HalZ
6 Posts
0
April 12th, 2020 00:00
@jssjz Maybe you can try what I did and see if it fixs your problem?
jssjz
2 Posts
0
April 15th, 2020 17:00
Thank you, I will try it when I can buy the torx screwdriver to open the laptop. Currently we are in lockdown and I dont have the tools.