The ThrottleStop Guide

What the Hells is going on over here??? As much work as @unclewebb has put in for the rest of the world to enjoy is now being called names? Wow!

 

Thanks a lot for a new version! I use W10, do I still have to start OpenHardwareMonitor in order to enable ThrottleStop? What is the difference between Performance, Game and Internet profiles?

 

They are dummy profiles unless you configure them separately. Pre-defined profile are easy to remember.

 

Even I modded my BIOS to include the OC options and @Prema like BIOS options(except flexi-charge and Disable M.2 or SATA ports selectively to install dual boot OS w/o removing the SSDs.) and I hit a wall when @bloodhawk said the BIOS has a signature from Dell to allow only signed version for flashing and upgrade Intel MEI aka Intel Boot Guard. Then again, I'm less intelligent than Prem of course.!

 

Did you disable the Bios Lock option? If it's hidden, but exists in the main APTIO capsule (you can edit the official Bios with that AMIBCPx64 or AFUwinx64 or whatever it's called) you may have to find the GUID key for it. First find if Bios Lock exists in aptio capsule. The easiest way is to open the Bios file in AMIBCP, go to Bios strings and enter Bios Lock.

If it does, then you need to change this option to disabled.
Please look at @sirgeorge 's posts in the GT73VR section (several months ago) because he explains how to do it. the method is still the same, just the actual key location may be different.
Once you find that guid key (you will need another program to do it, read sirgeorge's post), then you need to extract it via his instructions and then boot to an EFI boot flash drive and then change the option to disabled that way via his instructions.

once that's done, then you can proceed with your modding.

 

Its showing some hex and decimal values. DO you remember the thread posted by @sirgeorge ?

 

You have to search for it. I'm sorry. It's in the GT73 thread. He also linked the files needed for unlocking Bios options (which will work on any Bios with an APTIO capsule).

try searching for his posts on gt73vr thread or his profile.

Basically after you boot into RU or whatever its called to disable Bios lock, then you go back into windows, use AMIwinguix64 (not amibcp) to dump your existing APTIO bios capsule, then save that and then edit the options to "unlock" with AMIBCP afterwards (including that bios lock command). Set all the options you want to supervisor.

i do not know if unlocking DRAM Voltage works.

Then save that file and then you force flash it with FPT64 (NEVER EVER EVER force flash the bios file you downloaded from MSI or Dell or whatever, you ONLY force flash what you extracted with amiwinguix64 and then edited with amibcp afterwards).

Remember, you never ever ever force flash the file you downloaded from the manufacturer's website after unlocking. Because that file contains other stuff that if you try editing directly, you could brick your system. Like, the EC or the Intel ME, etc....

The entire reason you download the file from the manufacturer's website is ONLY to use that RU program or whatever (i forgot, its some editor, i think universal ifr extractor? and uefi tool), to get the GUID key for "Bios Lock".

I hope that is 100% clear because you don't want to brick your board.

The reason you need to do the guid thing and flash drive boot thing to disable Bios lock is, the FPT64 flash will fail if bios lock is enabled.

see?

 

BIOS lock is disabled on stock Dell BIOS while RTC lock is enabled.
Thanks. I'll search that thread, so the same works on AW 15 r2, correct? MEI is unfortunately locked to 11 series and not upgrade-able.
I'll see that post by sir George.

 

Just throwing my cents here.. if it provide any help
http://voltground.com/haven/threads/102/

you could follow this guide as long as your BIOS is supported by those tools that is provided in this guide, I think you will get what you need because BIOS lock option on my BIOS is located on Chipset Menu.

I think it will be different for MSI but... try look around with your BIOS file while using the tools that is mentioned on this guide .

 

Following that guide from @dreamonic and its very good but I get lost in GUID section of UEFI tool for bios mods. In fact I got MMTool from there and put it in UBU for automated uCode patch and updated RAID ROMs and NETWORK ROMs

 

These are the instructions sirgeorge posted in the MSI thread for unlocking the MSI bios options.
He also linked the files, but I can't even upload that here. If you find his post, you can find the link.

Unlike the Dreamonic link you posted, sirgeorge said you use FPT to both dump the APTIO capsule you will edit, and then to 'reflash' it back

---------------------------

1) Make sure your bios is set to disable secure boot.
2) Get your bios from the MSI website.
3) Open the downloaded rom using UEFI tool. Click file -> search, search for GUID 899407D7-99FE-43D8-9A21-79EC328CAC21. This will cause a line of text to appear indicating successful search. Double click this line.

Spoiler: Searching
http://i.imgur.com/9bWhiob.jpg

Spoiler: Double click this
http://i.imgur.com/J3ETqTA.jpg

4) A DXE driver should now be selected called Setup. Right click and save this.

Spoiler: Saving setup
http://i.imgur.com/YWhOGab.jpg

5) Use IFR extractor to extract the saved setup.ffs

Spoiler: Extracting
http://i.imgur.com/IIotQUs.jpg


6) Open the new file generated called setup.txt
7) Search for 'BIOS Lock', you will come to the line displaying the address of the bit used to store the BIOS lock variable. eg) 0x5AE

Spoiler: Finding bios lock


This is specific to the laptop/bios version so it will vary! Note it down.

Now format a USB using rufus to boot efi using MSR. Extract the second archive in drive to the formatted usb.
This should result in E:\EFI\BOOT\bootx64.efi

8) Boot the USB drive, this brings you to RU (it'll be tiny if you're on a 4k laptop)
9) Click return to escape the menu and do ALT = to bring up search.
10) Search 'setup'. IF this brings you to a page with only two lines on it this is not the right page, use the PageUp/PageDown keys to get to another page also called 'setup'.
11) Once on the correct page use CTRL PgDown until you reach your address, eg) 0x5AE for me.
12) At the address should be 01. Type 00 and write this to the address using CTRL W.

I had to do this several times and kept cycling pages back and forth to make sure it stuck!

------------------------------------------------
EDIT : ALL OF THE ABOVE IS ONLY FOR TURNING THE BIOS LOCK OPTION TO OFF
AND THIS IS SYSTEM SPECIFIC. I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT RTC LOCK.
if your bios lock option is already off, you can just try starting at step 13 (dump bios with FTP -D, edit with amibcp, reflash with FPT -F).

DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT HAVE AMIWINGUIX64 OPEN WHATSOEVER WHEN RUNNING FPT).

13) Once the 0 bit has stuck at your address, reboot and flash your modified bios with FPT -F yourbios.rom -bios

To actually modify your bios dump it in FPT using -D bios.rom -bios. Then open it in AMIBCP. That program is pretty intuitive and allows you access to ALL THE MENU's. To make all menu's accessible click the advanced tab and change all menu's from default to USER.

Overclocking performance menu has many goodies in it
Spoiler: AMIBCP
http://i.imgur.com/LRQME21.png

Set the lock to off by default
Spoiler: BIOSLOCK
http://i.imgur.com/8HJLtVP.jpg

 

Alienware actually hid those entries in separate location in CHipset instead of Advanced. Some values are pretty much different than MSI.

 

Welp, @Vasudev @unclewebb

This thread just turned from a throttlestop thread into a "brick your laptop the easy way" thread.

 

That is on the Alienware R4 , dont think ASUS is doing that signature ******** with their BIOS.

 

ASUS on ROG Ryzen or intel build?

 

Intel. Boot Guard / Secure Boot is an Intel Implementation.

 

1. Wow, so I know it is not me! Here's how I solved it.
(You should be concerned, it reduces battery life drastically)

I did a post here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-throttlestop-guide.531329/page-624 and discussed the issue of C package states.

In short:
At idle, ,my CPU Cores idle at C7, like they are supposed to.
Package States used to idle at C2 states. This caused the CPU Package to use 2.4W.

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/177819-ahci-link-power-management-enable-hipm-dipm.html
Use that guide to enable DevSleep. I don't know for sure if it works, but for me the CPU package was allowed to enter C3 state, which dropped the power to 2.1W

Now to the actual fun part:

This issue is caused by a driver, either its Intel's Rapid Storage Technology, ACHI Power management, or some I/O management driver.

I'm sorry, ashamed, and not proud to say that I did in fact have to use a program called Driver Booster. What I did not know previously, is that the normal version doesn't have doesn't update the required driver. You have to get the Pro version. I updated all the drivers and it solved the issue for me.

Here's my results after:

My Package doesn't use the C7, and Acer disables the C9 and C10 states. What a shame. CPU power consumption is down to 0.4-0.6W





What's particularly interesting is when I put my laptop to aeroplane mode, C8 is disabled and the package moves up to C6 state. It doesn't appear to affect power consumption.

 

Oh yes and I have one of those Acer laptops - Ridiculously difficult to take apart, 100% locked down BIOS,

Modding the BIOS it is difficult too; Da Vinci Code over at BIOSMODS.com worked on the Aspire VN7 with somebody and the only way they could mod the BIOS was to use an SPI programmer, some clips and something else


In short, you can't mod some BIOSes 'normally'. You have to physically gain access to the BIOS Chip and forcefully apply power/rewrite the chip.

If you have Intel Boot Guard, you can just about forget modding the BIOS. Unless you have your heart set on enabling something.

 

It's about time putting up this older post #2658. For all of you who don't read the thread as the Bible as I... Free, does not necessarily mean that someone can't give something back. I would... And I did.

TS is one of the most useful tools ever made. Thanks @unclewebb for everything you have done for us all!! The Notebook manufacturers (ODM/OEM's) will continue with all the trick they find in the book... Aka trying to cripple the hardware as much as possible. Therefore, Keep on with your good work

 

TS simply got me better battery life and performance, the best of both worlds w/o any issues. I'd say, TS is Robin Hood as a savior to remove firmware based limits. All hail Kev!

 

Well, that may allow you to change the values in the control panel. But your computer may ignore a lot of your changes regardless of what the control panel says.

One way to see what changes stick is powercfg -qh >C:\power.txt

Then you can use alternative means to change variables which are not cooperating.

 

@Che0063 had some interesting new posts noting problems with C Package States idling no deeper than C2 on a 6500U.

@Kocane had similar recent problems with his HP (and perhaps some other unrelated "issues" lol).

I see similar issues on my XPS 15 (i5 6300HQ SkyLake):

* Core C states optimized to C7 on idle (96%+). OK

* Package C states will hit C8 (83%) but ONLY with "Windows-Power Options [Power Saver]" (thanks for the tip @Che0063 )

- Pacakge C states get no deeper than C2 in all other "Windows-Power Options-power plan [Balanced, High Performance]"

- "Dell Command-Power Manager" v2.2.1 seems to do nothing to C Package States (Thermal Management-Optimized, Cool, Quiet, Ultra Performance)

- "SpeedShift & SpeedStep" seem to do nothing either

- Updated BIOS and virtually all other drivers including Intel Serial IO. Not running Intel RST.

@Che0063 - Could you clarify - is your recent post saying that you updated some drivers and that allowed your C Package States to hit C6 with any power plan? Any other tips here?

I think any Wattage figures quoted on these are very rough estimates but as you note, optimizing Package C States might make a significant boost in battery life.

@unclewebb the potential reduction in temps is even more interesting for performance types!

Thanks!

 

Thats what I am expecting... when you reach to searching for GUID to do whatever you want... it needs someone who have knowledge about MSI BIOSes , I don't want to say anything from my mind unless I'm sure 100% because... you know... whatever wrong happens... congratulations for having a brick laptop The only thing I know very well is HP & ASUS ROG BIOSes only

 

Hello,

I have a problem with my Intel Core M3 6Y30 : throttle stop 850 does not seem to modulate the speed of cpu on windows 10.
My goal is to increase the minimum multiplier of the cpu, because I use a software to decode a video stream from the server of the company, and currently the cpu does not go high enough to prevent the stuttering of the video.
On my other computer with core i5-520M, I have no problem with either the speed of my internet connection, nor with the cpu which runs around 30% of 2GHz with the decoding software.

I have a samsung book 10'' with Intel Core M3 6Y30, w10 home. In the power options of windows, there is no ''power scheme'' at all, only the default one by MS which I cannot edit.
When I launch sotck TS_850 with administrator credentials, I turn it ON and check ''set multiplier'' and nothing happens on the frequency [it keeps fluctuating around 9 x 99MHz].

Do I miss something to use the throttlestop with Intel Core M3 6Y30 ?

 

Maybe because of fanless operation, the CPU is throttling and you can't simply increase the multipliers like your HK chips because its is locked by Intel.

 

What do I need to set to make "Set Multiplier" option working? Just can't figure it out...

 

@Che0063 you are a legend!

I decided to do some digging around following your post and after a small amount of trial and error, quickly discovered it is indeed a driver issue; It's the SATA AHCI controller to be precise. I had the generic Microsoft driver installed, but updating to the Intel driver (version 15.5.0.1051) was the charm and immediately unlocked C7 and C8 package states and saw my package power going as low as 0.4 W

Happy days

@pressing this should interest you mate

 

The Set Multiplier option does not work if you have Speed Shift (SST) enabled. SpeedStep and Set Multiplier are the old school way to control the CPU speed. Speed Shift is the new way. Allowing individual Speed Shift adjustments for each Profile is on the things to do list.

I have never owned this CPU and you didn't post any ThrottleStop pictures so that makes it hard for me to make any recommendations. As far as I know, this CPU supports Speed Shift. If this is true, enable it and on the main screen of ThrottleStop set the Speed Shift - EPP value to 0 which is similar to the traditional Windows High Performance profile. I have heard there are ways to add things like the original High Performance profile back into the Fall Creators Edition of Windows 10 so you might want to try doing some Google searching for that topic.

 

Ok, so I've noticed that Package C States higher than 3 are only available when on battery power. Does anyone know why this might be?

 

Does anyone know if you still need to set Processor Power Management min and max to 100% with the latest version of Throttlestop to keep it from fighting with Windows CPU management? I have a Lenovo Yoga 920 with 8th gen i7 8550u. The processor power management options are not showing up where they should in the Advanced Power plan settings... I'm on battery power right now but wouldn't think that would make a difference... Thanks for any thoughts.

There is a slider when you click the battery icon in the task bar for Best Battery Life or Best Performance. Does Throttlestop interfere with this at all and is there a recommended setting?

@unclewebb Do you have any current info on this? Thank you for everything!

 

Thanks @Che0063 . I spent a few hours tonight looking at the differences in registries for Windows>Power Options> [high performance & power saver].

The idea was to find the power saver variable(s) that permit Package C-States to hit C8. There were a lot of differences but only 8 variables with interesting differences (e.g. settings change to or from 1). Of those 8 only a few seemed to be candidates but I tested all 8 for fun:

SUB_DISK (AHCI Link Power Management - HIPM/DIPM)
SUB_PROCESSOR CPINCREASETIME
PERFDECPOL
PERFBOOSTPOL
PERFINCPOL
LATENCYHINTPERF
PERFINCTIME
PERFINCTIME1

powercfg commands would not stick, so used regedit which seemed to stick. Not certain as Dell has the XPS locked down in some odd ways. Alas, this was a dead end. I suppose I will simply use "power saver" when on battery then.

Thanks again @unclewebb for engineering a great tool to help dig deep for performance enhancements.

 

@Che0063 I have installed IRST 15.7 drivers and HIPM/DIPM doesn't show up when SATA link power saver is enabled in IRST.
IRST SATA link power saver caused stutters for me so I disabled it.

 

Wow I didn't know my post would help so much


Here's my configuration: @pressing

I use the 100% default Windows Power Plan - No changes except for changing sleep timeout times.
I've said before, the moment you start ThrottleStop, it takes over just about everything for the CPU. Once you enable Speedshift, TS will force the CPU to use whatever settings ThrottleStop uses - Power Plan's don't matter.


I have four profiles on throttestop - All of which have the exact same settings (undervolt, TPL settings etc) except for the Speed Shift EPP value:

1. Max Performance - EPP 0
2. Normal - EPP 128
3. Battery - 180
4. Emergency Battery - 128

I use the option "Default Profiles" and TS automatically switches to Profile 2 on AC, Profile 3 on battery, and Profile 4 when the battery drops below 40%

Once again @unclewebb for making such an intuitive software!


Oh, and once you enable SST in ThrottleStop, Speedstep no longer works. Currently I cannot see any way to re-enable SpeedStep unless you restart your laptop.

Anyways, Speedstep is useless compared to SpeedShift.

BTW, every single milliwatts makes a difference in battery life. The difference between 0.6W package idle and 1.4W is huge. So yes, you will get significant battery life improvemnts.

I actually got the Pro version of Driver Booster and updated all the drivers.


As @CraftyClown mentioned, it is the ACHI SATA driver that is causing issues - Try downloading it from the Intel website.

@CraftyClown

It is likely a BIOS setting. Like I mentioned above, C states won't go below C3 for me when I'm on aeroplane mode. It doesn't affect power consumption, so I won't worry about it. Plus, if you are on AC power, who cares about power consumption?


@starrtech2000

If you dig around in the Windows Insider Blogs, you won't get much information. That slider is only available on select manufacturers, and likely fiddles around with Intel's SpeedShift settings. To test it, open a monitoring software like HwInfo, and move the slider. And yes, ThrottleStop will override any Windows setting.

@Vasudev

I'm not sure why you installed 15.7, the newest update version is 15.8.1.1007

Funny, mine is enabled and I can see the option in Power Settings. Did you try reapplying the "Attributes" DWORD value to '2'?
It should be at Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442\0b2d69d7-a2a1-449c-9680-f91c70521c60

 

Our minds think alike!

Back a few months when I first realised this issue I too spent hours trying to find the differences. Did you try your aforementioned method of powercfg -qh >C:\power.txt and comparing the values?


I'm quite busy ATM with my upcoming first ever exams for school - I'll test everything and write a definitive guide some time later.

I only solved this issue because of my desperation. I stayed up to 12pm a few days last week tearing my hair out.

I'm incredibly fussy about my laptop - I like every setting to be optimal. I've reinstalled windows because my logon times were 3 seconds longer than usual or wiped my SSD just because there were too many unused partitions which I couldn't be bothered to clean. It's the reason I notice so many bugs with my laptop that nobody else experiences/cares about. C states are just one of them.

 

Pressing told me to pop over, I have used the latest intel drivers all along and grab them from win-raid who are normally several versions ahead of the intel site, like above 15.8.1.1007 is the latest. I enter C8 on package and and C7 a lot on core so the Microsoft driver is to blame, using the win-raid site you can grab the inf files rather than the RST suite (section B 11.5 and up) https://www.win-raid.com/t2f23-Intel-RST-RSTe-Drivers-newest-v-WHQL-v-WHQL.html

I hit the above states without using TS and tend to idle at 1.3w (plugged in)

 

The latest IRST driver caused UI lags when accessing HDD and then again my RAID ROM is 15.5 and IRST 15.7 fits in there perfectly w/o any UI lags. Maybe I will try the latest driver and regedit. Thanks. Maybe because of 7200 rpm drive power saving features are disabled I think.
@GoNz0 If cpu is left idle or with minimal usage less than 5% Package power is 0.2-0.4W at 890MHz on C6 state.

 

Your stuttering issues may be because the drive is spinning down. Try changing the spin down value. SSD's wake up from DevSleep within milliseconds, 2.5 Hdds require 1.5+ Seconds to spin up properly, far more if it is a desktop 3.5" drive.


And what do you mean by package power should be 0.2-0.4W?


The very lowest I've seem my i7-6500U go down is 0.3W, and that's with aeroplane mode on, and literally everything turned off.

mostly it idles at 0.6W​

 

Lucky if I idle below 10% I have that much running on here, can't say it bothers me either as I spend 99% of the time plugged in so I won't be chasing down the wattage for now

 

I think IRST power saver causes problems on HDD so I disabled it so far no battery life issues with dual SSD+HDD touching 6-7+Hrs on mixed usage(web browsing, small burst of benchmarks) and 8-9+ hrs on just web browsing on Linux and Windows 10 (iGPU).
Package power means TDP of CPU.

 

RTC lock is just a lock for the realtime clock to prevent it from going AWOL, kinda useless since clear CMOS always clears RTC.

Unfortunately for us tweakers time is running out for bios modding. There are systems that one cant even program with an SPI device, as dreamonic demonstrated with his ROGbook.
It was only by accessing settings in RU that modifying these bios' became possible. For non aptio devices you're SOL if you want to mod.

As cybersecurity becomes a more important aspect of hardware design our avenues for modifying firmware, even by hard-flashing will narrow. Intel and AMD are introducing secure enclave processors into their chipsets. Don't be surprised if more complex bios security ruins the party in the next few years

 

@unclewebb hey there, I have a query about TS. Anytime I try to change the cache ratio above 36 (which is 3.6ghz) it doesn't register.

I then have to use XTU to do it. How comes this is happening

 

Yes when I set Seep Shift to 0, THe Intel Core M3 6Y30 goes to 2,5 GHz.
Installed the three powerscheme of windows 10 Creator Update. I set the power scheme to highest and the cpu goes to 2,5 GHz. Throttle stop seems inactive still. THe multiplier does not change and whether or not I enable the Speed steps, the frequency changes.
Here are the pictures

 

You can try undervolting and disable BD PROCHOT on AC or performance profile.

 

It makes perfect sense that the Generic Microsoft AHCI driver was unable to access the higher package C state, as it's a one size fits all driver designed for maximum compatibility.

Just one question for you @GoNz0 you mention idle wattage of 1.3w when plugged in, but are you saying that was with your package hitting C7 and C8 or without? I only ask as I had noticed that when plugged in my machine is unable to access higher package C States, no matter what power profile I use, whereas @pressing found that his machine can hit C8 even on mains, if he selects the power saver profile. The main difference I can see is that he is using the generic MS driver as opposed to the Intel driver I have installed. Bear in mind this is just for my own curiosity, as if I'm on mains then higher C States are less of a necessity anyway.

 

I am on mains as the laptop lives like that normally, after a reboot and leaving it while I was having something to eat I came back to see it flickering between 0.4 and 1.5
pulling the plug didn't make any difference but this isn't a sterile test.

I attempted a sterile test by disabling every startup item and service, the result was the laptop boots to the login screen but when you pressed a button no login appeared, and so I restored this morning backup of macrium (fortunately it took under 5 minutes) and called it a day.

FYI I am using the balanced (stock) profile, speedshift enabled.

 

Thanks for that. That is interesting as 0.4w would certainly mean you were utilising higher C States, however you are on mains.

Like yourself I am on the balanced profile with speedshift enabled, but these higher C States whilst using mains remain elusive for me.

This certainly isn't a problem, but it is a vaguely frustrating head scratcher as it appears something is preventing this functionality on my machine.

 

Have you tried not letting TS do anything, just as a monitor?
Aida64 causes my system to idle at 15w

 

No I haven't but that's a great idea. I'll give that a try this evening. Cheers

 

Got Package C-States working well by replacing the generic M$ IDE ATA/ATAPI driver with Intel RST 15.8.1.1007 (latest). [EDIT MAY 2018 - THIS STOPPED WORKING AND PACKAGE CSTATES BACK TO C3 MAX]

[EDIT DEC 2018 - TRIED UPDATING DRIVER BY FIRST DELETING DRIVER AND RESTARTING AS INSTRUCTED IN DEVICE MANAGER. GOT STUCK IN BOOTLOOP. RESTARTED IN SAFEMODE AND ORIGINAL M$ DRIVER WAS AUTOMATICALLY PATCHED. THIS IS PROBABLY CRASH GONZO NOTED BELOW]

In Windows Power Options>High Performance & Balanced, Package C States will hit C8 both on mains & on battery. Looking forward to lower power consumption and lower temps!

Draft rundown of basic steps that worked for me (took 3 minutes):

- Downloaded 64-bit file Intel RST (15.8.1.1007) and unzipped (name looks something like f6flpy-x64.zip)

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27147/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-

-Device Manager>IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller
-Click on the triange to expose driver (mine was generic M$)
-Right click driver, click properties, click driver tab
-Uninstall / update manually pointing to Intel file just unzipped
-Restart

==>System - Dell XPS 9550 6300HQ, Samsung 850 EVO, SST, ThrottleStop for undervolt

Thanks @Che0063 , @CraftyClown & @GoNz0

Sorry I crashed your system @GoNz0!

Once you enable SpeedShift, SpeedStep seems to be disabled. SpeedStep flags will continue to be lit so there maybe some underhood role we don't see (or that I did not find documented) but from what I have read SpeedShift takes over.

The only way to reenable SpeedStep is to disable SpeedShift (disabling SpeedShift requires restarting the computer).

Some SpeedShift links and highlights in the following thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/dell-xps-speed-shift.796891/

lol - a lot of us have the same problems.

I did a compare of those .txt files just as you expected. Didn't work out but an interesting exercise in any case.

ThrottleStop & LatencyMon have been fantastic tools to help optimize my laptop - it runs superbly now.

 

I have heard of Latmon, I used it diagnose and force Acer to give me a refund on my previous computer - Those three months of phone calls were exhausting.

But yes, there are plenty of unoptimized drivers on my system - I can't blame Microsoft, really. They provide basic support for a lot of drivers on their newest operating systems, I can't expect them to be tuned for every system. Apple, on the other hand, has no excuse for any bug that comes from their products. They code their software around their hardware (or was it the other way around) and they only have to provide support for a few different hardware configurations.

@CraftyClown

I can confirm that on my CPU Package it does use slightly more power when on AC, 0.1W more. Try using HWInfo>Sensors only to see everything to the thousandth watt.


On battery, WiFi off, Bluetooth off, no background programs...