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    Dell Power Companion throttling XPS 15 9550 CPU

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by Rajveer, Feb 26, 2016.

  1. Rajveer

    Rajveer Notebook Consultant

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    On BIOS 01.01.19, when I plug the 18000mah Dell Power Companion in to my XPS 15 9550, the CPU locks to it's x9.0 multiplier. It's as if it's setting the CPU speed on how much power is coming in to the laptop (as the Power Companion is too weak to charge it).

    This reminds me of the old issue of the CPU multiplier locking when removing the power connector, which now seems to force the CPU to drop to x9.0 multiplier before climbing back up slowly (so it's not instant, but good enough).

    Does anybody else experience these issues?
     
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2016
    Rajveer, Feb 26, 2016
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  2. Rajveer

    Rajveer Notebook Consultant

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    Nobody else have the 18000mah Power Companion?
     
    Rajveer, Mar 4, 2016
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  3. Andrew Baxter

    Andrew Baxter -

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    Looks like somebody on Amazon is noticing the same performance hit you're seeing:

    " Works *has bugs* but causes game frame rates to drop."

    http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Power-Co...showViewpoints=0&sortBy=recent#R1PHY8QP4XBKPS

    Sounds like the laptop is drawing power directly from the power companion rather than its internal battery and since the draw is not enough it is throttling performance. Since the power companion is designed to recharge your laptop while in the backpack and not be plugged in while using the laptop this probably isn't something Dell would address or consider a bug to be honest.
     
    Andrew Baxter, Mar 4, 2016
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  4. Rajveer

    Rajveer Notebook Consultant

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    Funny that, I found this out while playing Street Fighter which slowed down to a crawl. That's annoying if it's not meant for charging because this video shows it being used whilst on, which is the main use case I bought it for. The narrator even explicitly says "power and charge your XPS". I'd consider that false advertising if the product is working as intended.
     
    Rajveer, Mar 5, 2016
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  5. bennni

    bennni Notebook Evangelist

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    Have you tried Throttlestop?
     
    bennni, Mar 5, 2016
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  6. Rajveer

    Rajveer Notebook Consultant

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    No but I wouldn't consider that a solution, throttling is good when it is required. Ideally I would expect the battery to be used (so a slower discharge since it's still being charged by the power companion), until it's out, in which case locking the CPU to the lowest multiplier is fine since it would only be getting power from the power companion.
     
    Rajveer, Mar 7, 2016
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  7. tijo

    tijo Sacred Blame

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    Pretty much this, any genuine Dell power adapter and the companion declare to the laptop what their power capacity is (in Watts) and if it is below the rating for the original power supply, it will throttle itself accordingly. This is done to avoid power supplies catching fire among other things and there isn't much you can do about it.
     
    tijo, Mar 7, 2016
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