Disable PowerMizer **Tested**

Ok guys. New to the forum 1st real contribution. Ive been reading alot about this issue as i was dealing with it as well.

Please try at your own risk because what we are going to do today is edit our registry and we all know that we can really screw up our system if we change the wrong keys..

I have a Dell 1720 well look at my sig guys.

I current have driver 175.70 drivers installed.





ok lets start..

What this will do is disable Powermizer while the notebook is connected to an adapter. if you decide to not have it plugged in powerMizer still kicks in to save us some battery life..

This will work wonders on your Aero settings. If you dont know what this is for please read the forum.



Step 1 - Press the " window" key + R . This will lauch a command window. Type (( regedit)) then press OK.

You should see this:


Step 2 - Now navigate to this registry.

\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{** a series of numbers that are different**}\0000\ PerfLevelSrc




Step 3- What we need to do once you found PerfLevelSrc is edit it by double clickin and changing the value data from 33 33 to 33 22. Click ok.





Step 4- Find "PowerMizerEnable" which is probably 5 ways down from "PerfLevelSrc". When you find it double click on PowerMizerEnable and change the value data from 1 to 0.



This will disable Powermizer

Step 5 - Find PowermizerLevel and change the value to 1

Step 6- Find PowermizerLevelAC and change value to 1


Close and restart comp. You will now notice no more downclocking.

Sorry for going so fast toward the end guys. Didnt get enough sleep last night an im very tired but just wanted to share.. Good luck.

Pm me if you have any questions and please be careful when doing this. Happy gaming

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1104/TechPowerUp_GPU-Z_v0.2.4.html

 

This is a great guide for someone with a laptop that overheats and underclocks, but most people with stable laptops should be fine without disabling Powermizer.

 

So how does disabling powermizer stop over heating?

 

OP: nice guide, loving the screen shots help. Just another quick question: will you have to redo the process when you switch drivers.

 

newer drivers will have different registry settings that will over write the ones you've modified.
After you modify the registry. Highlight the relevant key and then export it so you can apply it quickly when you update your drivers. You will have to export each one seperately and then combine them using notepad. Don't forget to save the file as a *.reg file format otherwise it won't work.

 

Heh, actually this guide has some pretty legitimate uses. Take my ThinkPad and its infuriating habit of going into low-power 2D-only mode and refusing to come out until I launch a full-screen 3D app. This causes Vista to be unusable with Aero enabled because the glass effects bring the system to a crawl. Finally, I can use Aero on my ThinkPad again.

 

you might just have saved thousands of lives over at laptop2go forum

 

with little understanding of INF files that goes with the driver, i want to ask: why cant the power optimizer be disabled by changing just "PowerMizerEnable
" to 0??

 

well the answer is our number 1 enemy. Vista !! ahha Vista has full control over pretty much everything that goes on in our comps. Changing the Powermizer setting from 1 to 0 in the modded inf only changes it in the inf. NO WHERE ELSE..

well hey you know what, ive been downloading their drivers and modded inf for a while. I say we can call it even if its ok with them. Because of laptop2go i can play some of these nice games on my cheesey inspirion 1720.. ahha


Well guys i tested this out all night last night and did the same tweak on my brothers XPS 1730 SLI and both systems work and runs very well. No over heating so thats a good news..

 

Is there anyway to keep the powerMizer off if you select "high performance" battery mode while off of AC?

Also, much thanks for this!

 

Yes instead of changing the value data from 3333 to 3322 in step 3 you change it to 2222. This will disable Powermizer from head to toe.


I just thougt it might be more practical for more people to have best of both words.

no need to thank me. I just hope it works without any flaws..

 

What happens if I select powersaver though, will the powerMizer turn back on?

 

ARRRGGGHH!!!!!!!! I didn't know this thread existed!

Why I screamed? Is because 2 months ago, I managed to solve this problem myself. I should've have posted this trick here in the forums!! Get all the rep points I need!!!!! haha.

Anyway, emotions aside, allow me to quote my other thread I wrote, All I know is that I didn't use GPU Z or any device ID software finder to do it. I just used the registry's inbuilt search tool to find the magic keyword as stated below and it was proven to work. I did many tests and findings, even on various Inspiron computers, and it was proven. There was only one "PerfLevelSrc" string in the registry, and that was what it's needed to be modified.

Quote from http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=260696&page=3

_____________
I found a much more simpler way which requires only the registry editor to do it.
Here's a screenshot to proof my point:

Click to Enlarge


What I did was to find "PerfLevelSrc" without the quotes in your registry. I tried many times, there should be only one of "PerfLevelSrc" in the registry. Using the Ctrl + F would be much easier than to go through the registy directory one by one and also bypasses the time to look for your unique ID.

Double Click on it, and change it to "3322" as seen in the screenshot. Changing it all to 2222 will disable powermizer on battery which is not recommended.

I've been using this for nearly 2 months. It downclocks itself while on battery, but remains originally clocked while on AC. Easy, simple and effective. Didn't effect a dime on my battery life. The reason why I needed to disable powermizer is because of my AutoCAD and Maya (Viewport) being laggy and a noticeable drop in FPS while rotating after leaving my laptop on idle. I had to move the mouse around in motion in order for a smooth scrolling. I then realised it was the downclocking that causes the problem. I ran tests on it, left my machine on idle for 2 hours, came back, started using the mouse and finally, its scrolling was still as smooth as it was. Disabling powermizer solved the problem completely.

Using a Dell Inspiron 1720 with 8600M GT btw.

I value your feedback, people.
_____________

Let me know if this is the easier workaround/shortcut. Thanks.

 

WOW I LOVE YOU

Works flawlessly. No downclocking.

CAN I MARRY YOU IRL PLZ

 

thanks for the help so this should work with sager 2090?

 

It should work on most Vista notebooks as this problem only deals with vista . Do you install modded drivers often? I still havnt had a problem with my comp but do it carefully.

 

this doesn't work for me, I did everything right, and even tried changing preflevelsrc to 2222 and nothing happened, it still downclocks.

 

I don't understand.. i posted those same instructions (no screenshots though), to help many ppl, weeks ago, on this very forum.

 

I don't even have the perflevelsrc in my registry.

 

I'm still curious about my question. Is there a registry setting so that it doesn't downclock when on "High Performance" with battery, but does downclock if on balanced or low performance with battery?

 

hmm... exactly what I was looking for.. After installing the latest 175 drivers, my notebook would get 300fps in most CS:S maps while plugged in, then drop to 20-30fps whenever it was unplugged, or other games such as 25fps in crysis, then when unplugged it would drop to around 3fps, and what's the point of a gaming laptop if you can't game on it while on the go?

Now unplugging it does nothing to the performance, and the battery life is still the exact same as before while not playing a game..

(oh, and I wanted to rep someone, but so many people are making claims to this I really don't know who.. so I guess no one )

 

This doesn't work, Tried it with my 7950 GTX and it stills downclocks.

 

Hmm thanks for the feedbacks everybody, it shows that this thing doesn't really work with all users, but it seems to be workable with the 8600m users especially, which I'm using.

 

I apparently dont have the powermizer strings under the perflevel.. Any ideas why not? Do I have to change the perflevel from 3333 to 3332 before it appears or doesnt the 8800 GTX cards have this feat? My cards are def running at same clock all the time and thats a waste.

 

Hey, after I disabled powermizer my temps were a bit higher (not much, but by a few C). I used RivaTuner to manually downclock the GPU whenever I'm not gaming, bringing my idle temperatures back to what they were before. Is this a good solution or will there be a bad side effect to this?

 

Neither do I... I don't understand this.

 

It seems to be a good solution. Probably the only real Powermizer solution

 

any1 elses perf level 2222? should i force it to 3322?
edit: just found the part about 2222 shutting it off COMPLETELY... well, thats weird that i was natively on that :-/ watevz..

 

I have the opposite problem of this, my XPS 1730 never downclocks. With 174.31 I can only reduce clocks in powersaver mode, but thats unpractical. However, these drivers doesnt contain powermizer in the registry.

So, I installes a few different drivers and found powermizer, but no matter what I change in the registry and reboot, there is still no downclocking in ie. balanced mode.

Can this be a Dell related issue or a BIOS issue? My settings are:

powermizerdefault - 3
powermizerenable - 1
lowermizerlevel - 3
powermizerlevelAC - 1

And as far as I understand, with perflevelsrc at 3333, this should have powermizer at go, or not?

 

Perflevelsrc set to 3333, means the Powermizer function is set to work correctly (ie: downclock when full GPU power is not required).
Do you have Vista Ultimate? if so, do you use Dreamscene on the desktop? This will cause your clocks to run at max all the time.

 

can you navigte to this registry?

1. Hit the "window key" and R

2. Type "regedit" in the box and hit enter.

3. Navigate to this

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Control
Video

4. here's the tricky part. You see how after dropping the video registry? My video setup has a series of very long numbers. open to view each set. everyone has different registry keys so dont look for mine in your syste,



5. Now only view the registry folders that are named 0000.
for me it the 4th set of registry key and when i open the 0000 forder i get a long list of registry keys.



6. navigate to the bottom of the list. Im sure you see what i boxed. If not pm me ill walk you thru it.. GL

 

@Kenside: "Originally Posted by jfdube
I don't understand.. i posted those same instructions (no screenshots though), to help many ppl, weeks ago, on this very forum." was meant to highlight that the solution had already been posted. "Not how do I do that?"
Nice screen shots though.

 

I don't know why some people find it difficult to disable powermizer, anyway all I did was to CTRL+F perflevelsrc (Skipped the tricky unique ID parts and all that) in my registry, change it to 3322, restarted my machine, and that was workable enough.

 

not everyone has the same setup as you do. That why i wanted to show the long work around. The steps arnt just laid there for no reason. The do have some purpose

 

No, only premium. Its really weird. I will try som other drivers during the weekend, but low hope.

But there are other numbers there as I stated, would there be any need to change them? Its difficult to find what the different numbers are.

 

I don't recall saying anything about your steps, I was just sharing my experience and my method of how I solved mine. Whether if they have their setups differently, it's their own configuration. And that was it.

 

To make sure you've got all the registry entries covered. When your in regedit press Ctrl+f and then typre the key you are looking for. When found change it to 3322, and repeat the Ctrl+f, changing entries as you go, until you are told there are no more entries found. I found 4 different entries for Perflevelsrc in my registry. Changing them all means you're covered.

 

Found two, changed both to 3322, no change. However, note that I want powermizer enabled, not disabled. Setting back to 3333 as no changes occured.

But, what about all theese strings about powemizer?
Default
Enable
Level
LevelAC

Edit; now we are getting somewhere, by changing both powermizerlevelAC to value 3, I chopped the core speed of both cards to almost nothing 200/100, that is nice. Now, if only to find a way to get this dynamic also. A bit lame to change registry whenever I need power

 

Still no way to get a dynamic setting but at least I can change manually from 1-2-3 in AC and get different permanent speeds. If only someone knew what to do in order to get a dynamic setting, ie how powermizer should actually work.

 

From what I understand of the PerfLevelSrc setting is that setting 3333 is like auto mode depending on the heat of the GPU and it configures itself without even reading the settings PowerMizerLevel and PowerMizerLevelAC.

While in 2222 or 3322(only AC) its manual mode and configures itself based on user settings in PowerMizerLevel and PowerMizerLevelAC

Though this is what I think and speculate on how the PerfLevelSrc works under some testings I've done.

Thats why some people can't get it to work while they only change PerfLevelSrc and not PowerMizerLevel and PowerMizerLevelAC

 

This doesnt add up on laptop. In 3333 and no change in powermizer settings, there is no downclocking. Wich is strange because 8800M is supposed to include powermizer 7.0. I dont think I will find a solution, tried most settings now and there is no way I get a dynamic setting.

There might be that I look in the wrong places. I see that Dell original drivers contains no info in powermizer, only perflevelsrc. Only then do I get a downclock when I change powersettings in Vista but nothing Dynamic.

 

No, when I mean auto I didnt mean dynamic(where it changes your settings depending on usage, right?). I mean it just downclocks your GPU depending on heat, usually it starts to happen around 60c on my laptop.

Maybe your GPU just never goes over some point of heat limit to let it start downclocking

 

Now we the speak the same, my fans are more then powerful to not downclock GPU speeds, it cools the card enough to continue. Perhaps thats the whole problem and why it dont downclock because it never is supposed to? That actually is a plausbile solution, but I have seen several other users with a variety of cards with same driver and their computers downclock dynamic, pending of usage and I want to be there to

 

I had the same problem. Fixed with:

PerflevelSRC 3333

and DELETED all "PowerMiizer*" entry in register.

I've done this because I found that thoose entry are not present in original driver .infs. If you'll look into NVAC.inf or NVAM.inf, there's no presnce of any Powermizer entry, only perflevelSRC.
BTW with this setting I got cool downclocking under 2D use, and full 3d power on request, without downclocking.

 

this is confusing

 

The guide is awesome and very helpful with pics I got to do it on my gaming notebook a toshiba x205 sli1 but still same results, It drops about 10-20 fps in intense graphics scenes when unplugged and just running on battery power. I guess it needs to be plugged in, in order to maintain a constant 60 fps in games. And the power supply of a battery just won't cut it if your graphics settings are maxed out and taxing the systems gpu and cpu. Correct me if I'm wrong but even a radio I notice when battery is dying the light starts to dim with each beat of a song or audio.

 

OK, I saw PerfLevelSrc once in my registry, but not the other settings for PowerMizer. Any idea what's going on?

 

hmmm, Using 175.19 drivers and there is no perflevelsrc in my registry only the powermizer

 

does any one else get random BSOD after editing the powermizer sittings??...
i did this for two drivers 174.74 and 177.41.. after editing the settings and restarting i got a random BSOD while browsing the web?!!

does any one else have the same issue??.. any advice wouldbe appriciated

 

Hello all,
this is my first post here, I've been reading this forum for some time though.

Here is an application which allows you to activate and deactivate Powermizer with just one click. I think it may become very handy and would be - especially for not experienced users - a great help.

Its based on the tutorial on the first page.

http://www.box.net/shared/qieikpcg8g

Have fun.