The "Undervolting" Guide

o yeah another thing i am confused about is the huge discrepancy btw the temp reading on CPUID (68C) and the reading from Rightmark(82C). do you know why that is?

 

Simple terms:
Voltage = Electrical pressure
Amp = Electrical flow
Watts = Total power consumption

Volts x Amp = Watts

It usually knocks off 10-15watts off the CPU consumption which also lightens up the load on your AC power brick.

Use Coretemp as a third program (no need for installation) to see which one is right. Once you find whichever program is correct, you can offset RMclock to the right temps.

Im guessing its a T25xx.. isnt it?

 

i get that part but how do i figure what the amps are? is it the one on the power supply or is it different?

 

I do not know of a program that directly monitors amps but a fellow user did a benchmark on undervolting and came up with these figures

20% less discharge.

 

got coretemp and apparently RMclock was wayy off. i will try to figure out how to offset it to the right temp.

actually its a T2450, got some screenshots below.

 

I have a weird issue with RMClock. When I set the profile to "Maximum performance," My CPU will run at 2.4 GHz at 0.9500v (the value I set in RMClock). It has been Orthos stable overnight at this speed and voltage.

However, when I set the profile to "Performance on Demand," my CPU needs 1.1375v to run at 2.4 GHz. For the lower multipliers, it stil uses the voltage I set in RMClock (i.e. 6x multi at 0.9250v). So why does it default to the original voltage in Performance on Demand mode?

 

Hey so i set my voltages to the values in the following screenshot:
http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/646/voltagesiu2.jpg
These values were being used by another guy with the same notebook i have, for a full month, so they seem to work w/o getting the bluescreen of death.

I set rmclock to start on windows startup, but ever since i did that, I seem to get a MMLoadDerv.exe load error.

I did some googling and it seems this comes up when the graphics card doesnt get enough power?

My question is, how does undervolting my cpu affect my gpu so much so that i get this error? I have a ATI HD 2600 in here.

Thx

 

I've noticed the same thing. Basically, in performance on demand, sometimes my processor will use the default voltages, and sometimes the voltages set in RMClock. Its almost as if windows and RMclock are fighting over control of the processor. I found that when you just stick your vista profile to maximum performance, RMclock has complete control over your processor and speedsteps correctly using the correct voltages.

 

Has anyone tried this on a HP DV6000 or similar with T5600 Merom ?

I noticed somethings are not showing up the same so I wanted to ask before I proceed


thanks

 

Merom here but T7200. Make sure Advanced CPU settings -> CPU type selection is on Mobile. What's not showing up?

 

For example here .. in the last box mine is not clickable , where it says intel core 2 duo advanced features those 2 boxes

 

Just read that undervolt will only be working when RMClock is running on side?
So that means if I load up linux , undervolt will not be working?

 

Definately no.

RMclock uses the Windows system registry to make changes.

But its possible to undervolt in linux too, its just very hard. I dual boot vista64/ubuntu64

 

so this means without RMClock running or that specific windows installation, the undervolt settings are gone? I don't understand .. the undervolting is more of a program rather than the whole system wise?

I load up Linux will it still be undervolted? if not then that means i must use windows to be undervolt ?

 

Okay ill make it simple:

Undervolting is only in effect when RMclock is on. Since linux doesnt have RMclock, its not in effect.

RMclock doesnt save these settings directly to the hardware. It uses software-side tweaking to make changes.

On desktops, you can undervolt through the BIOS. This is the hardware-side undervolt which is saved into the BIOS.

Theres a method to undervolt in linux, using Linux-PHC (not RMclock). It does this by tapping into the ACPI settings.

 

Thanks for clearing this up
Too bad Laptops cannot undervolt through BIOS then

 

thank you for the good guide.
any plans on a guide to undervolting GPU?

 

No, because undervolting the gpu is for risky and only recommended for advanced users. It involves flashing the vBIOS.

You will only be able to drop the voltage by 0.5v and lose about 3-5c temps.

 

Help, I can't get my T7250 to un-underclock (1.2Ghz 6x multiplier instead of 2 Ghz 11x multiplier), even when I'm plugged in.

 

I've noticed that even when I use the High/Maximum performance profiles in Vista, RMClock still will set the maximum CPU Voltage to 1.1375v in Performance on Demand mode. Why won't it use the actual voltage I set, which is 0.9500v?

 

What if you set your vista profile to the Rmclock option, do the correct voltages show up then? Do you have any other power management software running?

 

Hm, it seems to work after I set it to RMClock management...but thta means I can't have custom separate profiles for high performance, power saver, etc. Oh well.

 

Question: Vista always changes the profile from RMClock Management to the default Balanced profile. How can I save it so that every boot up it starts with RMClock Management?

 

RMclock has its own profiles and advanced power settings. It can do exactly what Vista can offer.

Close RMclock, Change the Vista power profile, Restart notebook

Ta da

 

errm question, you know how in your guide you say change the current setting to performance on demand for both ac and battery, i was wondering if i will have to change it to performance on demand every time i turn on the notebook or is it just for that time??

 

im having alot of problems with my X7800, its stock voltage is 1.3, yet the highest option i can get is 1.2125 and all the way down to 1.1. Whats up with this?

 

I only noticed one trouble with undervolting
while my processor was undervolted
playing music had a few random ticks and pauses in the sound
made it very annoying and hard to listen to with the common little blips of lag or w.e you may call it during the playback
when i disabled the undervolt
all the blips and random stop/lag spikes ended and i havent heard one sence
any idea as to why this is happening?

 

nvm, hacked it and its fine now, stable at 1.7

 

narsnail, how's the temperature on the X7800? Is it a lot hotter than the TXXX?

 

I have been having problems with heat ever since the last time i took my laptop apart. My T5450 would overheat instantaneously, and i had the same problems with the x7800.

Its ok now, never goes over 85, encoding movies it sits at 70C with 65-88% cpu use. Idles at 38-44C. Still something wrong though.

So to answer ur question, no its really not hotter at all.

 

Just for idle fun i've been undervolting a t5600

I've followed all of the instructions and i'm worried about something. My system is stable (and i havent finished x6 and x7 multipliers yet) but so far all of the multipliers are currently set at 0.9500v. Is this normal? Its WAY below what Intel lists as the stable voltages of this CPU.

I have even been running 15-30 minute Orthos tests checking the multipliers stability and they seem perfectly fine. Its just so low i was getting worried.

And if the settings are fine, is there anyway to go even lower? A hack or something for the program? Because its still VERY stable and i havent had any problems except my temps going way down.

 

What is your idle speed set at? If your running SuperLFM then 600mhz might not be enough power causing it to skip.

If you want to make it startup when you log into windows, do the following:

Go to the Main Profile page > On the drop down box for startup choose "Performance on Demand" > Hit Apply

Now go to Settings page > Tick "Start Minimized in Windows Tray" and "Run at windows startup" > Hit Apply

Yes thats fine, your one of the lucky few that are able to set it as the lowest voltage. That question gets asked too many times, if its normal or its too low. Its fine.

If the highest multiplier is stable at 0.950v then all the multipliers below it will be too. I suggest you do a final 3 hour stress test on your max multiplier and your all set.

Theres no way to go any lower.

 

EDIT: FLIPPY YOU SUCK, YOU BEAT ME TO IT!

It is normal for the lower end Intel CPUs to run at .95V for all multipliers since the Merom and Penryn CPUs can usually go to about 2GHz while at .95V.

There is a registry hack to "unlock"* the voltages but it doesn't help for C2D CPUs since their lowest voltage is hard coded in by Intel. *By unlocking I mean that you can see the lower voltages, you can select them but they will still default to the lowest you could go before the tweak.

 

Thanks flipfire and notyou, i know it was probably lazyness of me not reading through the whole thread...but 1200+ posts is a bit daunting.

I appreciate the answers though. I'm still working my lowest multipliers like all the others. I like being thorough if i can. But i've gotten the x7 to .95 as well and so far everything is working out.

I should be on my 3 hour test with in the next hour or so. The temps are looking really good though 10+ degrees shaved on average per multiplier.

 

I didnt mean read the past posts. That would be insane lol. I just wanted to assure you its normal.I really need to make a <noparse>FAQ</noparse> for this guide but im too much of a lazy penguin. Same questions get asked often.

There is now a german version of the guide, the only copy ive given permission too.

Also has anyone tried undervolting on Montevina? Apparently its possible, but i need confirmation. My next system will probably be a desktop, so i wont know =/

 

Awesome guide. Thanks OP

I'm not really in the mood of reading 129 pages of posts today, so can anyone tell me if my voltages seem reasonable? I think they are a bit low, compared to some of the posts I've read.

I managed to get the 11x multiplier to 1.000 volts. This is on an Intel T7500 2.2Ghz. I ran ORTHOS for 6 hours at this setting, and there were no errors. Max temp was 67 C. I didn't test any other multipliers though, i let RMClock do it automatically for me.

I don't intend on putting that much load on my cpu though. The most intensive stuff I do would probably be playing DOD, which uses the Half Life 2 engine, and Call of Duty 4, as well as burn dvds occasionally and listen/converting music.

Here's a screenshot to clarify things:


Thank you in advance

 

Yes your voltages are good. Mine only went down to 1.100v but ive seen a few T7500's that can do 0.9xxv fine.

If it can survive through a 6 hour torture stress test, then it can run just about anything.

If you want to it to be surely stable, i suggest bumping up the all the multiplier voltages by 1 step.

 

I bet your ctrl+c and ctrl+v keys are glowing red by now

Just for reference i got my t8300 to run at 12x with 0.9625! Im guessing thats better then average? One step lower it BSDed after about 90minutes..I had my current settings tested for over 6hours..seems to be stable!

I dont know if you guys have read this guide, its about a different approach to undervolting: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=276661

What do you guys think about that? It seems to be very well written, has decent source reference and I believe 7oby put a lot of thought, time and research into.

I look forward to hear your guys opinions about it! For now I will use his approach

-COW

 

eek... maybe one of the heat sinks isn't sitting properly? :/

38-44c at idle is actually pretty good for Meroms.

 

T7100 undervolting is going well. Thanks for the great guide and personal help flip.

For lower multipliers are you just as likly to drop 0.100 volts? I dropped 9X multiplier down over 0.18 V

Cheers

 

thats not the issue
i set it at 12x today to test er just now
and still the same thing
constant skipping in the song whenever stress is put on the cpu
?? oh well its not worth it if i cant listen to music happily =\

 

Go to your task manager and raise the Priority higher. Also change the affinity to both cores if not done so.

Ill try figure this out..

 

Ok just did it and no change
have heard about 10 skips within the time its taking to type this
=\
both cores were already active
bleh
itunes is a whore lol

 

Ok, not being able to use the Windows power profiles (since RMClock won't use the voltage settings under the Windows profiles) leads to a problem...how do I set things like the default screen brightness and lid close action?

Under the Windows power profiles, I could set the screen to be 40% when on battery and 100% when plugged in, etc. When I try to "change advanced settings" for the RMClock profile in windows, it will NOT save the changes...as shown below.

 

Try this in your vista power profile, I found it in 7oby's undervolting post. Maybe it can save you from recreating a whole new power profile in rmclock:
"It can be fixed by changing the current energy profile of Vista such that the mininum processor power state = maximum processor power state = 100%. Actually any other % number will also work, they just have to be the same:
http://forum.rightmark.org/topic.cgi?id=6:1591"

 

Performance on demand page > click OS settings button on the top

 

Is it fine to have only one multiplier(x12) option running all the time? Should i have another multiplier?

 

thank you, thank you, thank you very much flipfire, wanted to do this since some time now but finally took out some time today
i have hp dv6500t with C2D 7500 i got last year
initial test max temp went to 86 C in first 10 minutes
but after the process its down to 70 C and idealling at 44 C
here is the setting i used

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/7940/90278660rl1.jpg

i stress tested it for an hour and worked fine, may be can fine tune it

 

Hello,

I have an ASUS A6KT-TM34 Turion Notebook, AMD Turion 64 1.8GHz CPU, 2GB DDR Memory, 100GB 5400rpm HDD, ATI X1600.

I have only recently started using temp monitoring programs and quickly became alarmed at how hot my CPU has been running. Idle up to 70 C, browsing went up to 93 C. I found this thread and download the programs as recommended on the first page and followed the instructions, but my temperatures are still up around 85 C. I am wondering if there are any problems with HW Monitor and RM Clock (which both detected the same temps) detecting the correct temperatures of my CPU or is my notebook just toast?

Desperate for any advice.

 

Set the Vista profile to RMclock and use the RMclock advanced settings. Its more customisable than Vista.

Yes its fine but it means your CPU is running like a desktop, always at full speed. This will consume more power if your on battery. I suggest using the Performance on Demand where it will dynamically switch speeds to reduce consumption.

Your voltages look great. Raise the voltages by 1 step just to ensure stability.

Are you sure the undervolt is in effect?

Your notebook has serious cooling issues if it idles at 70c, undervolting wont solve this.