How to Minimize CPU Load / W3V

As the proud owner of a W3V for one week now, I have to say that I am loving this machine. Undervolted, the battery gave me well over four hours of life with the wireless LAN running all day yesterday in the airport with general office tasks.

Here's the million dollar question. I've installed the RM Clock utility and as everyone knows, the program includes a handy little CPU and OS load meter. I am driving myself crazy trying to get the CPU load to a low and stable number when the computer is sitting idle. I've reinstalled Windows and stripped off most of the useless software that I don't use.

I've upgraded the computer to 1GB of RAM and uninstalled the following programs:
Norton
Power4Gear
Toshiba Bluetooth Stack (now using default MS stack)
Intel Wireless Software (using default MS drivers)

When the computer is sitting completely idle with the bluetooth OFF, the CPU load fluctuates between 6% and 96%, basically spending most of its time in the 90+% range. Curiously, if I turn on bluetooth (with the switch on the right side of the keyboard) the CPU load drops to 8% and, for the most part, remains stable. This just doesn't make sense to me.

Anyone have any suggestions for minimizing the CPU load and keeping it at a stable, low number? It seems kind of ridiculous that it's running at 90+% when the computer is just sitting idle. Thanks for any advice!

 

... sounds like the BT stack is going crazy when you turn off bluetooth..

go into your task manager (ctrl + alt + del), go to processes, and click on the cpu titlebar to sort by cpu usage. then watch to see what processes is using the cpu.

 

Ok, did that. Curiously "System Idle Process" shows 98-99 of CPU usage. Virtually every other task is at 0. Any suggestions on how to address this or is this normal? Is there a way to eliminate the "system idle process" without fouling up the system?

 

lol system idle process is just that, its the percentage that is NOT being used at that point. They did a terrible job of naming it but basically its just whatever's left over. So if say internet explorer is taking up 10% then system idle processes is 90% etc...

 

Ok, sorry for the stupid question. Here's what seems odd. If I look at "performance" under the task manager, it shows CPU load fluctuating around 2-5%. In RM Clock, however, the CPU load is generally in the 90% range. Any idea why there is a difference in the two load factors? I've been able to get around the problem by checking "use OS load-based management" in RM Clock, but I'd like to know if my system is running inefficiently.

 

I have the same problem with my z71v. I didn't have this problem with my m3np. So my guess is that the intel INF utility i put in did it (i never installed that on my m3np). Since we have up to date drivers on the z71forum I just went through and installed all of them.

If you have time and want to try it, install all teh critial drivers (bluetooth, wireless, video, sound, LAN) but DON'T install the intel inf utility and then run RM clock and see if the CPU still runs in the 90's. You could also run RM clock while before installed each driver and see which one makes it climb to the 90's.

I'm still trying to figure out if the CPU is really at 90+% or if that's just the HLT command. Anyway, let us know what you find.

 

This is strange.. maybe it's just something with RMClock?

I'll try to install it tonight after i get off work and see if i get similar results

 

oh, another thing to try would be Centrino Hardware Control, it shoudl also give you a cpu load display.. see how that compares with RMClock

 

I just spent some time going through the RMClock website and under the release notes for version 1.6, it states "Added load-based management for Centrino systems as software work-around." So maybe this accounts for the difference. I note that in the monitor, the "OS Load" stays around 3-5%, just as the "CPU Activity" does in the Task Manager. So I'm guessing that the CPU isn't really operating at 90% as might be shown in the RightMark window.

 

I'm running RMclock 1.6 on my W3A and it gives sensible results. However, the W3A doesn't have built-in BT.

The important issue is whether the CPU is crawling along at ~800MHz (mine says 798MHz).

John

 

Is that both the CPU load and OS load that's crawling? Because the OS load is near 0% but it's the CPU load that is in the 90's. If i click "Use OS load-based managment" then it'll go into ~800MHz speed during idle, but otherwise it'll stay pinned at 2GHz.