Precision M4500 throttling issue

Hi,

Yes the adapter is the original 130 watt that shipped with the system. I have not tested Ultra Performance yet because Dell ControlPoint is uninstalled and I was busy but I will do so after university when I get the chance tomorrow on Friday.

Your help is very appreciated.

 

Your 1800M is spec'd @ 45w, so depending on load, I would guess that the 1800M+920XM running Furmark+Prime95 8 thread could be pulling as much as 160w+ (part of it due to heat).

My M15x in my sig (260M @ custom Dell spec'd 65w) + 940xm pulled 190w+ (measured with Kill-A-Watt).

Here is my M15x hitting 190w+ under furmark+Prime95: YouTube - Alienware M15x i7 drawing 190+ watts under heavy load

My Studio 1747 w/ 920xm+4650 (35w) under load without throttlestop was pulling 142-145w w/ a 150w PSU. I can't imagine what it would have pulled if I had Throttlestop laying the smackdown.

But in the end, real world usage scenarios, the M15x (with the new BIOS) holds it down nicely. The good thing is outside of extreme stress testing, the M4500 is holding it down.

Best you can do is fix the terrible thermal compound job Dell routinely does and acquire a 150w PSU or greater are my recommendations and hope (pray?) that the throttling is in response to an inadequate PSU and not Dell power tables.

 

AFAIK:

Dell Control Point System Manager installs all the Windows power management services, dll's, utilities, and schemes. If DCP SM is not installed, the CPU and GPU are throttled. ThrottleStop will unleash the CPU, but not the nVidia GPU. DCP SM or some other means is needed to unleash the GPU.

 

I guess you are right because during normal usage there is no problem. During extreme stress testing it works correctly for a little while (about two minutes) and then starts to throttle. This might be power adapter related or in the BIOS it just forces it to slow down based on temperature.

Even Throttlestop will not solve it because it just unlocks the cpu but then I think the BIOS forces the gpu to throttle to limit either temps or power consumption down.

In the end do you think it's safe to assume that this is normal behaviour and not just a problem with my m4500?

 

Aye, Throttlestop will fix the CPU issue, but to fix the GPU issue you need to use something like Rivatuner to force the clocks to stay at or above spec (I use it to overclock my 260M). I'm unsure if Rivatuner has the same functionality with the Quadro Vbios as it does with other Nvidia GPUs, but if it works, you can force your GPU clocks to remain consistent or even overclock if you desire, but I'd still recommend at least a 150w PSU.

Check out the inital post in this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...e-investigation-stock-clocks-overclocked.html

Joker basically laid the smack down on Dell. It explains how to use Rivatuner and how to set it to force your system to keep its clocks locked.

It is normal behavior in the sense that outside of extreme stress testing, your system is performing as expected. We M15x owners spent almost a year kicking and screaming for Dell to fix their BIOS which was throttling the CPU and GPU even under normal usage.

If you find the GPU or CPU downclocking during normal usage (rendering, gaming, etc...), then that is cause for concern.

 

Ok electrosoft, Thank you for your response. I think I will keep things the way they are since outside of extreme stress testing there is nothing wrong. I don't feel like spending money on a new adapter and unlocking remaining power which I don't really need now.

I was just concerned to see this since my desktop or other computers never did this and I always thoroughly test things to make sure I get what I paid for.