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    XPS M1330 CPU whine and CPU sleep-states

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by vkyr, Sep 5, 2007.

  1. vkyr

    vkyr Notebook Consultant

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    Well, even I myself so far don't recognize any CPU whine on my XPS M1330, a friend of me has this problem on his XPS M1330 and i1520. Now some people have probably found out, that the Core2Duo CPU whine is mostly due to changes of the CPU Sleep-States.

    With the help of tools like " SpeedswitchXP" (this one is only for XP) one can change under " Options -> CPU Policies" if and how the CPU states are allowed to change. So if you there disallow any state changes, the CPU remains in the C0 working-state and the CPU whine then should go away.

    However consequences from this CPU sleep-state manipulations would usually be slightly hotter CPU temps, thus a little more fan noise and a quicker battery draining. - But if you allow lets say instead at least a state change between C0 and C1, the CPU whine should probably also go away, without getting too much fan noise and quicker battery draining.
    Before somebody asks, for Vista there is a tool called " RightMark CPU Clock", which under its "Advanced CPU settings" menu settings has "Enable Popdown/up mode" checkboxes. If these checkboxes are unchecked the CPU sleep-state changes are disallowed and the CPU whine might go away.

    Related tool links:

    XP = SpeedswitchXP --> http://www.diefer.de/speedswitchxp/index.html

    Vista = RMCPU Clock --> http://cpu.rightmark.org/


    NOTE: use these tools and the above tips on your own risk!
     
  2. liquidplasma6

    liquidplasma6 Notebook Evangelist

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    i tried popdown and it froze my M1330, had to hold the power button to restart it, just use Disable C4, drains about 15% more battery but it cleanly stops cpu whine
     
  3. vkyr

    vkyr Notebook Consultant

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    Yes with a little adjustment tryouts it's possible to get rid of the CPU whine, but as said the cost is a quicker battery drain out here. The settings which will work may be dependent on the CPU used inside the XPS and it's clock speed.

    Let's hope that Intel+Microsoft will together with the notebook vendors work out maybe some patch, which optimizes the Core2Duo CPU sleep-states handling and thus eliminates this CPU whine many people are reporting.
     
  4. Mr. President

    Mr. President Newbie

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    That RightMark tweak got rid of 80% of the whining noise but at least now it's barable...

    It was driving me crazy. Sometimes it would be continuous for an hour then stop for 30 minutes. It was torture.

    Thanks for the tip! I hope Intel/MS/Dell figure out a way to fix this VERY annoying bug :mad: