How to adjust Core Parking from inside Windows 7

There have been guides posted which talk about how to stop Core Parking. While this posts isn't that much different, it will combine ideas from different guides, but will include my own twist. This guide assumes that you already know what Core Parking means and whether or not you find it desirable.

While this guide is a work in progress, the idea of this guide is to edit the registry once and then have full control over Core Parking for both AC and battery. Once completed, changes to Core Parking are carried out using previously hidden options within "Change advance power settings". These changes should happen immediately and without having to reboot.

Please note that I haven't run into core parking all that much. So, I'm not able to fully test this and would appreciate feedback. Thank you.​

Credit for this guide goes to LaptopNut, mad_man and Mr Pras.


Warning: This procedure requires editing the Registry and should only be performed by those who are comfortable and understand the risks. You might want to wait for discussion and corrections before attempting. It is recommended that you create all necessary backups. If something should go wrong, you are liable for all incidental or consequential damages. By continuing you accept all responsibility for your actions.

Instructions

1. Click the "Start" button, type "regedit" (without quotes) and press "Enter".
2. If necessary, scroll to the very top (or press the Home key) to highlight the "Computer" branch.
3. Press Ctrl+F.
4. In the "Find what" field type "unparked cores" (without quotes) and press "Enter".
   
   Find will now start searching the Registry for your query and will eventually stop on the key:
   
   
   "0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583"​
   
   This is the minimum value. Pressing the F3 key again continues the search and it will next stop on the key:
   
   
   "ea062031-0e34-4ff1-9b6d-eb1059334028"​
   
   This is the maximum value. Both of these keys are located in ControlSet001.
   
   Here, a search from the top to the bottom of the Registry will find these exact two Registry keys in ControlSet001, ControlSet002 and CurrentControlSet, for a total of 6 locations. We are only interested in the CurrentControlSet. The other ControlSets will get modified automatically.
   
   
5. Press the Tab key and then the Home key to go back to the top of the Registry.
6. Press the F3 key until you arrive at the first CurrentControlSet (minimum) key.
7. Click once on "Attributes" entry, press the F2 key and rename to "Attributes.off" (without quotes).
8. Press the F3 key until you arrive at the second CurrentControlSet (maximum) key.
9. Click once on "Attributes" entry, press the F2 key and rename to "Attributes.off" (without quotes).
10. Close RegEdit, save any unfinished work and reboot.

Once back up and running, go to:

Control Panel -> Power Options -> Change plan setting -> Change advanced power settings​

Scroll down and open the "Processor power management" branch and you should find that you have two new entries:

Processor performance core parking min cores
Processor performance core parking max cores​

You should now be able to independently make adjustments for AC and battery. Adjust as needed.

Enjoy.

 

Isn't there a different way that involves changing a value instead of deleting?

 

The default is to have NO Attribute. If you mean changing the min and max values, then that only locks the value and doesn't allow the hidden options to appear in Power Options. Having the options appear allows you to adjust to taste and not have to reboot to get a change to be recognized. Now that might be fine if you want limited options, but it's not the point of the guide.

For example, maybe you want core parking when on battery to extend battery life, but not when plugged into AC. Since the options carry over to all plans, you can set the amount you want according to the plan you select and it can be changed in realtime.

 

I can confirm if it works or not. I just can say I did this trick after fresh win7x64 installation and after one month and a half I never have problem about core parking.

I followed this guide:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/microsoft-windows-7/486478-fix-win7-i7-sluggish-performance.html

I checked the new options and appears as expected.... but what I must do. I mean:

For the minimum the system said:

Plugged: 10%
On Battery: 10%

For the maximum the system says:

Plugged: 100%
On Battery: 100%

Are those values OK?

 

I had the same values. My guess is that those are the default ones.

 

Nice quick guide as always kal, I'll be sure to give it a shot when mine arrives.

 

Cool guide!

Also, The "Attribute" key can just be renamed instead of deleted - for example, mine are "Attribute Old" .

For those who really like to tinker...
If one digs around in Windows Server 2008 whitepapers, there's lots of other fun power settings. Just save the entire HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings registry hive and dig in to other power management stuff.

 

Hey buddy, I added a link at the first post on
http://forum.notebookreview.com/microsoft-windows-7/486478-fix-win7-i7-sluggish-performance.html

 

As I mentioned in the other thread. The easiest way to check the Core parking behaviour, especially after you have made changes is to run the built in Windows 7 Resource Manager. You can do that from the Start, Run Menu. Resource Manager is similar to the standard TaskManager but it will show you exactly which Cores are parked and which ones are not. Cores will have a label near them saying ''Parked'' for example.

This is very useful because you can observe the behavior of Cores while idle and under load to see whether your settings are correct or not.

 

I didn't even think of renaming the keys. That is a much better idea because it is much easier to rectify any mistakes, identify changes or make corrections.

 

Nice. Might I suggest on top of MarkS' suggestion to make a backup of your registry first and how to do so?

 

To do a backup within Regedit, right click on the yellow folder of the particular registry section, click on export, then give it a name. Before saving you can either leave it on the default backup which will do the key selection or you can select to backup all keys. Once you have saved the Registry keys it is a good idea to make sure that the name of the saved file is ending in .reg. This way you can click on the file to merge the contents to the Registry.

It is possible to create a Registry file to disable / enable Core parking with first method and it is possible to do the same for the second method that deletes the Attributes. The difference is that with the first method, a registry file will work for everyone but I am not sure if the second method would work the same way. I think it is better if each individual does it themselves but it is good to know that the capability is there as an alternative.

 

Thanks, I meant adding it to the OP?

 

ok i had done the core parking fix before by just editing the registry by changing the ValueMax from 64 to 0 and that worked. could see that no cores were being parked by viewing in Resource Manager. But when I do it this way with deleting the attributes i can sure enough see the new options in the power plans but when i change the 'Processor performance core parking min cores' to 0% i still see cores parked in Resource Manager.
I've tried rebooting after changing the setting too but they still show as being parked.
To disable core parking are you supposed to change the value to 0% for both 'Processor performance core parking min cores' and 'Processor performance core parking max cores' ? at first i just set the min cores t 0% but i've tried setting both to 0% too with no change.

 

also after changing to 0% and rebooting if i look at the valueMax key in the registry which I had originally changed from 64 to 0 to get it to work the old way it still shows as 64. surely that should of changed to 0?

 

The guide has been updated to rename, instead of delete the value. If you would like to restore the original "Attributes" value, do the following:

1. Using the guide, go to the minimum CurrentControlSet key.
2. Right-click in an unused area of the value panel and select "DWORD (32-bit) Value".
3. Double-click on "New Value #1".
4. Change the "Value data" to Hex 1 and click "OK".
5. Press F2 and rename to "Attributes.off".

Do the same thing with the maximum CurrentControlSet key.

That's the wrong value.

Just for reference, no rebooting is necessary.

To completely disable Core Parking:

Set min to 100%
Set max to 0%
Click "Apply".

If you place Resource Monitor side-by-side to the Power Options "Advanced power settings" window, make the above change and as soon as you click "Apply" you can see in Resource Monitor the word "Parked" disappear.

No. The min and max value in there is only used to set the control of the function and not store the results of the change.

 

woohoo! yep that worked exactly as you said. you can actually see the cores being unparked a second after you hit apply. awesome, thanks!

 

of course setting the min to 100% and max to 0% makes perfect sense now i've actually engaged my brain

 

Ah I see, nice clarification!

 

Setting Min to 100% and Max to 100% is the most logical to me - always 100% of the cores unparked.

 

I can't modify minimum value (0% all the time). What could be the reason?

 

Why would you want that setting anyway?

How are you setting it? Typing "0%" won't work...

 

that's why:

edit:
No matter what value 0-100 I put there it doesn't change...

edit:
Nevermind, I fixed it.

 

Tried this and worked. thanks for the guide.

 

Where in the resource manager does it say "parked". I haven't done this yet but I can't see the word "parked" anywhere in the resource manager.

 

It's the resource monitor, CPU tab.

You may have to go to the "Monitor" menu and select "Select Processors" to view all the logical cores.

Then there's a pane on the right that shows live scrolling graphs of CPU usage for each of the logical cores - they are labeled "CPU 0" - "CPU n"...it will say "Parked" next to those labels when they are parked.

If you don't see the right-hand pane it may be collapsed - there should be an expander arrow button to click on to expand the pane.

 

Look in Resource Monitor for this:



Source: muffe

 

Mind telling me how you fixed it? In my power options advanced settings I click on Processor performance cor parking min cores. On battery and Plugged in are more default at 10%, but when I click on them the value changes to 0 and cannot be changed. I can however change my Processor performance core parking max cores from 100% to 0%.

I have the same problem as you, but I need to know how you fixed it haha!

EDIT: If anyone other than Yareck knows how to fix this please pipe up as well

 

Go into your Registry and make sure that the Max and Min values for each profile are correct and at their default.

 

Thanks for the help! It worked and now none of my cores are parked!

 

Can someone explain why set min to 100% and max to 0%?
If i set both to 100% it also unparks all cores - so what does min and max actually mean here?

 

Just because of the way the code that uses the values is written. Apparently if minimum is set to 100% it doesn't bother checking the maximum value.

The settings that make sense are 100% for both (the percentage of unparked cores).

 

Ah, that makes more sense.

 

I've got a question, guys... I've never understood what the significance of the "Minimum Processor" value is... The max value, sure; I understand why someone would want to lock their CPU utilization at 50% or whatever to conserve battery life. But what's up with the minimum value? If you set a minimum value of 10%, the CPU still drops to 1% or 2% usage while idle... Plus, why would anyone want their CPU to always be running at a minimum value anyway? What's the benefit of having your CPU never drop below a pre-defined value, whether it's 10% or 30%? I feel kinda dumb for asking, but I just don't understand...

PS: I'm not talking about the value for parked cores; that I understand. I mean the regular old "Processor Power Management" with the options of "Max. processor state" and "Min. processor state" in the power setting options.

 

See the section "Processor Performance Control Policy" in the document " Processor Power Management in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2"

BTW, it has nothing to do with % usage as you described. A better (but not entirely accurate) description would be percentage of CPU speed capability.

These settings are all about power management, not performance (of course, performance is effected by the power management settings).

The settings (there's a lot more hidden ones in the registry!) don't make sense or mean much on a single machine for gaming, but, for example, if you have a building with thousands of servers you might be much more concerned with power management.

*edit* Updated the link to the Windows 7 Document

 

I see, it looks like it has more to do with throttling and such... From the impression you get from that document, you should be able to avoid core-parking by setting the minimum processor state above 50% at all times, but I'm sure it's not as simple as that (and hence, why this topic was started, since we apparently have to tweak other reg settings).

Thanks you.

 

I'm not sure where you got that impression...Core parking isn't mentioned in that document is it? Core parking wasn't around then I don't think.


*edit* Updated the link in my other post to the Windows 7 documentation ( Processor Power Management in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2)

 

So what benefits do we gain from doing this? Also what is the bios setting with the options Normal/Turbo do?

Thanks

 

hi guys coud i get a confirmation about parking, i have done the stuff needed in power management setting all to 100% yet when i go into resource centre to views the cores i see this

 

hi guys coud i get a confirmation about parking, i have done the stuff needed in power management setting all to 100% yet when i go into resource centre to views the cores i see this
View attachment 55849

half the core parked but are greyed out

any ideas or is this the norm

cheers

 

Instead of renaming the Attributes name you can also change the value 1 to 0.

That also enables the setting to be viewed in the power options.

 

other than slightly improving SSD Performance, is this worth doing? I don't see how it helps.

 

Hey buddy, there's a discussion about it on

http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/486478-fix-win7-i7-sluggish-performance.html

Basically it helps avoid micro lag caused by constant parking and unparking. Although the cores can park, windows7/Vista/XP tend to move threads around onto all cores which causes them to constantly wake from sleep.

This doesn't happen when cores are loaded but it's rare that all cores are loaded.. It doesn't improve speed at the high-end of the cpu-usage spectrum but when you are using the computer in general it will help make many processes more snappy.

There's a lengthy discussion at that thread if you want to go and check it out..

See ya

 

ok i get the advantages.. but what are the disadvantages? Do u get higher temps or do u loose turbo boost? I'm just being paranoid because i can't do systen restore due to SSD... usually , idk as i would have system restore..

 

Hey dude..

The disadvantages are barely noticeable. You will get a slightly lower battery life, but on big machines like this the savings will go unnoticed. Temps are virtually identical and if you want to turn it back for whatever reason, you just change the value back. Easier that you think..

To be SUPER sure - before you change each registry entry - export the subsection of the registry to a .reg file.

You could even create a new power profile and edit that one to disable core parking. I suppose, I never tried that.. Probably the best way would be to only disable core parking on the high performance profile and therefore keep low power modes using the core parking feature. But personally I see it as a flaw, if you park all the cores but then throw threads around to different cores, then that's just dumb.

If like me, you force apps to certain cores to get better turbo out of them, then core parking might be worth it. As it is, it just makes general usage sluggish in my experience.

Seriously though, check the polls.. As far as I understand, nobody has gone back and nobody has had any issues. For me it's a "standard issue" tweak.

 

Ok so does core parking improve SSD performance? i do get some lagg but its in firefox.. also how do u set it up on one profile?

 

ok i have done it for my high performance and unlocked all cores.. however , i need some idea on what settings to use for a more balanced performance when i want as much battery life as possible but no lagg with unparked cores.

 

I found that it hardly affects the battery performance at all, while making things more responsive on all profiles. Perhaps disable core parking on the balanced profile too?

 

I do need battery life as i'll be using my G73JH in lectures so that's why i'm afraid of doing.. its certainly doesn't lagg now.. anyone care to test it out?

 

I think that you are the best tester Why not run a presentation with your new settings and see if it's noticeable worse with battery life or performance?