POWER and PL1 constantly in red and throttling CPU

[snydelol]

Hi, I'm not sure what has happened to my laptop, but since last week Friday the POWER is constantly showing in red and there is constant throttling occurring. Before I used to hit around max 31W of PKG Power and used to average at around 10-15W, but now the max it is hitting is 11W and averages at around 5-10W. What has happened? My laptop randomly hiccups at times and the overall experience just feels much slower. I've attached some screenshots below.

Any help is truly appreciated, not sure what has happened to my laptop but I've been trying really hard to get it back to its original state before Friday but with no luck.
My laptop is hp 14 cf1000 and my CPU is i7 8565U.

 

[unclewebb]

When you see a column of odd looking numbers in the Voltage column of the FIVR monitoring table, that means the ThrottleStop FIVR controls are not working correctly. You need to disable VBS including core isolation memory integrity. Follow the guide in my signature. Reboot and delete the ThrottleStop.INI configuration file. Post some updated screenshots so I can see if VBS was completely disabled. Remember to check the MMIO Lock box in the TPL window.

If this was working correctly for you before then you likely installed a Windows Update or turned on a Windows feature that automatically enabled VBS. Post a screenshot of the Windows Features window if you are not sure why VBS is enabled.

 

[snydelol]

@unclewebb Thanks for your reply. I did have VBS enabled, but I've disabled this now and its still the same as before. I also now deleted the config file for ThrottleStop.
One thing that I did notice however, is that upon boot my CPU is fine, then a few seconds later it gets constantly throttled, but I'm not exactly sure what's causing this - this is after disabling VBS.
Here are the new screenshots for every page on ThrottleStop:

Here are the optional features that I have enabled in Windows:

 

[unclewebb]

I did have VBS enabled, but I've disabled this now and its still the same as before.

Did you double check core isolation memory integrity to see if it is enabled? If it is the same as before then VBS is still enabled.

The Windows Subsystem for Linux, the Windows Sandbox and Hyper-V all require virtualization to be enabled. If you need to use WSL2, you cannot use ThrottleStop to control the CPU voltage. Some people have said that items in the TPL window seem to work OK when VBS is enabled. I am not sure what items work because I have never wasted any of my time running my computer with VBS enabled. I do know that the majority of items in the FIVR window do not work at all when VBS is enabled.

 

[Bogus5]

Holy right, but there is another enemy of TS, and he is called GHelper. This is a program that is supposed to replace Armory Crate in Asus computers. Unfortunately, it conflicts with ThrottleStop, and disabling GHelper does not reset the settings made by GHelper.

 

[snydelol]

@unclewebb core isolation memory integrity was disabled before VBS was disabled and it is still currently disabled. I am noticing slight improvements, but my voltage is still 0.3799V. I did downgrade my BIOS as I had a feeling that caused this problem so maybe that's the reason I am noticing this slight improvement. Other than that, it's still not giving me the same performance as used to a few weeks ago and I'm not sure why this is

Windows Subsystem for Linux, the Windows Sandbox and Hyper-V are needed for me so unfortunately these cannot be disabled. But my CPU was fine before (with them enabled), so I don't think its the reason for this constant throttling.

 

[unclewebb]

my voltage is still 0.3799V

ThrottleStop does not read this voltage information correctly when VBS is enabled.

Windows Subsystem for Linux, the Windows Sandbox and Hyper-V are needed for me

Then you cannot use most of the items in the ThrottleStop FIVR window. I am not sure what items in the TPL window work correctly. As far as I know they all do but I have never done any VBS testing. It is not something I ever use.

it's still not giving me the same performance as used to a few weeks ago

I wish I could help you but I have no idea what might have changed recently.

 

[snydelol]

@unclewebb I have disabled virtualisation and it hasn't changed much.

However, I've found something telling me that there's an error somewhere - it doesn't give much detail but this error occurs every 1 minute and 1 second exactly.

I can see this error from Event Viewer and going into Windows Logs > System.

I've attached screenshots below. I have no idea what this error is nor how to fix it - if you or anyone else knows please could you guide me

Actually, I've managed to find the app that gives this error and I've deleted it now which has caused that continuous error to disappear now. However, I'm still getting the occasional hiccups on my laptop (much less frequently thanks to deleting that app), and my PL1 and PL2 is still getting throttled in red here and there. POWER is in red at all times still though. I'll attach my current ThrottleStop settings below:

 

[Bogus5]

4 kW is real Turbo Power.

 

[snydelol]

What do you mean? @Bogus5

 

[Bogus5]

Take a look at "Turbo Power Limits" because you have some cosmic absurdities there.

 

[snydelol]

@Bogus5 Where can I find that? How do I reset it?

 

[unclewebb]

you have some cosmic absurdities there

There is nothing wrong with setting the turbo power limits both to the max, 4095W. Many desktop motherboards use that same sky high value. It is a good way to prevent the MSR and MMIO power limits from causing any power limit throttling.

since last week Friday the POWER is constantly showing in red

Your screenshots show that it is not the MSR or MMIO power limits that are causing the problem. Many laptops use a third set of turbo power limits that are managed by an embedded controller (EC). ThrottleStop has no control over this third set of turbo power limits.

It is likely that some sensor somewhere has failed. This sensor is now telling the EC to lower the power limits as much as possible to reduce heat even though your CPU is not hot at all. Some computers have temperature sensors for the keyboard. The power limits and performance can be randomly reduced to avoid users burning their fingers on their keyboard. It works great until a cheap sensor fails and starts continuously signaling that the keyboard is burning up.

Have a look in the Device Manager for the Intel Dynamic Turning driver. Some users have success by disabling that driver. There might be 4 or 5 entries in the Device Manager that need to be disabled. I wish I could help you more with this. I know what the problem is but I have never done any hands on fixing of this issue.

If your computer comes with some power management software, that probably needs to be installed. You cannot randomly delete stuff like this without causing some unintended problems.

 

[snydelol]

Just did a driver scan using Driver Booster. These 3 devices seem to be faulty - I'm updating them currently and will let you know if that fixes things.

There is no Intel Dynamic Turning driver listed in my Device Manager.

Would you recommend I just reset my laptop at this point? I've had it for about 5 years and it hasn't been fully reset before so I'm going to have to make a massive backup of everything. But this is really annoying and if I'm still not able to find a fix, this might be the only option remaining.

@unclewebb

Update: Updating those drivers did nothing unfortunately

 

[snydelol]

@unclewebb I have noticed that when I put my laptop to sleep and then immediately wake it up, the power usage goes to 30W for a few seconds later and then it throttles it back down to 15W constantly. Please help

 

[unclewebb]

the power usage goes to 30W for a few seconds later and then it throttles it back down to 15W

That is how Intel power limits work. High power for a short period of time followed by lower power after that. Your laptop is limited to 15W long term. ThrottleStop does not have a simple fix for this power limitation. The 8565U has a 15W TDP rating and the manufacturer of your laptop has decided to enforce that power limit.

 

[snydelol]

That is how Intel power limits work. High power for a short period of time followed by lower power after that. Your laptop is limited to 15W long term. ThrottleStop does not have a simple fix for this power limitation. The 8565U has a 15W TDP rating and the manufacturer of your laptop has decided to enforce that power limit.

But before ThrottleStop used to show my CPU occasionally going above 15W and hitting 30W. Now it has not gone above 15W once (except on boot).