The Acer ThrottleStop Thread

This thread is dedicated to unclewebb's utility ThrottleStop; its support and promotion. (thanking unclewebb profusely for coding it certainly doesn't hurt )

This is the real deal for any Gemstone Blue users who are throttling, especially those who can't undervolt.
It's surprisingly simple to use - open ThrottleStop.exe, accept the rather frightening warning (it's mostly for Dell users), then click the box next to Chipset Clock Mod.
That's it! Your system should be protected from future throttling incidences.
Tick the Minimize on Close button to send it to your notification area instead of the Taskbar (like RMClock).

(Angelwings, feel free to correct me if I've got this wrong)

If you want to view ThrottleStop's documentation without downloading the utility, please view this post.

 

Thanks TehSuigi. Now that ThrottleStop seems to be working correctly, I'll get to work on some documentation and hopefully have some more info available in the next 12 hours.

ThrottleStop is a work in progress so any feedback good or bad is always appreciated.

 

:laugh: :laugh: About time is all I have to say, my fingers were starting to hurt trying to tell people this program works, Ive posted lots about throttlestop so thought it only fitting to mention it again here, in brief my acer 8930 throttled so bad It was impossible to play games on, with this great program I haven't throttled once since the first time I used it almost 6 days ago, dont worry about sky high temps either, you wont see much of an increase. Hopefully everyone will see this thread and start trying it for themselves, you wont regret it.
I also undervolted and that just prolonged my throttling by lowering my temps, trust me this one does what it says on the tin. Simply..stops all throttle.
I can never thank you enough, well done kevin aka unclewebb

 

Thank you very much, unclewebb, for that excellent work. We are very lucky, and with feedback, it will be the definitive tool.

 

Guys, what exactly is a throttle and how does this utility prevent it? Sorry for the novice questions here.

Is it safe on an Acer Aspire 8930g?

 

DJPailo, go check the Definitive Guide to Throttling to read up about it.
If you've ever noticed that your system inexplicably slows down during games or stressful activities, look into this.

 

Yup, it happens when I play fm 09 and randomly the cursor stutters sometimes. I'll look into it thanks.

 

Clock modulation is a feature built into Intel processors that forces the CPU to slow down internally. A 2000 MHz CPU will suddenly start running at the equivalent of 1000 MHz or worse.

This feature goes back to the Pentium 4 era to control heat and power consumption. The problem is that some laptops and some bios versions are over using this feature which kills performance when gaming. Intel CPUs are well protected these days and there is no need to slow them down. If they do start running too hot, the CPU will automatically slow itself down. There is no need for a bios to put on a second layer of protection.

All ThrottleStop does is it monitors for clock modulation. When a request comes in to the CPU to slow it down, ThrottleStop steps in and reverses that request and tells the CPU to carry on at full speed. A single bit controls this so it is very simple to change a 1 to a 0 and make sure it stays at 0.

This does not disable the protection built into the CPU. If it needs to slow down it will, regardless of anything ThrottleStop or any other software has to say.

As long as your power consumption does not exceed the capabilities of your power adapter then you shouldn't have any problems.

 

Kudos to you man, Kevin deserves that.

Now Kevin how about profiles selected with a right-click on tray icon? Power saving with minimum FID/VID during idle/medium load (aka browsing/music/movies/office stuff) and Full power with maximum FID/whatever VID which is stable during games or whatever intensive CPU stuff?
Or more elegant an automated profile. Something like Power saving for core(s) load <50% for x seconds and Full power for core(s) load >50% for x seconds?
I'll give you something to do here too.

 

I have an Acer 8930 and it works fine for me so yes its perfectly safe

 

Thanks for all the hard work unclewebb.
I'd like to try ThrottleStop but I can't download from the link provided, it just brings me back to the home page of filesden.

 

Try here. First link is broken (missing a 7 and have a quotation mark at the end).

 

Works great here. Afte I enabled it the fan was one for a while but it then went quiet again and fm works perfectly now as it should.

 

Don't feel sad, that guy is just a troll. Trolls always spam forums with crap just to try to p you off.

You're welcome on this forum, he is not and will be banned soon.

And I love throttlestop, 2.7ghz FTW!!!

 

Thank you for your support and I love throttlestop too

 

Link's fixed. It's hard to copy-paste it all over the place when the go.notebookreview.com redirector gets stuck in front of it and turns all the slashes to %2Fs.

 

Thank you so much unclewebb! Ever since I bought this laptop it throttled in every game, but since this is the only computer I have it had to do for gaming But now I can play Dragon Age without any worry on high and other games
Really, thank YOU!!! You've done me and a whole lot of other people a great service and saved us from a lot of frustrations

(Good karma is sent your way

 

That's karma?



Angelwings you have all my respect for your willingness and open mind to try new things. Kudos to you too.

 

Your welcome Psynalizer. It's great news after all the misery Acer users have been through that there is finally a simple solution that doesn't consume a lot of system resources.

Everyone needs to thank Angelwings for having the guts to test this out on her Acer and for giving me some feedback.

Hopefully someday I will get around to integrating this into the OS better like RMClock does for better half multiplier and dynamic acceleration support on the newer 45nm mobile CPUs. burebista has been twisting my arm for a while about that.

 

Now that I tested it, I can confirm that my throttle problems are now gone while using this tool.
Thank you again unclewebb, you've done a great job.

 

I'll stay with the classic one thank you very much!

 

Special Thanks, after 2 years suffering finally...its like a little dream has come true

 

Psynalizer: Watch out for my friend burebista. He's in charge of getting more money out of users so I can continue developing ThrottleStop to maybe someday replace RMClock.

Abraxis: Great to hear from another happy user.

Special thanks to WinThrottle.
http://www.oldskool.org/pc/throttle

The source code for this program helped me understand chipset clock modulation better. Win Throttle has been around for a few years. It might have been good enough to cure these problems a long time ago.

 

WinThrottle might've been handy, but not to those of us on 64-bit systems.

 

I kind of thought that was going to be an issue. Luckily the method and registers used are exactly the same. The WinRing0 driver made for easy x64 support once I got it all figured out.

 

Thanks to UncleWebb for developing this, and again to TehSuigi but a bloody good effort to all! This has turned out to be another great example of the community response when manufacturer's fail. Many thanks.

 

Well its been over a week now since I tried throttlestop.
My social life has gone down the drain.
My school work has suffered.
My friends went shopping on their own.
Ive eaten far to many takeaway's
I dont get up to answer my phone.
And yesterday I stayed in PJ'S all day.

Thanks throttlestop, as you can see, Ive been doing alot of gaming :laugh:

 

ahahaha! nice one angelwings...
Will give this a try later...
I've almost given up hope on solving my throttling issues and have not checked if there were new solutions for some months...
Finally... hopefully no more alt-tab sleep and wake up workaround!
BTW, the link to the first post is the most recent version?

 

Ahh warnold, you were the one that told me about sleep, wake up, I did that to, trust me, throttlestop will sort all you problems out, you wont get anymore throttling, I have been using it now for 9 days and haven't throttled once, its a great program to use and yes, throttlestop 1.90 is the latest release in the link on page 1, enjoy !!!!!!

Sophie...

 

I think that there are mainly two types: due to warming of the graphics card (9700M GT) or due to heat from the CPU CPU (eg Q9000). Throttlestop solve the two cases? I sent my laptop to ACER and I think they do not know how to fix it. They change CPU, motherboard and graphics card.

Thank you all for finding solutions.

 

This doesn't solve GPU throttling, but most models don't exhibit that kind of behaviour. If the GPU does downclock, it's because the throttled CPU can't send frames to it to be rendered fast enough. Check the Definitive Guide for an explanation.
Always worth a shot, though!

 

I finally wrote up some basic documentation for ThrottleStop and it's included in the main download now.

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/3/1794507/ThrottleStop.zip

If anyone has any specific questions just ask.

I agree that any GPU throttling might have been directly related to the CPU throttling. The GPU probably thought that if the CPU is taking a break then it might as well do the same. Once the CPU is running at full speed then the GPU doesn't have a reason to slow down. A GPU doesn't slow down due to heat until after 100C.

If anyone is curious just run a GPU-Z log file while also running a ThrottleStop log file while gaming; with and without TS enabled so you can compare.

 

Doesn't turning powemizer off stop gpu throttling, not as Ive ever had the gpu throttle, hey kevin, do you like my new sig picture mate haha, me likes it

 

@unclewebb, Any chance you could let throttlestop set a lower voltage than 1V?

I would like 0.9500V please.

 

Ok, but my problem is when I pass Orthos the laptop stops. The problem also occurs when I pass the stress test of Everest. The julia. En ambos casos entorno a los 70ºC.

When I pass twice the Julia test of Everest, then the processor becomes a Pentium IV.

I don't know anyone that happens, that the notebook is turned off. That is why what I thought that was a different problem but related.

Thanks for help and for ThrottleStop.

 

moral hazard: Every Core 2 CPU has a unique minimum voltage ID set by Intel. I believe that ThrottleStop is reading that info correctly from your CPU. If Intel has set the minimum for your CPU at 1.0 volt then there is nothing ThrottleStop or any software can do about that.

If you would like me to check, run my MSR Tool and enter 0xCE in the MSR Number box at the bottom and then click on the Read MSR button. Take a screen shot and then do the same thing for MSR 0x198. Those two registers have information about your CPU; the minimum and maximum VID and multipliers allowed.

Post or send me those two screen shots so I can have a look.

jgarciac: Run a ThrottleStop log file and then go and run some Everest benchmarks over and over again until the benchmarks slow down. The log file should tell us what's going on. Send it to me or upload it and send me a link so I can have a look.

 

Rmclock and crystalCPUID can undervolt to 0.9500V.
Also the default SuperLFM voltage was 0.9500V.

I have attached the screen shots to this post

 

ThrottleStop 1.91
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/3/1794507/ThrottleStop.zip

Thanks moral hazard for helping me out. The newer Core 2 CPUs with a 1066 Bus Speed have a minimum multiplier of 6.0 and then SLFM can be used to drop the effective multiplier down to 3.0. It looks like the minimum multiplier for your T8100 with a Bus Speed of 800 is a multiplier of 8.0 and then when that is combined with SLFM, you get an effective multiplier of 4.0. ThrottleStop 1.90 wasn't expecting to see that which is why it choked and didn't give you access to your SLFM voltage.

Long story short, it should be all better now and it should let you select your SLFM voltage of 0.9500 V.

For multipliers my best guess would be that you can probably get these:

4.0 = 8.0 + SLFM enabled
5.0 = 10.0 + SLFM enabled

6.0 to 10.5 can be selected as normal and then a ThrottleStop setting of 11.5 should give you access to your IDA multiplier if C3/C6 are enabled. 11.0 is selectable but I'm not sure how it would be supported. It might give you some IDA or no IDA when using this setting.

Use maximum VID when playing with these to prevent a BSOD. Any feedback about how your CPU multipliers actually work would be great. Can you run reliably at full load with your maximum multiplier and minimum VID? I had a T7200 that could do this but it didn't support SLFM or IDA so the voltage wasn't able to go as low as your CPU.

With IDA enabled, when running a single threaded task like Super PI mod, ThrottleStop should report an average multiplier of about 11.2 depending on how much background activity that is going on and waking up the second core. I think CPU-Z rounds the reported multiplier off to the nearest 0.5.

 

Thanks a lot unclewebb, it works with 0.9500V now.

I guess I don't need RMclock anymore since throttlestop uses less resources.

If you have some spare time, is there any chance of getting a CPU temp reading shown in the Taskbar?

By the way, My notebook seems to use 11x for IDA if I don't use something like throttlestop to bump that up to 11.5x.

Anyway my T8100 is very stable, I can set it to 10.5x @ 0.9500V and it passes intelburntest on max.

 

Hi unclewebb, great job you've done here

I haven't try ThrottleStop but I will this weekend.
Does ThrottleStop support VID to 0.9250V ??
My cpu is T9300 and I get the lowest VID 0.9250V

It'll be great if ThrottleStop able to go 0.9250V in T9300!

Thanks!

 

So, the latest ThrottleStop is Notebooks/Laptops supported already?

 

Yes, I'm using it right now on my notebook.

 

Hi all;

It has just been confirmed that HP's new Envy 15 with the i5 processor is throttled when on battery and no turbo boost available....basically turning the 2.53Ghz (3.06 w/ tb) machine into a fancy netbook at 1.2Ghz when on battery.

I have 2 of these arriving this week with different screens and will be returning one (or both). Can anyone advise if ThrottleStop is compatible with the new i5 processors (PM55 chipset)??

If compatability is unknown I would be willing to try it out on one of the machines I'm getting. That being said, any guidance / thoughts / advice would be welcome....

Note: The throttling is implemented by HP as an attempt to improve battery life, we believe via BIOS. It is not part of an OS power plan setting etc...

Thanks

 

ThrottleStop was originally designed for the Core i7 in the Dell Studio XPS 16, so I don't see why it can't support the i5.
(and that forced throttling for battery life is just thick. There's a thing called SpeedStep for a reason!)

 

Thanks.

I noticed that there is now documentation included in the throttlestop download. I am using a barrowed MBP and don't want to download anything to it. Is there any way to view that info without downloading program?

 

Hope it helps.

Code:

WARNING

Some laptops are using clock modulation and multiplier reductions to lower the performance and power consumption of your computer. This is done deliberately to either allow your computer to run cooler or to allow your laptop to operate with a power adapter that is not sufficient to fully power your laptop and recharge its battery at the same time. When using ThrottleStop, it is strongly recommended to monitor power consumption at the wall with a Kill-a-Watt meter or similar device and make sure that you don't exceed the power capabilities of your power adapter. Use of ThrottleStop to bypass these throttling schemes is at your own risk and can result in permanent damage to your power adapter or computer or both which may not be covered by your warranty.
ThrottleStop 1.91

ThrottleStop is designed to monitor for and correct the 3 main types of CPU throttling that are being used on many laptop computers.

The left side of ThrottleStop contains a variety of options which can be used to bypass CPU throttling and on the right side is a Monitoring panel that shows you the current state of each thread on your CPU.
Clock Modulation

This is a feature of Intel CPUs since the Pentium 4 era and is also known as On Demand Clock Modulation. It was provided so users could manually reduce the performance of their computer to improve battery life or reduce heat output. It reduces the internal speed of your computer so when this is being used, your computer will run slower. In the Monitoring area the current modulation value will be shown in the CMod% column. Intel allows a user to select any value between 100.0% and 12.5% in steps of 12.5%. A reading of 100.0% shows that your computer is running at full speed and Clock Modulation is not being used to reduce the performance of your CPU. A reading of 50.0% means your computer is operating at half of its designed performance level.
Chipset Clock Modulation

This is a second type of throttling that is controlled by the on board chipset. It works exactly the same as regular Clock Modulation and is another method that can be used to slow down your computer. This method is being used on the Dell Alienware M15x as well as many Acer laptops. It's possible that both methods can be used at the same time but I've yet to see any computer doing this. Most laptops choose one method or the other.
Set Multiplier

Adjusting this will give you some control over the multiplier your CPU uses. The default multiplier for a Core i7-720QM mobile processor is 12.0. When this value is set to 13.0, it tells the CPU that you would like it to use the default 12.0 multiplier plus as much turbo boost as is allowed. The i7-720 can use upto 9 bins of turbo boost so when running a single threaded task it's possible for the multiplier to go as high as 21.0 for brief moments. The result is that your CPU will go from 1600 MHz (12.0 x 133.3 MHz) up to 2800 MHz (21.0 x 133.3 MHz). As more cores enter the active state to take care of additional processes, the amount of turbo boost available will be reduced. When this CPU is fully loaded on all 8 threads, you will not likely see any turbo boost available so the multiplier will return to its default value of 12.0. The amount of turbo boost available at any instant in time is directly related to how many cores are in the active state. The average multiplier is reported for each thread in the Monitoring section under the Multi heading.

When this is set to any value less than the default multiplier, your computer will be limited to a maximum of that multiplier.
Voltage ID

This is only available on Core 2 based CPUs and allows you to adjust the core voltage. Some users like to reduce the voltage of their CPUs to reduce its heat output and power consumption which can increase your battery life. On a Core 2 Duo or Quad, before adjusting the multiplier you should always set the Voltage ID as high as it can go and enable it first before adjusting or enabling Set Multiplier. If you don't do this you may accidentally tell your CPU to use an insufficient amount of core voltage for the selected multiplier which can result in your computer immediately freezing up which will require you to reboot. When adjusting your core voltage, be careful not to adjust it too low or your computer might become unstable. Voltage is not adjustable on the newer Core i7/i5/i3 processors so you don't have to worry about this.
Start Minimized

Selecting this option will start ThrottleSop minimized to the system tray.
SLFM

This stands for Super Low Frequency Mode and is only available on some of the 45nm Core 2 mobile CPUs. Enabling this can result in your CPU running at half of its normal speed internally. At idle, most of these CPUs will enable SLFM automatically. The lowest multiplier available on a Core 2 CPU is 6.0 but when SLFM is activated, internally the CPU is operating as if the multiplier was half that much so in the monitoring area you could see Multi numbers as low as 3.0. SLFM mode only works when you are using even multipliers. If you select an 8.0 multiplier and also select SLFM then your effective multiplier should be reported as 4.0. SLFM needs to be used with the Set Multiplier option.
Auto Turn Off

Some users only want to use ThrottleStop when plugged into AC power. This option when enabled will disable ThrottleStop whenever you unplug your laptop and go from AC to battery power. After this happens it will be up to you to manually enable ThrottleStop. When ThrottleStop is disabled, it can take some time before the bios resumes control of Clock Modulation and the multipliers. It is not recommended to switch between AC power and battery power when your CPU is fully loaded. On some laptop computers, with or without ThrottleStop running, this can damage or reduce the life of your battery and can result in an immediate crash. Due to the amount of time it can take before the bios resumes full control after ThrottleStop is disabled, this feature may or may not be able to prevent any problems when quickly switching between AC and battery power when fully loaded.
Log File

Enabling this will create a log file in the ThrottleStop folder called ThrottleStopLog.txt. By default logging happens once per second.
More Data

This option when combined with the Log File option will result in data being written more often to the log file. When lightly loaded you might see as many as 8 entries per second instead of the default 1 entry per second.
Minimize on Close

This changes the behavior of the X close gadget at the top right corner of ThrottleStop. Wit this option enabled, instead of ThrottleStop exiting it will minimize to the system tray.
Turn ThrottleStop Off

This button is an easy way to quickly stop ThrottleStop from making any changes to your CPU. It's equivalent to unchecking the first 4 boxes all at once.
C0%

This measurement on the newer Core i7/i5/i3 CPUs is a very accurate measurement of what percentage of time each thread of your CPU is in the C0 state. When fully loaded, it is typical to see a reading of 100.0%. This meter is similar to the Task Manager load meter but the two are not the same. C0% is more a measure of how hard your CPU is working internally. The C0% will not be able to report 100.0% when clock modulation is being used to slow your processor down. The traditional load meter will continue to report 100% even when internally the CPU might be running significantly slower. The C0% data can provide an early warning sign of possible clock modulation or other problems.

On most Core 2 mobile CPUs as well as some Core 2 desktop CPUs that can enter sleep states at idle, this value does not represent the CPU load. You will typically see the C0% start to increase on these CPUs as the processor idles down. A high value shows you that the active core on a Core 2 CPU is working hard at idle to keep up with the background tasks. That's a good thing. As the CPU runs slower to conserve energy and battery life, it must spend a higher percentage of time in the C0 state to keep up. At full load it will accurately represent load percentage.
CMod%

This reports the current clock modulation status of your CPU. Any reading less than 100.0% is a sign of throttling.
Chip%

This reports the current Chipset Clock Modulation being applied to your CPU. As above, any reading less than 100.0% is a sign of throttling.
DTS / Temp

By default, the final column shows a direct reading from the on chip Digital Thermal Sensors. These sensors count down as your core temperature gets hotter and hotter. Intel CPUs are designed to automatically slow down when any of the DTS sensors count down and reach a value of zero. A CPU should not be slowing down until it has reached the maximum temperature that Intel designed into their CPU. Some laptops are slowing down even when the core temperature is still 30 degrees or more away from the maximum temperature that Intel specifies for these CPUs.

Some users prefer to see this data reported as an absolute core temperature.

Absolute Temperature = TJMax - DTS

If you know the maximum temperature for your CPU (TJMax) then you can enter this information into the ThrottleStop.ini configuration file like so.

TJMax=100

If you are not sure what value is correct for your CPU then use a program like RealTemp and go into the Settings window where it will show you the TJMax value for your CPU. Typical values are 100 for the early 65nm Core 2 mobile CPUs and 105 for the later 45nm Core 2 mobile CPUs. The newer Core i7/i5/i3 CPUs are set individually with typical values of 99 or 100.

The Intel Processor Finder site is a good source of information about your CPU.

http://processorfinder.intel.com/

Once you have determined your s-Spec number from the above site you can also go to CPU World to learn more about your CPU.

http://www.cpu-world.com/
History

January 26, 2010 - Version 1.91 - Fixed minimum voltage for Core 2 mobile CPUs with 200 MHz BCLK. Thanks moral hazard from NotebookReview. 

 

Thanks, good info

 

ThrottleStop can be used with the new HP laptops but early testing showed that it did not solve the minimum multiplier on battery problem. I plan to look into this problem some more when I have time. I got side tracked on the Acer throttling issue recently which finally has a solution.

crayonyes: If your T9300 can physically go to 0.9250 VID then ThrottleStop 1.91 should support that now. The minor bug where ThrottleStop could not access the SLFM VID on some CPUs has been fixed. If you have a problem just let me know.

I think that's doable. It should be easy enough to borrow some code from RealTemp for this purpose.

RMClock does not handle the half multipliers correctly so I know that can lead to problems with IDA. If you have time can you post a picture of ThrottleStop while running a single thread of Super PI or similar benchmark so I can see what multipliers you are getting for IDA? I think my guess was it should average somewhere around 11.2 on the hardest working core while the second core that is mostly asleep will probably be close to the 10.5 default.

I'm glad someone finally noticed.

This site shows that the default multiplier for a T8100 is 10.5 and the IDA multiplier is 11.5.
Many Intel mobile CPUs only get a +0.5 multiplier boost but you get a full +1.0 boost, probably because your BCLK is lower.

http://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SL/SLAPT.html

In your screen shot of MSR 0xCE, the EDX register ends with 4B27. The 27 is VID information. 0x27 = 39 in decimal.
voltage = ( 39 X 0.0125 ) + 0.7125 = 1.2000 volts which should be your maximum voltage ID.

B in hexadecimal is 11 in decimal and the 4 stands for the half multiplier so when combined, this confirms that your maximum multiplier is 11.5.

 

Here you go:

 

An 11.45 multi tells me that your system is lean and mean without a lot of background junk running. The less activity waking up the sleeping core, the higher the multiplier can go on the core that's awake.

Thanks for the results. That helps confirm that TS is working as intended. TS makes it easy for users to finally see exactly how IDA and turbo boost are working and lets ex-RMClock users get that extra half multiplier that they deserve.