The ThrottleStop Guide

Is the "On Top" box checked?

 

Not at all. But just to be sure I checked and unchecked the option. Seems to have done the trick so far.

 

@ unclewebb
i currently bought i3-6100 to test some OC with this Epic chip! i found an issue when i start ts 8.30 in monitoring (on/off ---> no matter) multipliers goes down as power saving mode (8x)! in during load it is boosts 37x. so i switch power setting profile in windows high ---> balanced ---> high. now it is working @ 37x. i think it is something set @ start of program.

 

Just to correct myself, the option "on top" does not fix the problem, a game enters into fullscreen and it immediately goes out with throttle stop being in focus.

Update: Sometimes even makes firefox to go to the first tab... wow. I know is throttlestop because when I close it wveryhing returns to normal.

 

@Vect - Not sure why this just started happening but I think this bug has been fixed. I will send you a message with a link to the latest beta version. Let me know how it goes so I can get the main download updated.

 

On it.

 

Looks like the problem might be solved in TS 8.31. Thanks for testing Vect.

 

In case anyone is interested I automated the enabling of SST through TaskScheduler and ThrottleStop so that SST is enabled after startup and coming back from sleep. The link below also includes a guide and PowerShell script to automate the setup. Once setup ThrottleStop runs for a brief period in the background under SYSTEM every time there is a system time change (best event I could find to trigger after sleep and bootup) . This way it is all behind the scenes!

More information can be found here:
https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Automatically-Enable-ad9c2208

Let me know if there is anything I can change/add.

Cheers.

 

Hey man , it doesnt seem to be working on my i7 6700HQ , idk what im doing wrong. It just won't start upon startup... please help

 

Sorry to hear that! It was my mistake. I forgot to fix something in the Task XML. Can you please delete all the old files from the previous .zip, download the .zip again, run the Start-ThrottleStop_Setup.ps1, and then try again?

 

yes sir, will reply if im having problems again

 

it says
no C path to start throttlestop.ps1 found in C:\ etc etc \start-throttlestop.xml

 

Sorry about that, uploaded the wrong XML again
Please download and do the steps I listed above again! I triple checked it this time

 

Same thing. It creates the scheduled task but it still says the above error plus a NEW one
which says
noSpeedShift=0 found in C:\ users \ ...\ throttlestop.ini

 

A video would be nice

 

The 'No SpeedShift=0 found in C:\ users \ ...\ throttlestop.ini' is fine. I am guessing that SpeedShift is already set to SpeedShift=1 in ./throttlestop.ini therefor it doesn't need to change it.

Hmm, that's weird that it doesn't find ' "C:\PATH TO Start-ThrottleStop.ps1" ' in the Start-ThrottleStop.xml.
What you can do is manually add the path for Start-ThrottleStop.ps1 for the Task in Task Scheduler by double clicking the task (Start-ThrottleStop) >> Actions tab>> click Edit >> and replace "C:\PATH TO Start-ThrottleStop.ps1" with the actual path to Start-ThrottleStop.ps1 (keeping the double quotes).

What version of Windows are you running? Can you also tell me what version of PowerShell? You can do this by typing $PSVersionTable.PSVersion in PowerShell

Thanks!

 

Good to know maybe I can make one tonight

 

PowerShell Version: 5.1.14393.206
Windows 10 Enterprise 64

 

Whadya say man, it's working
I kept on tryin for like 2 hours and as soon as it got 4:20 A.M , I tried once more , resetted and VOILA!
I guess hard work pays off woooo thank you man, really good work!

 

Not working again, video needed ASAP!

 

This sounds WAY too complicated. If you want to enable Speed Shift and if you want to make sure that Speed Shift is enabled after you resume from stand by mode, why not just run ThrottleStop and check off the "Enable Speed Shift when ThrottleStop starts" option. If you do not want to see ThrottleStop in the Task Bar or System Tray, just use the Task Scheduler and tell it to start ThrottleStop before you log in.

ThrottleStop is hardly a bloated pig or a significant drag on the CPU so why not leave it running so it can take care of this problem without needing to mess around with PowerShell or a script?

 

Hey bud, sorry about that. I updated with picturs in the steps and examples: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Automatically-Enable-ad9c2208

Hope this helps

 

I hadn't had success with using the Log On Trigger in Task Scheduler but I think now it was because of the task setting that wasn't allowing it to run on AC, so I had explored other avenues thinking it was broke I will have to go back and test that.

Well, it was supposed to be un-complicated.... but it always does at first thought it kind of snow balled.

I guess I had gone on the assumption that it would spawn a new processes every time the task triggered, which after testing right now that is not the case.

You're right, its not a hog at all. Thanks for the info!

 

Good morning,

I've been searching a simple soft that would allow me to monitor the consumption of my laptop (to compare with the use of ThrottleStop)?
Do someone know that?

Thanks

 

I used to do it this way but when laptop resumed from sleep or restarted, Thtottlestop wouldn't run in the backround.

 

The Task Scheduler works great but it has some default options that need to be disabled. The following guide has lots of pictures so you will be able to see exactly how the Task Scheduler should look when you are done.

For this example, I created the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\ThrottleStop and I unzipped all of the ThrottleStop files into that folder. If you ever drag a ThrottleStop folder from one folder or directory to a new folder or directory, delete the ThrottleStop.INI configuration file. This will force ThrottleStop to create a new ThrottleStop.INI configuration file with the correct read / write attributes. The pictures are from Windows 7 but the Task Scheduler is pretty much the same in any version of Windows.

1) Open the Task Scheduler. On the left side, highlight the Task Scheduler Library folder and then on the right side, click on Create Basic Task...

2) In the Name box, enter ThrottleStop



3) If you want ThrottleStop to only run in the background and you do not want a user to have any access to the user interface, for Task Trigger select, "When the computer starts". If you want the ThrottleStop user interface to be available from the Task Bar or System Tray, select, "When I log on".



4) In the Action window select, Start a program



5) Click on the Browse... button and navigate to where you have ThrottleStop.exe located.



6) When you get to the Summary tab, check off, "Open the Properties dialog for this task when I click Finish".



7) Now you can go back and double check to make sure the Create Basic Task wizard set things up correctly. On the General tab, if you want access to the user interface, make sure, "Run only when user is logged on" is checked. If you want ThrottleStop to quietly run in the background, make sure "Run whether user is logged on or not" is checked. In either situation, check off, "Run with highest privileges".



8) If you want ThrottleStop to only be running in the background, the Triggers tab should look like this.



9) The Actions tab should show the program that you want to run.



10) For the Conditions tab, make sure nothing is checked. Some boxes will be checked but grayed out. You need to click on the box above any of these boxes so that you can clear the box that is grayed out. When done, nothing should be checked.



11) Same thing for the Settings tab. Make sure everything except the top box is clear. The only box that I have checked is, "Allow task to be run on demand".



If the goal is to make sure that Speed Shift is running all the time, start ThrottleStop, click on the TPL button, and check off, "Enable Speed Shift when ThrottleStop starts". Click on OK. This setting enables Speed Shift when ThrottleStop starts or when you resume from Sleep or Hibernate mode with ThrottleStop running in the System Tray or Task Bar or if ThrottleStop is running in the background. To test your new task, restart Windows.

If you want to make sure that Speed Shift is enabled after you resume, restart HWiNFO after you resume so it can re-sample your current CPU state. It should show SST in green if everything is OK.

Edit - Here is an example of what happens when HWiNFO is started first and Speed Shift is enabled after HWiNFO has already started.



MSR 0x770 is set to 1 so Speed Shift is definitely enabled but HWiNFO does not update the SST flag in real time so it is still showing red. That is why you need to restart HWiNFO after Speed Shift is enabled. I think some people have forgot to restart HWiNFO so they might think that Speed Shift is disabled when it is really enabled. I am using the Windows High Performance power profile so the 800 MHz confirms that Speed Shift is likely enabled.

 

Hey everyone,

I've had the z8750 (cherry trail) version of the GPD win for around a week now. The BIOS on this thing is completely wide open. You can see a video I made going through the suite of options available:



So far in the options I've made the thermal ceiling of the CPU throttle to be 80C and it now never ever thottles, I've run TL benchmark and it's never downclocked ever. It will happily stay pegged at 2.56Ghz the entire time. My problem is more about my GPU. While the HD 405 has a 600Mhz ceiling, even if I don't do anything GPU related, if I do a CPU bench, my GPU will downclock to 400Mhz. I have successfully prevented this from happening ... for a little while. Maybe 10 mins before the GPU ramps back down again.

I do plan on opening the device to improve the heatsink, but before I do that I wanted to know if there is a better way that I could force the GPU to stay at 600Mhz.

For what's it's worth this is the device in "High Performance mode" without ThrottleStop: http://www.3dmark.com/cg/3820812

And this is the GPD Win with ThrottleStop preventing the GPU from downclocking for a little bit: http://www.3dmark.com/cg/3821948

The heatsink is really unoptimized as they just CNC'd the heatsink and put that on the CPU with TIM. So I'm looking to lap the heatsink and put in a pure silver shim. (and lapping the silver shim).

Let me know what information you need from me. Most people will be getting the 8700 version of the GPDwin but it would be nice if we could make the tools to open the power of the device a bit easier.

Thanks in advance.

 

Hello guys,

yesterday I found out about the existence of this amazing tool and forum! Since its my first attempt in undervolting a CPU and I am kind of (too) cautious to anything related with voltages I wanted to ask you guys about one thing. I want to undervolt my i7 6700hq and I read in a tutorial that you need to change the offset voltage for CPU Core, CPU Cache and Intel GPU. I have heard that a good starting point is to set the offset to -150mV for CPU Core and CPU Cache. My laptop is a Clevo P670RS-G and I am using the discrete mode in the control center which means that I am only using my nvidia GPU and that is the reason why I dont know if I should adjust the offset for the Intel GPU too or not.

Any help shall be greatly appreciated!

 

Hi @unclewebb, absolutely love ThrottleStop. Thank you for your hard work.

I have a few issues with the latest version.

I have a HP Probook 6560b with a 2720QM when running the latest version of ThrottleStop V8.30 I get processor not fully supported, but I do see a small increase in my CPU Mark score. However I get the best results with V6.00 which doesn't complain about the CPU. (I get over 1000 points higher on V6.00 at 6707, but still below some of the highest results around 7140)

Processor temps are fine on full load never going above 80C.

Is there anything I may be missing in the settings? I have had a play, but cannot replicate the same score with the latest version.

Thanks!

 

If I was new to under volting, I would not start at -150 mV. If you wanted to learn how to swim, would you head to the nearest Olympic sized pool and climb up to the top of the highest diving platform? I hope not or Mr. Lifeguard will have to get off his butt and scrape you off the bottom of the pool.

When under volting, it is best to go slow and do some thorough benchmark testing along the way. When you start dropping the voltage, at some point, your CPU will become unstable and your computer will lock up and crash. If you go in one big step, maybe your computer will crash so bad that it will corrupt Windows. Are all of your files backed up? Are you prepared to reinstall Windows if the back-up partition on your hard drive becomes corrupted too?

Many Skylake CPUs can be under volted significantly. How about start at -50 mV for the CPU Core and CPU Cache and go from there. Maybe continue dropping the voltages in steps of -10 mV or -20 mV. Once you have found some stable settings for your core and cache, go back and start under volting the Intel GPU too. If it is not being used, it might not make much of a difference so it might not be necessary to under volt this too.

Your 2720QM should be fully supported by either version. Are you using an ES processor or is it the original retail processor? I saw a guy on EBay yesterday that was installing Engineering Sample CPUs in laptops and then jacking the price up to make a quick buck. Sick.

Post a pic of CPU-Z and show me a pic of how you have TS setup. Why not check off the Log File option in each version so you have some data that shows how the CPU is performing during the benchmark. You should be able to attach a log file to your message or copy and paste the data to http://www.pastebin.com and post a link here.

 

Thank you for your answer! I guess I was a little bit naive and people recommended me to start (on my specific CPU) with -150mV and seeing people getting stable -200mV I did not think about it. I guess it was a silly idea to start with a value that high. The good thing though is that -150mV seem to work for my CPU - I was using the heaven benchmark yesterday for about 7 straight hours with no problems at all and significantly lower temps. Same for Battlefield 1 - the game ran flawlessly for 2 hours. I know that I must keep on testing, I am definitely gonna get Prime95 to get some tests there but I started with the Heaven benchmark first since people reported that its good to test both the CPU and GPU as stability tests.

 

Late reply due to physical unavailability for local testing. Finally managed to go around testing BIOS settings and while nothing had been changed, I went and switched C States from automatic to fixed maximum available states, that apparently toggling C State readings back on.

While Core C State Percent is displaying values as expected on according C States, I've noticed how Package C State Percent is always displaying values under C2 with all others always at 0.0. Is there something additional I should look into? Also, should C3 Interrupt Response Limit settings be changed? They're currently set as default.

Screenshot attached for reference.

EDIT: External image link due to forum issues - http://i.imgur.com/70B7aNw.png

 

That's great news. The 6th Gen Skylakes love to be under volted. For comparison, my 4th Gen 4700MQ is not fully stable at -50 mV. Not sure why Intel cranked up the voltage on the Skylakes but it seems to be completely unnecessary. A lot of people avoid Prime95 testing because of the excessive heat it creates due to running mostly AVX instructions within the CPU. If your laptop is mostly used for gaming and your games are stable then being Prime95 stable may be overkill.

My desktop Skylake board does the same thing. It does not matter what I select in the bios, the deepest Package C State is limited to C2. I am not sure what is blocking this or if I will ever be able to find a way around this issue.

Was your computer idle when you posted that C State screenshot? When testing C States, your computer has to be idle or else your tests are meaningless. If that is idle, you need to find out what is running in the background and start cleaning house. Here is what idle looks like.



This laptop is limited to Package C6 which isn't much different compared to Package C7. At least the individual cores are all spending lots of time in C7.

 

Hi Unclewebb,

Is there any way that you know of to monitor the C States below C7 (whether using TS or something else)?

The numbers that TS reports for me never add up to 100% (and I assume that is because my CPU is going even deeper than the C7 state).

 

So as promised I did some thorough testing after running the Heaven benchmark overnight (8 hours in total) I went for 7 hours prime95 and then a 16 hours OCCT stability test since many people recommend it now over Prime95. I was really satisfied with the temperatures and also very happy that all of the tests went good without any errors at all with my -150mV undervolt. I got very lucky that starting with -150mV worked out for me but in the future I will definitely follow your advice and start with lower steps . Thank you so much for your help and dedication towards this forum and your amazing program ThrottleStop!

Is there any possibility to donate money towards the development of ThrottleStop? Have a great start to the week!

 

I do have a few negligible software running in the background for displaying information with not so high refresh timers, nothing that would ramp up CPU loads noticeably. So far I've seen the CPU going over 79% C2, but nothing at all on C3 and deeper. Will be testing individual Package C State BIOS settings other than Enabled (which I assumed would enable all states from C2 up to C7s).

 

I also saw some weird behavior with C states with Speed Shift on (XPS 15 9550). If I restart the laptop and run throttlestop, it will go to the c6 and c7 but as soon as I put it to sleep and wake it up, it will only go down to c3, causing some pretty bad battery life.
Any ideas?
Thanks!

Edit: I just tested it without speedshift and the same thing happens. For some reason after putting the laptop to sleep it doesn't want to go below c3 causing the idle wattage to go from 1/2 W to 5-7W

 

Thanks for the offer but donation is a bad word anywhere on the Notebook Review site. There might be a paid version of TS someday so save your money for that. Have you tried going beyond -150 mV? Maybe you have a golden chip that would be quite happy at -200 mV. You never know until you do some testing, in small steps of course.

Can you post a screenshot of the TS - C State window at idle so I can have a look? I think the latest version of HWiNFO reports C State activity but I am not sure if it reports all of them. If you want to help me with development, can you run my RegReport program?

https://www.sendspace.com/file/isttre



Each time you click the Report button, RegReport creates a text file which shows the values of each register location in your CPU for each thread. Useless information for most normal folk but quite handy when I am trying to see what registers and C States are being used. You can open up the .txt file to have a look before sending it to me. C8, C9 and C10 activity should be located in registers; 0x630, 0x631 and 0x632. Scroll down to those three lines. If you see a bunch of zeros on each line, that means the counter is not counting any time in those C States. If your CPU has been idle, a line of zeros confirms that C8, C9 and C10 are not being used.

Make sure that after resuming from sleep, your computer has had plenty of time to settle down. Some operating systems or programs spin their wheels for quite a while after resuming, doing various background tasks, so it might take a while for your CPU to settle down and start using the deeper C States again. If you are still having problems, contact Dell and ask them about this XPS 15 feature. This could be a bug in the bios if it is not setting the CPU up correctly after resuming. Before contacting Dell, try confirming this problem with other XPS 15 users on the forums.

There are lots of apps out there that should not be interfering with the C States but in actual fact, they do, and sometimes significantly. The C0% in ThrottleStop is a good way to monitor for this. If adding an app makes a big change to the C0% at idle, that app is probably crap.

 

@unclewebb I recently installed Server 2016 on my Lenovo Y50 (It's like Win10 but lighter and without spyware).
However unlike Windows 7 where it gets to C7 state, on Server it stays on C3.
I took screen captures and MSR captures on both Win7 and Server 2016.
I added a ZIP of those files. Thanks in advance.

 

Hello again,
My Y50 refuses to run above 3.0Ghz on all cores. I cant set the throttlestop. I ve read the thread and set my cpu/cache core to -85mv and intel gpu to -64.5mv. Are there any settings that I should set? Below my screenshots while rendering. Forgive me but this is my second question about this particular problem.
Unclewebb thank you for this great software. It means alot for me as a Lenovo Y50 owner who suffers the most about throttling issues.
(cpu 4720hq)

Kind regards.

 

@methyn You need to set your Turbo Power Limits (TPL)to a higher value. This is how I have them set in my Y50 (4710HQ). You may want to get an unlocked BIOS.

 

when I created the task, TS is not showing in the notification icons but it is running in the background, how can I make it show in the taskbar icons? I already set it to start minimized

 

Hi Unclewebb,

Here is a screenshot.



As you can see the red circled items never make sense and never add up to 100%. This could just be me misinterpreting what it is saying though.

Here is another screenshot, this time with CPU at max multiplier - this time the percentages exceed 100%.



I have attached that regreport to this post as requested.

 

I will have a closer look at the reg dumps tomorrow. The difference might be found in the Windows power profiles. Open up a command window with Admin privileges and type in:

powercfg -qh >C:\power.txt

The -q option stands for query and the h option tells powercfg to show all of the hidden entries too. I like to redirect > this information to a text file called power.txt in the main C: directory but you can call it and send the info wherever you like. That will make it easier to see and compare. Are the cores also limited to C3 in Server or is it just the CPU Package that is limited to C3?

Limit Reasons shows that your CPU is throttling and this is due to it reaching the PL1 power limit. Your CPU has a TDP limit of 47 Watts and Intel recommends that the PL1 limit be set equal to the TDP limit. ThrottleStop is reporting power consumption of 46.9 Watts so the multiplier is throttling just enough to keep power consumption under the 47 Watt limit. As mentioned, a modified bios that unlocks your CPU might be able to get you beyond this limit. If your CPU is locked, there might not be anything ThrottleStop can do.

With your new task disabled, log into your account and run ThrottleStop. Do the Notification icons show up correctly? If no, read the ReadMe file and fix this problem. If Yes, check to make sure you followed the info in step 7 of that guide. The part about, "Run only when user is logged on".

What are you adding up that exceeds 100%? Make sure you are not adding core residency percentages with the package residency percentages since these are 2 different things. Also keep in mind that ThrottleStop does not report the percentage of time when cores are in the C1 state. Your MSR report shows nothing for package C9 or C10 but it looks like package C8 is working on your U CPU. I will add package C8, C9 and C10 reporting to ThrottleStop in the near future. Thanks for your info.

 

@unclewebb I took a screen capture of the C-States in Server and in fact the cores seem to get to C7, the package only gets to C3 at best or C2 most of the time..

I have also added the power configuration query from Server 2016.

 

Code:

  Power Setting GUID: d502f7ee-1dc7-4efd-a55d-f04b6f5c0545  (Deep Sleep Enabled/Disabled)
      GUID Alias: DEEPSLEEP
      Possible Setting Index: 000
      Possible Setting Friendly Name: Deep Sleep Disabled
      Possible Setting Index: 001
      Possible Setting Friendly Name: Deep Sleep Enabled
    Current AC Power Setting Index: 0x00000000
    Current DC Power Setting Index: 0x00000000

@villahed94 - This setting might have something to do with the package C States. If you have your Win 10 hard drive still available, swap it in and see what this says. My Windows 10 laptop has this set to 1 which is enabled. I might try setting this to 0 just to see what happens. Maybe tomorrow.

 

@unclewebb I'm adding the numbers from the C0% C3% and C6% etc. on the main window and the core states in the c state window. I figured the main window was core state data not package data. But what you are saying now makes sense - it will never add to 100% because its a mishmash of data.

Not that its urgent or anything but it would be good to have a single window where you can monitor precisely what C state the cores/ package is in at all times. I can see how this will help diagnose power usage issues.

 

That is basically what the C State window does but there are a couple of limitations. I have not come across a way to determine the percentage of time individual cores are in C1. I could determine the time by using a formula like this

C1 = 100.0% - ( C0 + C3 + C6 + C7 )

The theory would be that the individual cores must be in C1 if they are not in any of the other core C States. The data would be forced to add up to a nice clean 100.0% but is C0 and C1 core data really necessary? The important part for me is knowing the percentage of time individual cores are spending in the deeper C States (C3 / C6 / C7) but I am always open to suggestions. Intel documents how to determine the time in core C7 but nothing beyond that.

For the package, I started with the ones that Intel publicly documents, C2, C3, C6 and C7. They also document package C8, C9 and C10 so I will add these to ThrottleStop. Intel does not document package C0 / C1 but if your CPU is idle, the total of all of the known package C states should be close to 100%. I think my 4700MQ shows somewhere between 90% and 95% total when idle.

The C0% number on the main screen is an average based on the individual C0% data in the table. Tasks get scheduled and moved around very rapidly from core to core so I like looking at the average C0% since it is a lot more consistent. It is also an accurate measure of how much crap is running on your system when it is supposedly idle. The C3% and C6% numbers on the main screen are package C State data. This C State data is calculated separately from the package data in the separate C State window. Due to slight timing differences when this data is sampled, the C3 and C6 package numbers on the main screen will be slightly different than the same C3 and C6 package data shown in the C State window.

Edit - Let's just say that I have been thinking about adding some new C State info to ThrottleStop for a while now. Just needed someone to ask for it.

 

@unclewebb Unfortunately I never really ran Windows 10 on this computer ( I did once, but deleted it ASAP). I have searched for ways to enable that "DeepSleep" setting, but to no avail.

 

@villahed94 - Unfortunately, I do not think DEEPSLEEP has anything to do with the C States. I will keep searching through powercfg data on various computers around the house and maybe I will get lucky and find what controls this.

If you want to toggle the DEEPSLEEP setting then open up a command window with Admin privileges and do some copy and paste work.

Code:

powercfg –setacvalueindex SCHEME_MIN SUB_IR DEEPSLEEP 1
powercfg –setdcvalueindex SCHEME_MIN SUB_IR DEEPSLEEP 1

SCHEME_MIN enables Deep Sleep in the High Performance profile. Use SCHEME_BALANCED if you want to change this in the Windows Balanced power profile. The last digit is a 1 to enable. Change that to a zero (0) to disable.

TS 8.35 is done and includes package C8, C9 and C10 reporting. If you have a U CPU and want to do some testing, let me know and I will send it to you.