Trouble disabling SpeedStep on 1520...

Hello. I've just received my new Inspiron 1520 and I'm playing around with it for a while before doing a complete format.

I've come across Intel's SpeedStep Technology (and its not the first time I have problems with this thing) and I'm having trouble disabling it. I've already disabled both SpeedStep/IntelAcceleration options in the bios.

I've also tried setting the power scheme to "Always On" and "Maximum Performance", but to no avail. CPU-Z reports the processor (T7250 - 2.0Ghz) to be running at 1.2Ghz (6x instead of 10x).

To the veteran users of Inspiron 1520s, is there a way around this to completely disable SpeedStep?

Thanks.

 

Well you need speed step to let it run at its full speed.

 

This is weird. While CPU-Z reports the speed to be 1.2Ghz, Notebook Hardware Control actually shows the processor to be running at the full speed of 2Ghz.

RMClock, on the other hand, shows its running on 1.2Ghz (Frozen at 1.197Ghz, doesn't go up at all, regardless of what I'm doing in the laptop).

Thoughts?

 

put the bios settings back to default and dont mess with them?

 

How about no? I don't want SpeedStep to be lowering my processor's speed and causing lag spikes while I'm playing.

I've been doing this for a while now. I pay careful attention to whatever I do to software and hardware alike. I'm also well aware of the risks of messing around with bios settings.

If you don't have anything to contribute to this thread, please refrain from posting.

 

well if you knew everything you would know that your cpu isn't going to throttle down during gaming.

 

I never mentioned knowing everything. Hell, thats even why I'm posting here, in the first place. And yes, the processor IS throttling during gaming, further proof of this is the fact that disabling Cx power states in RMClock successfully remedies the issue.

Now, if you don't have anything else to add -

 

I want to see proof of a Core 2 CPU throttling down to "idle" with Speedstep (both C1E and EIST) during a game or any intensive application that is requesting a lot of CPU time.

 

ya, i agree and i tested it with cs:source. I get the same performance(no lag spikes) with or without speed step. One question though, when u run rmclock, does it show 1.2ghzt when u disable speed step or cx state?

 

Disabling speedstep forces the CPU to run at 6x. If you want it to run at 10x all the time, enable speedstep in the BIOS but change the minimum CPU speed to 100% in the windows advanced power settings.

 

Don't bother with those other programs...just get CPU-Z to watch your CPU speed. It updates in real time.

 

Thanks for the responses. Turns out the lag-spikes I was referring to were actually driver-related. After reading the manual thoroughly I switched SpeedStep back on.

I've also done a little research of Intel Dynamic Acceleration technology. Apparently it "overclocks" a core to improve performance on single-threaded applications. Should I switch it back on as well?

And I'm still looking for an option that makes the processor run at 100% at all times. Are you sure there is such option on Windows XP?

Thanks.

 

Check this link for info about Windows XP power settings.