M15X i7-820QM Windows score drop

Okay, so I recently went down the M15x + GTX 580m path and ultimately tossed in the towel.... I have replaced the 580M with a 6970M and my WEI score for Graphics and Gaming improved from 7.4 to 7.6. This is all good but, my Processor (i7-820QM) dropped from 7.2 WEI score to a 5.5. Why in the world did it drop? Even when I OC it to about 1821 MHZ (1700ish stock) the score remains the same. Does un-linking my RAM have something to do with it?

EDIT: Solution

Solution: Enable SpeedStep in BIOS.

The Relationship between SpeedStep, Turbo Boost and Windows.

I misunderstood the SpeedStep function but further more I didn't know its relationship to Windows. The first assumption was that disabling SpeedStep would force my CPU to be in Turbo at all times. This is also similar to how it is worded in the BIOS. What I didn't know was that if SpeedStep is disabled, Windows does not recognize the Turbo feature and runs the CPU at it's base multiplier. I used Argus Monitor to determine as to if my CPU was hitting Turbo or not. Argus has a specific monitor for Turbo so it was easy to see that my CPU was not being used at or near turbo. Once I turned SpeedStep back on, the difference was like night and day. Argus reported all cores fluctuating appropriately according to demand. Clearing the base line WEI .xml (location listed below from batfinks) and re-running the assessment yielded my CPU's original score of 7.2 vice 5.5.

 

reset WEI score baseline.

C:\Windows\Performance\WinSat\DataStore and delete the .xml files
restart laptop and rerun the test.
also make sure you are not in stealth mode.

 

Alright I got rid of the .XML files, restarted, verified that I wasn't in stealth mode and ran the assessment again from a clean slate. Processor still only got a 5.5. Is this a sign that my processor is dying? I ran Intel's processor diagnostic tool and everything passed. I have OC'd the CPU a few times in the recent past but nothing hard core, i kept it fairly modest. Could the OCing have degraded the CPU?

 

What 3dmark 11 says, is score the same? Did you notice any slowdowns at all?

I would not rely on wei that much...

 

what are the cpu temps like ? can you run hwmonitor to monitor the temps as you run the WEI baseline.
can you also run memtest to test your memory please ?
have you reset the bios by doing a power drain & removing the cmos battery ?

 

run a benchmark like 3dmark11 as suggested above. I havent updated my WEI for ages because I don:t care about it.

 

I just ran the assessment again while monitoring hwmonitor. Once under summary and once under sensors. Under the features portion of hwmonitor Turbo was listed in red opposed to green, is this bad? My max temps for the cores, under sensors, was 54c. I will test my memory and post the results shortly as well as resetting the CMOS and doing a full power drain. Thanks for the support guys!

 

I used the windows diagnostic tool to test my memory, no errors were detected.

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erm goto system properties and under the cpu uninstall it. reboot and allow the driver to reinstall correctly.
clear the WEI baseline again as in earlier thread #2, reboot
and rerun test.

 

3DMark 11 score is P2905 for my rig.

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Reported clock speed: 1728
Maximum turbo clock: 1196

Is this right? Pretty sure the turbo on the 820qm is 2.8 ghz.... not 1.1ghz....

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you are stuck in stealth mode by the looking of it.
switching off the laptop and doing a power drain and removing the cmos battery usually gets you out of it.

 

I'll give that a shot when I get back home. I considered that but why just the CPU? Shouldn't the GPU be affected by that too?

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Well that didn't work out too well.... After the power drain and CMOS clear Aeria: Ignite started filling up my notifications tab with blank duplicates and my network indicator (next to time and date on the tool bar) is now blank and does nothing when clicked on. I uninstalled Aeria: Ignite to get it to go away then I ran the WEI. Processor received the same score of 5.5.

I reset my time and date in CMOS and turned off speedstep for the CPU before running WEI.
All CPU Gadget displayed my CPU in the 90% load range during the calculation portion of WEI, in the past when I mistaking touched stealth mode the cores would cap out at 50% on the dot.

 

Windows UI is back to normal and I downloaded Argus Monitor to monitor whether or not my 820QM was hitting Turbo, will update again soon.

 

Well, i believe somewhere a long the way of updating my video card my Turbo driver got waxed. I have one device listed as unknown and no devices listed as the turbo boost driver. Per a thread on these forums I should be able to see this device if the driver is installed. While monitoring Argus Monitor during the WEI the frequencies for all cores stayed at or around 1199 MHz. The screen shots I saw for Argus displayed what I should be seeing which would be increases to frequency and the the range at which the core would be considered at Turbo. Currently however, the frequencies are not increasing at all with the max that I saw for a few seconds being 1207 MHz.

 

Well I have solved my issue. In 09', when I received my M15X, a buddy and I went through BIOS settings and to our interpretation of Speedstep; turning it off would make the CPU run maxed out. Well I guess at that time either A.) It worked or B.) Games weren't demanding enough for me to notice I had actually taken away Windows' ability to use Turbo. I was lead to this by a few other forums and this is what I did:

1.) Installation of Intel's all in one driver package that included the Turbo driver failed -> "Your system does not meet the minimum requirements"
2.) Per a thread in another forum I needed to turn on SpeedStep to install the driver, so I restarted and enabled SpeedStep.
3.) Upon reaching my desktop Argus was already up and my CPU was suddenly alive again (Turbo driver still failed!! haha)
4.) I cleared my old WEI .xml files and re-ran the WEI assessment.

My CPU regained it's original 7.2 WEI score!

I feel a little dumb for misunderstanding Speedstep but it's not blatantly clear anywhere that without SpeedStep enabled, Windows will not recognize the CPU as having Turbo. Thanks for the help in trying to figure this one out, I hope this thread will pop under Google for anyone else who has this problem