Intel Turbo Boost issues on G73JW power profiles raising my idle temps

Hey, gang. I've been having some issues keeping my idle CPU temps down because of Intel Turbo Boost's behavior and was wondering if anyone had experienced similar and found a solution since searching on the topic didn't yield a clear answer. I've pinged Ken from GenTechPC on this but thought Chastity or someone might have a suggestion I've missed. The story so far... [insert nice flashback fade effect here]:

THURSDAY NIGHT.

I just noticed that my normally silent G73 was blowing hot air via the CPU vent louder than usual from the moment it booted into Win7 without my having opened a single app. I haven't introduced any new background processes and I'm clean of any malware. When I ran HWINFO32, I was shocked to see that my system now has an "idle" CPU temp of 62-65C. I spent hours doing shutdowns, reboots, and have already reset the BIOS to factory defaults. No change. I thought that I might just have to just blow out the vents with some compressed air, but I noticed that my Intel Turbo Boost gadget meter was bouncing up and down nonstop to more than 2.53GHz instead of staying at around the default 1.73GHz. I'm not sure what the CPU thinks it needs more power for while running idle (and I don't have Asus' useless Twin Turbo running at all). I'd generally tended to leave my power configuration set for High Performance before this behavior began. I tried switching to Balanced, Entertainment, and a few of the other Power4Gear and Win7 default power configurations. Only going into the battery-saving profiles dropped the CPU back to normal and allowed the fan speed to subside a bit. I'm already running the 205 BIOS and haven't seen any new Intel Turbo Boost Technology Driver listings of late, including in Chastity's app and driver thread on the AsusROG forums. Were it not for the Turbo Boost gadget, I'd have suspected a simple dust buildup, a need for repasting, extra warmth from the summer-like weather, or something similar. I'm going to attempt safe mode tonight to see if that results in normal CPU behavior, but is there anything else you can think of that I might have missed? Until I narrow this down further, I fear running anything CPU-intensive might ratchet the temps up to the 80-90C range. And I don't want to have to go the route of disabling Turbo Boost (if even possible) since the whole idea is that it only fires up when needed.

[And following that, dear friends, Thursday passed into history and brought the tale to last night after I got home from work and was looking more closely at mt background processes at Ken's suggestion...]

FRIDAY NIGHT.

As I'd suspected, there's nothing abnormal in my list of running processes, which were taking up very little ram. (And CPU utilization in task manager was 00 for most apps, save for the browser at 01 and HWiNFO32 at 01-03). However, after playing around with the power options some more, I've discovered the following:

- "Balanced" immediately drops the idle CPU temp to 47-51C
- "High Performance" keeps that same idle temp range, quite surprisingly
- "Power saver", same idle temp range
- "Power4Gear Battery Saving", same range
- "Power4Gear Entertainment", however, sent idle to a 59-65C idle range
- "Power4Gear Quiet Office" yields 48-52C
and "Power4Gear High Performance" sent the range to 60-67C.

All testing was performed while the unit was plugged in. The air vents were already quite clean when I used an air can on them as well. Based on these results and the min/max processor power state settings in Balanced and High Performance options, I think my idle temps should be fine if I use those for my default power configurations. Thank goodness, because I was not looking forward to possibly having to ship the system to Fremont again.

[And so, dear friends, I slept soundly, comfortable in the knowledge that I could bring my temps under some level of control. But why was this happening? Thus it was that I woke this morning and...]

SATURDAY MORNING.

Update: So much for some of those tests. I've just woken the system from sleep on "Balanced" mode and my Turbo Boost is hitting 2.4-2.53GHz with my CPU core temps hovering around 61-64C. The sole main apps running are Firefox and HWiNFO32. Almost every single process in task manager has a CPU utilization of 00, with HWiNFO32 getting up to 03 on occasion. Now, if I suddenly switch the profile to Power4Gear Quiet Office, Turbo Boost cuts of and CPU temps drop to their proper idle range of 47=50C. Now, I'l switch immediately back to "Balanced" and, interestingly enough Turbo Boost stays off and the temps remain low. If I go to another high temp profile then switch back to Balanced again, "Balanced" temps remain high. So it sounds like Turbo Boost itself is acting weird, as if instead of just being ready to clock to CPU at the time it's needed, it does so immediately even if no processes are yet running to take advantage of it.

NOW:

And so, here we are, gang. Any suggestions? Something's got to be making Turbo Boost misbehave, but I don't understand why. Thanks all for reading through all this!

 

Turbo mode automatically boosts performance over the cores when it is required but that doesn't always happen. Those temps are perfectly fine however and they are no different to what I see, unless you are looking to keep your laptop for 4 years + it should outlive the life of the laptop with those idle temps.

Download Throttlestop and turn it off. You can probably get the temps down by using powerplay and performance settings but the only way to prevent turbo boost being used when it is unwanted is to turn it off. You can select your multiplier that you want it running at without Turbo Boost. I have the 720QM so for me that is 7x - 12x over all cores and I find this works fine for general browsing and applications.

You can just have it running in the background with your profiles set up for when you want to switch it back on, you can also use power saver and turn down the clock modulation as far as you like. I can turn all of the cores down to 250mhz if I like

Still you may not notice much difference in the temps.

 

tl;dr, but is Asus's TwinTurbo on? I only go into 60C idle on the CPU when its on.

Otherwise with 100% Min/Max on all power profiles and I stay about 47C-55C.

Edit: Read it after all, and you don't have TwinTurbo on. Seems like you need to aircan. Or repaste.

 

Thanks, guys. Your feedback is most appreciated. The interesting thing is that this only just started happening over these last few days with no recent installs to trace it to. I am actually intending to keep this system for a few years and pass it on to a friend or family member eventually. I've already air-canned last night, but no change. Plus, if it were a blockage or repaste issue causing heat build-up, I'd still have higher than normal idle temps no matter what power mode I was in, even with Turbo Boost off. Turbo Boost is definitely misbehaving or under the mistaken impression something is running that requires more processing power. I'm leaning toward the former since I can switch power profiles back and forth and trick it into working properly. I'd hate to have to disable such a useful feature given its usefulness should it behave the way it's supposed to. Especially considering I'm not overclocking and have no intention of doing so in the future. 63-65C idling and web browsing is just unacceptable.

 

I would only put a year of high usage on stock paste before it starts degrading as its crap, I personally repaste as soon as I get the laptop because I just dont trust the producer to do it properly and 99% of the time I whip it open and splat! poor paste job. Are you using the latest BIOS?

Ambient temps will also play a big part.

 

I've had the system since mid-Sept, but it was out of commission for a few months, as shown in my sig, while getting RMA'ed twice for two motherboard replacements. I've actually over the last several months yet to really push the system much beyond browsing and stuff since I've been so busy. The most demanding game this thing has ever run is, sadly, Magicka so far, and only for a few minutes. A repaste might get me down 5C or so, but if Turbo Boost is still acting up, that'd just have me idling at 60C instead of 65C when not on power save modes. I'm running the latest 205 BIOS. Am considering reinstalling the Intel Turbo Boost drivers and Power4Gear to see if anything changes. The room it's in is nicely air conditioned and it's used on flat cool surfaces and a passive laptop cooler now and then.

 

Sorry to say those temps are pretty much normal for an I7 these chips do run quite hot normally between 45-65 idle and 65-85 under full load on stock paste.

I dont see the 40oC's very often anymore and my ambient temperature is low and I am using IC7, it depends on the chip and the paste. Asus skimped out on full copper heatsinks as well so we wont see fantastic results.

 

1) The new Firefox uses hardware accelerated features, which in turn may be triggering a demand on the cpu/gpu. Try disabling it and see what happens.

2) What version of the intel gadget are you using? Maybe it needs an update?

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3052&DwnldID=19105&lang=eng

@Dallers: OT - Seeing your sig reminded me of last night, 2 new World Records on AMD: Vantage- P49918 3DMark 11- P17448

 

Hi, Chastity. Was hoping you might chime in. I haven't upgraded to the new v2.0 of the gadget, but will go get it now. As for Firefox, I'm actually hitting 60-66C right now on the system with only HWiNFO32 running. (I'm on the forums via my i7 tower right now with the G73 beside me). Nothing but Dropbox and Scrybe in my startup folder, so no new items of late since before this all started. I just switched the power options from Balanced to P4G's "Quiet Office" to drop the cores back into the 40s again.

 

Mwahahahahaha go on splash what the system was, I sometimes look on Desktop gaming sites to see what im missing and the choices are endless and it makes my feeble 3DMark11 score look pathetic :cry:

At the end of the day though, The Witcher 2 at 45fps on high is good enough for me!

P.s Kindest Regards for supporting my ICD status I am hoping to do a full overhaul and start logging shortly. 920xm is going in. Just waiting for my fancy sig which I hear is under production!

 

It was the new Asus Crosshair V Formula 990fx mobo w/ a AMD Phenom II x6 1100 (at 6GHz) + GSkill DDR3-2000 + Quad SLI GTX580 modded to 900-930 MHz, and a little bit of LN2.

I'm also getting a new badge.

 

6Ghz pmsl! I just couldn't justify it personally if I had 6 screens to run at Ubersampling maybe but with prices these days not a chance!

Exciting stuff, your current badge looks the dogs.

 

Just finished installing the new Turbo Boost Monitor. It's a shame v2.0 isn't a pure widget like the original one was, esp since it likes living in the taskbar while running. (Plain-looking while in "small" mode, too). Didn't see any newer version of the Turbo Boost Driver yet, though. No behavioral changes otherwise, though. If I change power profiles, that alone drives up the temps, still.

 

That's just wonky. Does running Throttlestop help you any?

 

Haven't tried it yet, but that's definitely my next option if things get out of hand. I'm going to run a few more tests tonight and tomorrow first. Think I'll try running Prime95 while the temps are normal to see if they return to normal after I stop it.