# CPU never goes below base clock (2.4 Ghz) when in idle [SOLVED]



## Navis (Aug 25, 2018)

Hi,

I have Windows 10 with latest updates, drivers, etc.

The processor in question is 4860HQ.

When ever I'm in idle or doing low CPU intensive tasks it stays at 2.4 Ghz, its base core clock and never goes below it which in turn causes unnecessary temperature increase.

When I still had 4700HQ it would downclock to as low as 400 Mhz and the temperatures at idle would stay at 40-50 °C depending on the ambient. Mind you this is a very powerful i7 in a laptop and having such temperatures is considered really low.

Now on to the topic at hand. If I remove the charging cable the clocks drop lower than the said 2.4 GHz so it made me think it has something to do with the power settings. So I went ahead and change both the battery profile and powered in profile to be the same to no avail. I also thought maybe it has something to do with Intel HD panel (No clue why it would have but anyway) so I changed things to be the same there as well and again to no avail.

I tried using programs like Throttlestop and Intel Extreme Tuning Utility to maybe force CPU to use lower state clocks but again to no avail. I have it undervolted to -80mV but it doesn't matter because it simply won't go below 2.4 Ghz no matter the scenario but the moment I unplug the cable if the scenario is great for downclock it will downclock.

Any advice what I could possibly do to fix this annoying thing?

Thank you.


----------



## Aquinus (Aug 25, 2018)

Windows power settings are set to power saving or balanced, right? Setting it to performance will disable clocking down by default. The actual setting themselves is something like percent minimum and percent maximum. I don't have Windows so, I can't screenshot it but, this is a screenshot I found on Google. Just set the minimum state down to something like 10% and maximum to 100%. That should let SpeedStep do its magic.


----------



## Navis (Aug 25, 2018)

Aquinus said:


> Windows power settings are set to power saving or balanced, right? Setting it to performance will disable clocking down by default. The actual setting themselves is something like percent minimum and percent maximum. I don't have Windows so, I can't screenshot it but, this is a screenshot I found on Google. Just set the minimum state down to something like 10% and maximum to 100%. That should let SpeedStep do its magic.


I have it set to 1% and by default it was 5% and it still did not downlock. Will try to set it to 10% but I doubt it will change anything.

Yeah it did nothing. And I was already using balanced :=)


----------



## Aquinus (Aug 25, 2018)

Navis said:


> I have it set to 1% and by default it was 5% and it still did not downlock. Will try to set it to 10% but I doubt it will change anything.
> 
> Yeah it did nothing. And I was already using balanced :=)


For both plugged in and on battery? Are you certain you updated the profile that's currently active? How about if you switch it to power saving or balanced (and restoring defaults if you've changed them)?


----------



## RejZoR (Aug 25, 2018)

Check if EIST is enabled in BIOS.


----------



## Aquinus (Aug 25, 2018)

RejZoR said:


> Check if EIST is enabled in BIOS.


The OP said that it clocks down when running on battery but not when the charger is connected so, it's likely enabled already but, that's what I thought at first.


Navis said:


> If I remove the charging cable the clocks drop lower than the said 2.4 GHz so it made me think it has something to do with the power settings.


----------



## Navis (Aug 25, 2018)

Aquinus said:


> The OP said that it clocks down when running on battery but not when the charger is connected so, it's likely enabled already but, that's what I thought at first.


Yeah.
I have no clue why it wouldn't drop when connected to power.


----------



## cucker tarlson (Aug 25, 2018)

Probably manufacturer's software applies some enhanced power settings when connected to power.


----------



## DeathtoGnomes (Aug 25, 2018)

some BIOS's have a setting called Cool n Quiet. change the setting and see if windows power settings work as you want. You can also create Power Profile if you want other custom setting.


----------



## Frick (Aug 25, 2018)

DeathtoGnomes said:


> some BIOS's have a setting called Cool n Quiet. change the setting and see if windows power settings work as you want. You can also create Power Profile if you want other custom setting.



It's Speedstep for Intel.


----------



## unclewebb (Aug 25, 2018)

Open up the ThrottleStop FIVR window and try adjusting the Non Turbo Ratio to 0 if it is not locked.  This is one of those obscure settings that can interfere with a CPU clocking down.  

Post a screenshot of ThrottleStop while your CPU is idle.  What C0% is being reported with only ThrottleStop open on the desktop?  A lean 4 core system should only need to spend 0.5% or less of its time in the C0 state to process the Windows background tasks.


----------



## Navis (Aug 25, 2018)

cucker tarlson said:


> Probably manufacturer's software applies some enhanced power settings when connected to power.



When I used 4700HQ before (Same laptop, but I switched motherboards which also switched the CPU's since they're soldered on) it used to downclock just fine. I doubt they made something completely else for the processor later.



unclewebb said:


> Open up the ThrottleStop FIVR window and try adjusting the Non Turbo Ratio to 0 if it is not locked.  This is one of those obscure settings that can interfere with a CPU clocking down.
> 
> Post a screenshot of ThrottleStop while your CPU is idle.  What C0% is being reported with only ThrottleStop open on the desktop?  A lean 4 core system should only need to spend 0.5% or less of its time in the C0 state to process the Windows background tasks.


It was already set to 0.

So looking at the photos which were done right after the restart so there was nothing loading from memory. There is something very wrong with C0 state.


----------



## unclewebb (Aug 26, 2018)

Navis said:


> but I switched motherboards


When you switched motherboards and the CPU, did you reinstall Windows?



Navis said:


> There is something very wrong with C0 state.


Your screenshots show that you have a lot more stuff running in the background compared to the screenshot I posted.  If your CPU never settles down, open up the Task Manager, click on the Details tab and then click on the CPU heading to organize your tasks by CPU Usage.  Something has to be running on your computer.  

Here is what the Task Manager should be showing when a laptop is idle.


----------



## Navis (Aug 26, 2018)

unclewebb said:


> When you switched motherboards and the CPU, did you reinstall Windows?
> 
> 
> Your screenshots show that you have a lot more stuff running in the background compared to the screenshot I posted.  If your CPU never settles down, open up the Task Manager, click on the Details tab and then click on the CPU heading to organize your tasks by CPU Usage.  Something has to be running on your computer.
> ...


I reinstalled Windows Fresh on my drive that was formatted previously. It was 100% clean slate.

Mine looks the same?


----------



## DRDNA (Aug 26, 2018)

I'm not sure what laptop you have but i would recommend going to the manufactures website for the laptop and installing the Mobo *Chipset driver *reboot and retest.GL


----------



## Navis (Aug 26, 2018)

DRDNA said:


> I'm not sure what laptop you have but i would recommend going to the manufactures website for the laptop and installing the Mobo *Chipset driver *reboot and retest.GL



G750JZ and I already did that.



Navis said:


> I reinstalled Windows Fresh on my drive that was formatted previously. It was 100% clean slate.
> 
> Mine looks the same?


And here it is after some minutes. Its getting higher and higher so it idles fine.


----------



## DRDNA (Aug 26, 2018)

DRDNA said:


> I'm not sure what laptop you have L






Navis said:


> G750JZ and I already did that.
> .


Sorry fellow but you have not in this thread and you need one thread for this laptop as you are already confusing your self!!!...not two


----------



## Navis (Aug 26, 2018)

DRDNA said:


> Sorry fellow but you have not in this thread and you need one thread for this laptop as you are already confusing your self!!!...not two


I finally see the confusion now  By I already did that I meant the part about installing  chipset drivers


----------



## DRDNA (Aug 26, 2018)

ok there are also two ways to controle speed stepping...you have the right click on battery method and select power scheme and that should be set to power saver to see the underclocking of the cpu.....also there is a slider in a normal click that will show up for sliding to max performance or battery saver...this will only show if the power scheme is in BALANCED so go to the power scheme and be sure it set to balanced then go the the slider and be sure that it is NOT at max performance.





this feature will only be seen if you have the power option scheme set to BALANCED.


----------



## Navis (Aug 26, 2018)

DRDNA said:


> ok there are also two ways to controle speed stepping...you have the right click on battery method and select power scheme and that should be set to power saver to see the underclocking of the cpu.....also there is a slider in a normal click that will show up for sliding to max performance or battery saver...this will only show if the power scheme is in BALANCED so go to the power scheme and be sure it set to balanced then go the the slider and be sure that it is NOT at max performance.



I feel so stupid right now. This actually did it....

Thank you so much. I'm guessing this subsequently also made the C0 states higher correct?

So when I want to use CPU and to make sure its properly clocked, do I have to constantly switch between the sliders to have it properly clocked? Or will this keep it as low it can go and also as high it can go?


----------



## DRDNA (Aug 26, 2018)

if slider is in middle and the power scheme is on balanced it will ramp up and down as needed.


----------



## Navis (Aug 26, 2018)

DRDNA said:


> if slider is in middle and the power scheme is on balanced it will ramp up and down as needed.



I thought I'm "pro user" but apparently I'm a little more educated then Word expert. I feel so dumb right now. Thank you so much though. This has been pestering me for too long and I had no clue whats going on. Ugh Windows 10 and its fancy battery settings.


----------



## DRDNA (Aug 26, 2018)

Navis said:


> I thought I'm "pro user" but apparently I'm a little more educated then Word expert. I feel so dumb right now. Thank you so much though. This has been pestering me for too long and I had no clue whats going on. Ugh Windows 10 and its fancy battery settings.


Dont feel bad as i feel this issue is truely a bug with in Windows 10 current build. and i know it has bitten many a many a user... so not your fault by any means. Glad that that is sorted.


----------



## trparky (Aug 27, 2018)

I have to wonder if this is an issue with notebooks because I have all the power plans on my desktop.


----------



## DRDNA (Aug 28, 2018)

trparky said:


> I have to wonder if this is an issue with notebooks because I have all the power plans on my desktop.


power plans are there but have to be recreated-activated-named  after the 1803 update and are just a we little bit hidden.


----------

