Latitude 5440 or 5450 Laptop CPU Speed Drops with WD19 Dock Connected

Summary: The following article provides information about throttling the Central Processor Unit (CPU) when you connect a WD19 or WD19S series dock. This is happening to the CPUs on Latitude 5440 and 5450 laptops. ...

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Symptoms

CPU throttling when the laptop connects to a WD19 or WD19S series dock

 

You may experience the CPU throttling down when a WD19 or WD19S series dock is connected to your laptop under the following circumstances:

  • You have a Latitude 5450 and have updated from 1.3.0 to 1.10.1 when the laptop battery is not fully charged. The CPU speed drops below 400 mHz.
  • You have a Latitude 5440 and have updated from 1.12.0 to 1.18.1 when the laptop battery is not fully charged. The CPU speed drops below 400 mHz.

Task Manager Showing the CPU being throttled

Cause

Plugging in the Docks cable changes the power draw and triggers the Embedded Controller (EC). This causes the CPU speed to be throttled to a lower frequency as a preventative measure.

Resolution

Note: You must have administrator rights on your laptop to make any operating system changes or update any software.

Update the BIOS to the latest version available on Dell Support. (Dell Technologies recommend that you fully charge your battery and connect your AC adapter before running any BIOS update.)

Latitude 5440 Laptop:

Update the BIOS firmware to Dell Precision 3480 and Latitude 5440 System BIOS, version 1.21.2 or later. Use the instructions in the link at the bottom of the resolution to download and install Latitude_5440_Precision_3480_1.21.2.exe:

Latitude 5450 Laptop:

Update the BIO)S firmware to Dell Precision 3490 and Latitude 5450 System BIOS, version 1.13.1 or later. Use the instructions in the following link to download and install Latitude_5450_Precision_3490_1.13.1.exe:


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Affected Products

Dell Dock WD19, Dell Dock – WD19S, Latitude 5440, Latitude 5450
Article Properties
Article Number: 000287569
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 13 Mar 2025
Version:  2
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