Inspiron 1520 throttling its speed (slowing down) issues

Hello! I bought the Inspiron 1520 laptop when it came out, with 8600gt and have noticed for quite awhile the CPU throttling itself (without overclocking the graphics) way too often, especially intermittently during games, where framerate will then slow to a crawl, etc. It happens outside of games as well.

I'm using CPU-Z to check.

When I first boot, the core speed is about 2.2Ghz, multiplier fluctuating at 11.5 - 12x. This is fine and normal and can stay this way for a long time without much activity.

During any moderate hard drive activity (loading several apps at once, etc.) even if the fan doesn't kick in, the CPU throttles down to about 600mhz with a multiplier of 3.0x. Unfortunately it will *not* increase back to its starting value even after letting it sit for a long time.

I need to actually shut it down, and restart at which point it runs at full speed.

This is driving me crazy! Is there any solution to stopping the Inspiron 1520 CPU from throttling? I will not go for this in my next laptop as I need it to play games consistently and at full speed - even if it gets a little hot .

FYI, I am using Windows 7 Home Premium (fresh install), am using the latest Nvidia drivers (not overclocked), have 3GB ram, and have changed Advanced Power Settings to be at 100% at all times. None of this makes a difference.

I have *not* disabled Speedstep or the Intel option in the BIOS - and have left those enabled at default.

Just want this computer to run at full speed at all times (at least on battery). Don't care about the risks involved either about too hot, etc. What is the best way to achieve this for those of you I'm sure that have had the same issues... heard something about disabling C1E on other Mobo's but didn't see that option in BIOS for this one.

This even happens when opening the lid after closing it (seemingly by default).

Thanks a lot!

Sick of throttling,
Tyson

 

What version of the BIOS are you running?

 

I'm using A09.

 

The cause of throttling can be either thermal or due to power shortage.
Now as you say that the processor throttles while running simple apps so i assume that the graphic card would not be called into action thus making it consume less power.
So the throttling is not caused by power(as u said it runs fine after booting and while running simple apps GPU is not used)

So its throttling due to high temperatures inside.The cause of this can be any of the following :
1. BIOS settings may be faulty(U can solve this easily by upgrading to latest version)
2.. Thermal paste evaporation - the thermal paste helps in keeping ur processor temp lower.check if its still there otherwise ur processor could heat up very fast.Its a chemical layer between the heatsink and the processor
3. Heatsink trouble : Check if your heat sink is clean.Dust accumulates very fast in the heat sink fan.

if all the above things r working fine then it maybe because of some other component inside generating a lot of heat.
Check ur wifi card and graphic card temps.
For checking wifi,disable the wifi device from device manager and see if the processor throttling still occurs.

-/\/iti/\/

 

Tyson, you should check out this program.

ThrottleStop 2.00.
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/3/1794507/ThrottleStop.zip

It's a simple program that will give you some more control over your CPU. Lots and lots of Dell laptops have a variety of throttling issues. ThrottleStop is sort of like a Swiss army knife and is designed to help out with a wide range of throttling issues.

All you need to do after downloading it is to edit the ThrottleStop.ini configuration file and adjust one line. Set GPU=1 so it can try to read your Nvidia GPU temps as well if that feature is supported. It's good to keep an eye on them when learning more about what the real causes of the slow downs are.

Not only can ThrottleStop be used to disable C1E but it also takes care of C2/C4 and C4E at the same time. If you have any questions, post them here and let me know how you make out.

Games are a big problem for many Dell laptops. As soon as you start trying to use the CPU and the GPU at the same time, you find out that Dell never intended for their laptops to be used like this. When you phone to complain you're likely to encounter a sales rep that will tell you that you should have bought a gaming laptop even though some of them, like the Alienware M15x, throttle too.

When ThrottleStop first starts it will be in monitoring mode only. Go play a game and run a log file while playing and the problems will become obvious as soon as your computer starts to slow down and chug. The log file will create a record of exactly what the problem is. Either post it here or upload ThrottleStopLog.txt somewhere convenient like www.sendspace.com and post a link here. Send me a PM in case I forget and I will be sure to have a look and I'll let you know what I see.

A couple of quick mouse clicks in ThrottleStop and your laptop will likely become a lot more usable. The only thing to watch out for is if you have a woefully inadequate power adapter like many Dell's originally shipped with. When you crank up the performance, you might find that the power adapter can't keep up. If that happens you should call Dell and ask them for an adapter that is capable of fully powering your laptop. They used to put up a big fight but seem to be getting used to these type of calls now.

Furmark + Prime95 will quickly show you if your laptop has some issues with being able to run at full steam.