Core2 T5500 not Speedstepping

I have an MPC Transport T2400 with a Core2 Duo T5500 1.66 Ghz

When I open up Rightmark, CPU-Z, or any other tool, I see my CPU cores at 1.0 GHz (166Mhz FSB at 6X multiplier) no matter if the CPUs are under heavy load or not. Speedstep is enabled in my bios.

I know my Maximal FID is 10X because Rightmark is telling me that, and that would place me at 1.66 Ghz, where I want to be. But I never achieve 1.66 Ghz at any time, even when I am running under constant heavy load. I just flashed my BIOS with the most recent update, and no luck. Any help would be great!

 

You've tried everything, prime95, Intel burn test, Unigine?

The only other thing I can think of is your CPU is getting too hot and your motherboard is throttling your CPU down to lowest mult. Odd problem. Did you update your chipset drivers to the latest one? You probably have a PM945?

 

I did not try those three you mentioned, but I did try the two I mentioned plus CrystalCPUID, NHC, and Clockgen. My CPU temps are hovering around 135-139 degrees Fahrenheit under load, but I heard that was normal operating temp? My chipset drivers have been updated.

 

umm i do not know the t5500 but 6x multipliers seems really low. I think that is speedstep lowest value so its working, which would also mean that your processor is not waking up. Due to a number of reasons. That is high but not bad. Fine for a i7 but i do not know the T5500. I remember my P4 had 60c limit so the motherboard would do 50% cap if 60c hit...no clue about t5500 though

EDIT go to www.notebookreview.net and check the specs in their database or google it. Also see if in your bios there is a temp threshold for your cpu

 

Check your power settings under windows, in particular check maximum performance setting for processor is 100%.

 

I was about to mention this. Also set the minimum to 100% as well.

 

does that even work? i have tried that with my i7 and put it at 0% to save battery and it still goes to max speed for me :/

 

I will search at Notebookreview, thank you all for your help, keep it coming! It is really frustrating because this laptop is perfect for what I want to use it for but it just barely can't handle some things without stuttering, and I just know that my CPU being underclocked by 40% is the reason why.

Edit: That link no longer seems valid

EDIT: I just ran Intel Processor Identification Tool and that program is reporting 0.99 GHz, out of an expected 1.66 GHz. However, I ran the Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool, and that program had a reported speed and expected speed of 1.66 GHz, so is this a problem with my system not getting proper information on the current operating speed of my processor?

 

Did you try the advanced power settings in windows?

Yes, it does. I'm not sure if it works for you, but you can't set it at 0% and expect anything to happen. That would be setting the processor to run at 0Hz, which is not possible.

 

Yea, I went into Control Panel > Power Options and set the appropriate options (i.e. always on).

 

Always on? I am talking about manually setting the core speed to 100% at load and 100% at idle.

 

Hmm, in my Power Options there isn't anything for setting any core speeds.

 

You're in XP? Sorry, I assumed you were using Vista or 7. I'm not really sure about XP's power settings anymore.

 

Download throttlestop, make sure EIST is enabled.
If it's not, you might be able to enable it with throttlestop.

 

if you set it to 0% its supposed to set your cpu at the lowest multiplier. so mine should stay at 6x but it still goes up to 13x or 22x depending on single or multithread use.

 

Thanks, I will try this program. I appreciate all the help you guys, I hope I can get this figured out. Is it possible MPC locked the FID at factory for their own proprietary reasons, such as ensuring low temperatures?

Edit: Dang, Throttlestop, just like Rightmark, can't budge the multiplier

 

I didn't say it would be able to.

I said use it to check EIST.

Was the EIST box ticked or not?

 

Is most laptop BIOS you can enable and disable EIST. Make sure yours is enabled as I disabled mine on my Vostro 1500 and locked my laptop at the lowest multiplier.

 

unfortunately there is no EIST box :/

EDIT: Oops! Yes there is, and it's checked. lol!



And Tsunade, my Speedstep is enabled in BIOS

 

Ok. That's weird it is not functional for you. The % you set it to is supposed to be the % of clock speed.

 

Does your BIOS have an option or tab to see your CPU speed?

Have you reimaged Windows and reinstall all drivers from scratch? You my friend have a very weird problem..

 

Anyway, it shows EIST is enabled, so that isn't the problem.

Try to enable "C States" in throttlestop (right under EIST).

Play around with the other things in throttlestop, disable power saver, enable turbo.

 

As far as i know that does not affect freq...it just adjusts multipliers.(which does affect freq but in a different way) It does not touch FSB or anything like that. It just acts as a multiplier controller from what i have heard. So for mine its like 6x-22x or something like that. It can adjust an number of those in between options but it still has never seemed to work for me. I have heard it doesn't work for others either.


EDIT: @MoralHazard Could he being throttled? Does he need to turn off thermal protection thing? ASUS laptops like g51j are throttled by thermal control or whatever. So unclewebb had to make a program to disable thermal protection. Is that maybe a problem? He said he added it but i do not see it in those screen shots. I still use his first program called toggle 0X1FC

 

In my BIOS it shows it at 1.66 GHz. But then again, so does my system properties tab. But real-time monitoring programs all show ~1.0 GHz

 

here is the throttlestop guide so you can read it over and better understand it too.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...arket-upgrades/531329-throttlestop-guide.html

EDIT: it beats me. all i can say is read the guide you might find something useful to help your problem. Sorry i am of no further help

 

My Celeron doesn't have multiplier adjustment and it simply throttles the FSB to whatever % I set it to.

 

are you sure its not adjusting multipliers? Your FSB changes to whatever your multipliers are. for mine its 133 per multiplier so supposedly if i set it to 50% i should have like 133x11 instead of 133x22 for singles thread and for multithread it'll be 133x7 instead of 133x13...those might be off by one or 2 multipliers but i can't remember. You should test it with cpuz open and see if the FSB changes or multipliers.

 

The FSB will adjust in real time from 166 MHz to as low as 30 Mhz as the load increases or decreases, but the 6X multiplier never changes. It should change to 10X multiplier under load according to the specs of my proc, and that's basically my problem of course.

 

weird...beats me. Good luck man. I am of no further use :/

 

dillon.j, how long have you had this laptop, and did you ever notice this before or was this something that just happened?

Positive. The Celeron does not have adjustable multipliers, so it reverts to using the dynamic FSB that is supported by all Core 2 processors but rarely used in favor of the adjustable multipliers.

 

I bought this laptop off eBay a few months ago and decided to see if I could squeeze a little more juice out of my Core 2. That's when I noticed all of these real-time CPU frequency tools reporting 1 GHz all the time, even under 100% load stress tests. A couple tools report 1.66 GHz, such as CPUFSB and the accompanying tool WCPUCLK, but most, such as CPU-Z and Rightmark, give me 997 MHz readings regardless of 100% load on the OS and CPU, regardless of the settings in the programs I use. It might help to note that in Rightmark, I am able to set the voltage to 1.212 from 0.095, which is the voltage required for a 10X multiplier according to the research I've done. But the FID never changes from 6X. Even WCPUCLK and CPUFSB report only that I'm running at ~1.66 GHZ, they do not show my FID. So I don't know. Maybe I am running at 10X but these programs such as CPU-Z and Rightmark are not reporting it? Again, I am very grateful for all your help guys.

 

CPUz is stupid, example:
SLFM enabled, my fsb is 133mhz and my multi is 6, CPUz reports it as if my FSB was 266mhz and my multi was 3.

@dillon.j, did you try reinstalling windows?

 

Ahh, XP. If you open a cmd console and enter "powercfg /q" without the quotes it will show Processor Throttle values. What are they? I would think it isn't the problem though if you could not use TS to change multi's.

Normally performance states are selected by multi's. For instance with the newer Nehalems (i core) setting 99% max performance should effectively disable turbo multi's. Windows can also use throttling as well as multi's i.e. by using a 50% throttle if the processor is operating at 1GHz then it will repeatedly run for a few microseconds at 1GHz then stop for a few microseconds effectively having a performance similar to 500MHz speed.

I remember that guy with the g51j on wiki spilling his guts out disassembling BIOS code, using 32-bit instead of 64-bit, looking for the answer . Better use the "BD PROCHOT" option in TS by un-checking its checkbox. 0x1FC is for i-core and wont work on dillon.j's CPU.



P.S. dillon.j, according to Intel specs the T5500 supports upto 11x multi (1.83GHz).

 

This laptop is ALWAYS plugged in, btw.

 

Both those should be good, "NONE" should mean always operating at the highest multi and "ADAPTIVE" should mean using EIST. If it read "CONSTANT" then that would have used the lowest frequency mode or worse "DEGRADE", then not only would you be at the lowest frequency mode but also possibly throttled, yuk.

dillon.j, would you run CPUz or HWMonitor and make a dump.txt? Under the "About" tab in CPUz and save report as .txt.

 

CPUz reports BCLK which doesn't change. i.e. if it where 266MHz and you use SLFM, BCLK is still 266MHz however internally the clock is effectively halved. Since the cpu clock is referenced to the the external BCLK running at 266MHz then then the cpu multi is effectively halved so 3x effective can be correct.

Now the FSB (Front Side Bus) is normally a quad pumped BCLK (4x BCLK) so for 266MHz that would be 1066MHz. Last time I looked cpuz would still report 1066MHz which with dynamic FSB in operation would be incorrect. However given the nature of SLFM and Dynamic FSB possibly switching many times a second it is kind of understandable not to show an average FSB (1066/533).