The ThrottleStop Guide

Lol I quoted the wrong post. That was in reply to the dumper post by @Dufus

 

It just stopped working again (seems to lose the clocks when I plug/unplug the laptop):

Also, TPL limiting to "15 W" (but in practice seemed to be about 25W) seemed to give me worse performance in 3dmark11 (8700 vs 8770) but higher temps (95C max vs 82C max)

 

Watch out for the Lock boxes in ThrottleStop. I should probably build in a warning message. This feature will lock the setting within the CPU itself and the only way to unlock this is to reboot. If you have added ThrottleStop to your startup sequence then as soon as you reboot, ThrottleStop will lock this setting into your CPU again. If you do not want your CPU to be locked, that would not be good. To fix this, you need to delete the ThrottleStop.INI file before you reboot so ThrottleStop does not keep using the same settings over and over again.

When playing around with the PP0 setting, I just enter numbers in randomly and then I do some TS Bench testing to see how much power consumption I get. It is not an exact science because PP0 refers only to the CPU core. It is not perfect but PP0 is a simple way to swap in an imaginary low power CPU without having to open up the case.

@Eason - If you do not use the Clamp option then a low setting like 15 W will only disable Intel Turbo Boost which will drop your CPU down to its default MHz so power consumption could be higher than 15 W. If you combine this with the Clamp option, the CPU will go below the default MHz and actual power consumption will be a lot closer to 15 Watts. Less power consumption equals throttling so of course your benchmark scores will decrease.

 

Argh that will kill all my profile settings, though. Do you know which line in the .ini file it is? Then I can just delete it/change it. I'd assume it's one of these hex values:
POWERLIMITEAX=0xDC8178
POWERLIMITEDX=0x4281D6
PP0POWERLIMITEAX=0x80148078

edit: yup deleting those did the trick

 

@Eason Your dump shows "0x64C 00000000:00000010". In this state TS will only be able to control multi's up to 16. For instance you could set 15 in TS and it should work fine but if you set 18 then the processor would try to use the highest multi.

You'll need to do some investigating as to why your particular system does that. If it's doing it when switching AC/DC power then probably a BIOS bug.

 

@Dufus - I tried setting 0x64C to 0x10 in my 4700MQ but this register doesn't seem to do anything. I know this is listed as the Turbo_Activation_Ratio but I am not sure if it applies to the 4700MQ. 0x64B is the Config TDP Control register so I thought that maybe 0x64C only applies to the UM processors. Not sure. By default my 4700MQ sets this to zero.

If the HQ uses this register, it should be easy enough to lock it to zero.

 

It works for both my 4700MQ and 4600M. Do you remember HiMultis posted a while back? D2 Ultima tried this on his 4800MQ and AFAIK it worked. Part of that program was to set 0x64c to 7.

Zero means default operation.

 

It works for both my 4700MQ and 4600M. Do you remember HiMultis posted a while back? D2 Ultima tried this on his 4800MQ and AFAIK it worked. Part of that program was to set 0x64c to 7.

Zero means default operation.

 

@Dufus - You're right. I just used RW Everything and set 0x64C to 7 and it definitely works on my 4700MQ. I think this was a feature in ThrottleStop but I removed it when I added the FIVR stuff and no one seemed to complain. I think I will add it back. Setting this one register to 7 and locking it would fix the method that Lenovo and other manufacturers use to disable Turbo Boost. Maybe this trick could be used to fix what Alienware has done to their recent laptops with HQ processors.

Setting that to a low number like 7 prevents the ThrottleStop - Set Multiplier function from working correctly. A Set Multiplier value of 8 is ignored and the CPU uses full Turbo Boost instead. Definitely a useful feature.

http://i.imgur.com/mHCjZ8n.png

 

Confirmed this is the case: TS works if I set it to x16 or below-- but not anything higher than that.

Any particular reason why a hard reset, but not restarting, allows TS to work properly?

Also, would it be possible to link TPL to profiles? Specifically so that TS would switch to the battery profile which you could limit to a low wattage.

 

That is on the things to do list. Unfortunately, both my desktop and laptop lock the power limits register in the bios. Trying to write or modify code when I don't have access to the necessary hardware is too time consuming so it is going to be months before this feature shows up in ThrottleStop.

I haven't looked at ThrottleStop all summer but I am just about finished adding adjustment of the Non Turbo Ratio register back to ThrottleStop as well as VCCIN adjustment and reporting.

A hard reset is just that. It resets all of the CPU registers. When you reboot, depending on what the bios does, some registers may not get reset to their original values. The new Non Turbo Ratio feature in ThrottleStop should take care of this issue for you. You can also try using RW Everything. Try writing a 0 to that register and your problem should be solved without having to do a hard reset.

 

Cool. New non-turbo ratio feature as in, coming out in 8.0 b3?

 

HiMultis still works windows 8.1 pro
I ran it yesterday and my clocks are still solid at 3.5GHz

 

Can I get a quick tutorial on using R/W everything 0x64C to 7? It's not the most intuitive

 

When I found out today that the Max Non Turbo Ratio adjustment might be very useful, I decided to add this feature back to ThrottleStop. I also added VCCIN reporting to the FIVR data table. The VCCIN voltage slider still needs to be hooked up along with a few more minor things. Beta 3 might be ready next week.

http://i.imgur.com/x9KU0xB.png

 

RW Everything 101

Start by clicking on the MSR icon.



Next click on the User icon and enter 0x64C to enter this register to the User List of registers that you would like to monitor.



Click Add and then Done and this register should be at the bottom of your list now. Scroll down to it and double click on the value in that register which will open up a window where you can change its value.



The important part is the number at the very end. The default is 0 which gives ThrottleStop Set Multiplier full control of your CPU. A value of 7 or 8 should give you full Turbo Boost and the ThrottleStop Set Multiplier value will be ignored. Perhaps that might help Alienware's latest laptops with HQ processors.

 

Thanks for the guide! Does this need to be set every boot, or will it stick?

edit: it was set to 10

 

Not sure. Usually every time you boot up or resume from stand by, this register will have to be reset. It will be easier to manage once control of this register is added to ThrottleStop.

 

@Eason from your posts it sounds like this register is set to 0 from a cold boot and then triggered by some event. You could for instance cold boot and then run RWE to check and while leaving RWE open try running on battery for 3 or 4 seconds then back to AC and see if any changes are made.

Some manufacturers BIOS can look sloppy, like they were left to the trainee. :/

 

Just tried this. Unplugging the laptop sets the value to "10" so it needs to be reset to regain control.

 

As an aside: I've been using Throttlestop since my Acer 3830TG was crippled by it and heat in 2011. I can't believe this is becoming more common and not being stamped out with better engineering and component choice.

 

Because nobody cares. The users who buy the cheap stuff expect it to suck or don't care about outward heat etc unless it's flat out uncomfortable. They don't have a reference point to be better, which is a huge problem.

For example: I had an HP Pavilion DV6000 back in the day. That thing was like heaven to me at the time. It was the strongest PC I'd ever owned and it did what I asked of it. As my needs got larger however I noticed it wasn't so amazing in the end. When I got my D900F I left it alone. I used the machine again after a year or so of owning my D900F... burned my hand. I was using the keyboard and the palm rest and keys were uncomfortably hot to me. I was surprised and asked a friend and my sister and mother who were around at the time to use it and see if it was hot. Each of them said simply "no, that's pretty normal". I proceeded to get my D900F out of my backpack, turn it on, turn fans to max, start up a demanding game and let it idle for about 5 minutes. I asked them to check the heat from the exhaust. Each of them said it was very hot. I asked them to try using the keyboard and palm rest. They all said that it was unnaturally cool, and they've never felt anything like that.

Nobody has a point of reference, and it costs too much to design better cooling unless mechanical failure appears within ~1 year of owning a laptop due to bad engineering design. And the public as I just described above doesn't know any better. If people would take laptops as seriously as they did desktops and android phones, we'd actually get somewhere.

 

So it happens when switching to DC and stays that way when switching back to AC. That's a bug that should be reported to the manufacturer. It could be that their intention was to limit the CPU to 1.6GHz when on battery but the "trainee" didn't understand what he was doing.

 

While I agree with you, I certainly think that there ARE some people out there who ARE willing to take laptops as seriously as they do desktops out there. There are people out there (most notably some Clevo owners) who lap their heatsinks, add thermal pads, repaste their CPU using the perfect amount of thermal paste, add extra heatpipes and sometimes even extra fans, etc.

 

Oh I do agree... but they're irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. The million laptops sold every month or so to regular people who are just gonna watch netflix and use facebook/youtube? Those are the ones that need to be looked at. But again, everyone looks at things from a business perspective. "My office programs work and it feels comfortable, so it's cool!" is the gist of things; not something like "compared to my custom clevo laptop, the surface gets uncomfortably hot and the keyboard leaves much to be desired. The 5400 RPM hard drive shouldn't be here. 7200RPM drives cost maybe $5 more, and less for you buying wholesale. The screen being 768p with terrible viewing angles and contrast as well could be worked on. I've seen better colour TN panels than this mediocre IPS panel you're selling. The CPU throttles if you put it under some light load, and its temperatures are very high doing light workloads. All in all for its price, I'd say much more could have been done to make a quality notebook".

If the people who had a voice used it properly, maybe we wouldn't be in the terrible situations we're in right now. It's NOT HARD to give us good laptops, and good chips/GPUs. It's not like we're going to complain for an extra $20 that an OEM needs to make the machine better in many cases.

 

NO it doesn't work for me now. It did in the start like i said. Even setting it in Task scheduler i get error 0x800702E4 (in the task scheduler result column). However if i start the program myself it works perfectly fine. It just won't run on startup anymore:/ Can you take a look on that error please? Thanks!

Edit: I think i'll try this: http://superuser.com/questions/676568/task-scheduler-wont-start-various-programs-on-startup
However note that i forced the program to run as administrator which is weird.

 

What is weird? ThrottleStop needs Administrator privileges so it can read and write to the registers in your CPU.

I will say it again. ThrottleStop runs flawlessly for me in Windows 10. My Windows user account has Admin privileges. ThrottleStop starts up correctly every time using the Task Scheduler and the icon always appears in the System Tray at the lower right part of the screen. Here is how the Task Scheduler looks on my laptop.

http://i.imgur.com/wykpoGz.png
http://i.imgur.com/p7Agrjp.png
http://i.imgur.com/OFxSo8v.png
http://i.imgur.com/uC57PjG.png
http://i.imgur.com/i6GC6rL.png

If you are still having problems, make sure that you have read and followed the information in the ReadMe file that was included with the ThrottleStop 8.00 download.

Edit - The SuperUser info you posted says that you need to check, "Run with highest privileges".

Edit - The second post in this guide has this link so you can see how the Task Scheduler should look in Windows 8. It looks pretty much the same as the Windows 10 pics that I posted above.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/6tnz3ccauuq3ekk/TS6_Win8_Manual.zip

 

I needed just to check "Run with highest privileges". It's weird that i needed to do this because:
1) I am the one and only admin in this system. However the dumb ****s at microsoft decided not to give full administrator privileges, also making impossible to convert this account into a super administrator one.
2) I had the program in compatibility to run as administrator, it's weird that it didn't apply to the startup folder/task scheduler
3) It was working perfectly fine after my upgrade from windows 7, then decided not to..

 

Windows does lots of weird stuff that seems almost random at times. I have had problems before where I moved a folder from one directory to another and suddenly something that was working no longer worked because Windows decided to change the permissions on a bunch of files and didn't say a word about what it just did. Trying to write small, simple apps that don't require an installer can be a pain in the butt at times but ThrottleStop mostly works OK once you learn about a few quirks.

The big question, "Is everything OK now?" Does ThrottleStop start up correctly from the Task Scheduler. Can I blame Microsoft for your problems? The ThrottleStop documentation is way over due for an over haul so I don't mind taking some blame but it makes me feel better when I can share some of the blame with Microsoft or Intel or Dell, etc.

 

Yes of course it works, but seriously..windows 10 sucks. They should at least let full control for the pro edition and leave the "David, i'm afraid i can't let you do that" over the home edition..

 

To be fair, they've been doing that non-full-control BS since like Windows 7, no?

I wouldn't blame UncleWebb for Microsoft's permission-crazy-BS - he's doing such a good service to the community by developing such a good program and programs requiring weird permission stuff isn't really his fault.

 

No worries.There was some misinformation posted in this forum a while ago about ThrottleStop so I just wanted to make sure that everyone knows that ThrottleStop 8.00 works exactly the same in Windows 10 as it does in any other version of Windows. Now that I know that there are no major issues, I can get back to adding more features.

 

Sorry to bother you guys but I have issues with ThrottleStop. It always stays on the taskbar..... How can I make it only to load in the notification area? Right now I have it on both my taskbar and the notification area. When I attempt to close it from the taskbar it closes completely....

I am using Windows 10.

 

that's very easy - just read this thread carefuly cos this question were answered couple times

 

Did you uncheck the Task Bar option on the main ThrottleStop window?

If you have already done that, did you read the information in the included ReadMe file that came with ThrottleStop 8.00?

 

..... I was searching for it under Options and it was right in the main window... I feel stupid now. Sorry to bother you.

 

@ Spunky90 - No problem. I used to have the Task Bar feature hiding in the Options window but I decided to move it to the main window to make it easier to find.

I added some extra stuff to the right hand side of ThrottleStop during the version 8 update so I decided to move a couple of things from the Options window to the main window on the left hand side to keep it balanced. Glad you found it and it works.

 

It works like a charm. I use it to downclock the CPU while playing games in order to keep the laptop temperature low and to prevent the silly throttling(at 60°-70°C) when I need to use only the CPU.

How can I contribute for that great app of yours. Any PayPal links?

All the best!

 

Talking cash is against NBR regulations so I removed the PayPal link. If I ever get hungry, I might release a paid version of ThrottleStop later this year or next year or who knows when. Until then, enjoy.

I was playing around with ThrottleStop tonight, trying to understand some of the more modern throttling schemes that manufacturers might be using. I checked the PP0 Power Limit option in the ThrottleStop TPL window and then I set this to 0 Watts just to see what would happen.



Limit Reasons confirms that the CPU is throttling due to POWER and this also causes TDP Throttle to light up in ThrottleStop. When this happens, Turbo Boost is eliminated so the CPU multiplier drops down to the default multiplier which is 24. Set Multiplier and every other setting in ThrottleStop is ignored when this happens. I was wondering if some of the most recent Alienware 13/15/17 line might be using this method or perhaps some other throttled HQ processors might be using this. If this was the case, a person would be able to use this ThrottleStop feature to prevent this from happening.

I was helping one user tonight on OCN with a desktop 5820K and after stand by, his CPU was getting locked to the 8 multiplier. If the PP0 Clamp option is also checked while the PP0 limit is set to 0 Watts, a CPU will get stuck at the 8 multiplier.

If anyone is having these sort of throttling problems, I would use ThrottleStop to set the PP0 register to an appropriate wattage and then I would also Lock this register to prevent other software from changing it. Problem solved. Just some random thoughts.

 

Thank you unclewebb!

I have another question. What is the best way to undervolt the CPU. When I go to the FIVR there are multiple option. CPU Core/System Agent/CPU Cache/Intel GPU and Digital/Analog I/O. Last time I used XTU but I do not really want to install it now I'd rather use ThrottleStop. I am using 4710HQ.

Also I would like to know if the downvoltage is applied only when TS is turned ON. Does turning off TS also disables the downvoltage that is set in the profile. I assume yes.

Best Regards.

 

Core, cache, and GPU are the ones you want to reduce. Core and cache can generally be uv the same amount. I've found GPU is a bit more finicky.

I think that if you have "don't reset VID on exit" checked, then after quitting TS your clocks and your voltages remain set until the computer powers off.

 

If this bypasses the TDP limit of the HQ chips without a BIOS mod, this would be fantastic on all accounts. If it does, and you'd let me, I'd like to push it as the only viable solution in my mobile CPU guide.

 

TS has started up un-minimized lately. Tried checking and unchecking the box for it, but no matter what it still starts maximized. Ideas? This happens on 2 computers.

 

@ Spunky90 - The Turn On / Turn Off button only controls the Clock Modulation, Chipset Clock Modulation and the Set Multiplier feature. The CPU voltage is separate from this and probably remains checked even after you exit ThrottleStop. Many settings in ThrottleStop are like that. Unless you specifically tell ThrottleStop to do something, it usually leaves the CPU as is when you exit. Adjusting voltages is all trial and error. I have no idea what will work best on your CPU. Try some voltage combos on your CPU and see what is stable. The monitoring panel in the FIVR window will show you what voltages the CPU is using. I agree with Eason that Core, Cache and GPU are the important ones to play with.

I was just doing some random brain storming. Hopefully someone with a throttling HQ processor comes forward and offers to do some testing.

Not too sure. The way I have the Task Scheduler setup, ThrottleStop is usually the last thing or close to the last thing that starts up. It ALWAYS starts up minimized to the System Tray on my laptop. Make sure you created a Task in the main Task Scheduler Library. I posted some pics earlier that show how the Task Scheduler should look. I use this same method on a variety of computers with various operating systems from Vista to Windows 10 and they all work the same.

 

This is easy to find! @Cakefish I summon you for testing!

Overclock your 4720HQ and run it at default voltage, and try some benchmark that you know crosses your 47W limit (hopefully without overheating you).

@octiceps can also do this I think

 

Let me see if I can help you with that.

 

I have HQ processor and I was trying to test that function. However I "Locked" the option and now it remain locked. I have no idea how to unlock it... PS Now I don't have Turbo Boost .....

Edit: Couldn't find the registry key to unlock the option again, however I had a restore point 10 mins prior so I did a restore. I have played a little bit with the option again however I cannot go past the 47 Watts Limit I have. Check the screenshot:

http://oi57.tinypic.com/o545c6.jpg

 

Does this still do so with the lock option? (you can use system restore again I suppose)

 

Yes, It does the same when you use the "Lock" option. But for me it appears that the limit reason is "PL1" not "Power". Maybe this is the reason why it doesn't work.


PS: The "PP0POWERLIMITEAX=0x0" in the ThrottleStop.ini file is the one that locks the PP0 Power Limit. The value above is the default value (Unlocked).

Cheers!