how to undervolt dv2000t using rmclock?

I am using rmclock to undervolt my dv2000t with T7200 cpu. The purpose is to reduce the fan noise.

How can I do that in rmclock?

Here are questions I have:

1. is throttling helpful to reduce temp? Shall I turn 'use throttling' in 'performance on demand' tab?

2. what's the purpose of 'use p-state transitions'? Shall I check all the boxes from 6x to 12x?

 

I just started using "Notebook Hardware Control".
Very cool program that allows you to switch profiles on the go.
It allwos you to control fan speeds etc.
I undervolted my NC8430 to 1V running it full speed at 2Ghz.
The temps never get above 68C.

I ran an hour stress test at 100%. No problems.

 

I have always wondered about the long term effects on CPU life running it at full speed all the time. But I guess it's OK since the temp is lower due to undervolting...is that correct?

 

I like RM clock because it is a very compact piece of software.

First, download Prime95 and put copies into two separate folders.

In RMclock select the p-state transitions. This allows the CPU to switch speed according to load. I once tried throttling and found it made no difference. It might help with desktop CPUs.

On the Management page select Perform single step transitions only and Average of CPU core loads.

Start running two Prime95 torture tests (you need two, to keep both cores fully loaded). The fans should rev up! Prime95 is good because once it sees a computation error, it stops, usually before the operating system sees a problem.

On the Profiles main page make sure 6x voltage is 0.95V. If not, click on the 6x then select 0.95 in the VID list. Then click on the last entry. What is the voltage? (This seems to vary for individual CPUs). Anyway, reduce it by about 0.05V (eg 1.2V becomes 1.15V). Select the auto-adjust intermediate VIDs. Select the AC profile as Performance on demand.

Now go to the Performance on demand menu. Make sure the use p-state transitions is selected. Select the various Indexes and then press apply and go to one of the monitoring pages. If I have got the procedure right, you should see a drop in the VID and temperature with the VID sitting at the maximum value you selected.

If there are no problems with either Prime95 after a minute or two, go back to the main Profiles page, select the last entry and reduce the voltage by another notch or two. Repeat the procedure until one of the Prime95s stops with an error message. Then raise the last VID by two notches and leave two Prime95s running for several hours. If no problems, save the settings so that they are applied automatically on start-up. You should also go to the advanced CPU settings and enable the CPU low power states.

I've got the T7200 in my X60plus set to a maximum voltage of 1.05V while the T5600 in my Q35 is running at 1V max (verified by leaving two P95s running overnight). Observations of the power draw at the mains socket show this reduced the maximum CPU power draw by about 11W.

A side-benefit of undervolting is that you can also use performance on demand when running on battery because the increased power draw will be reduced.

Hope this helps. Maybe you should also read the RMclock help. Let us know how you get on.

John

PS to grumpy3b. Running CPU at fully speed all the time? Why. Performance on demand means the CPU will go fast enough to do the work required and will most likely spend most of its time at the minimum speed.

 

John, first of all, thank you so much for such detailed description.

I have a few questions of your description, could you help?

What is throttling for? Is it used to slow down computer or quicken it?

why not the default option?

shall I select ALL the indexes?

I just tried 1.05v on my T7200 and it seemed fine. Not tried prime95 yet because the site seems to be down.

Are you saying that if I want more performance on battery, I can use 'performance on demand', otherwise I can use "power saving', right?

In summary, is this what I shall do?


1. set the voltage range from 9.50v to 1.05v
2. select all the indexes under p-state transitions
3. throttling affects little

 

Another question:

performance/powersaving preference should be

--Balanced

right?

 

Btw, there's a dualcore version of prim9:

http://sp2004.fre3.com/beta/beta2.htm

 

John:

d'oh!! of course, you are right...sometimes I just get some off the wall idea's. So yeah there would be ZERO POINT to running the CPU full speed all the time...ok, off to the showers for me...

 

\

Actually, when I'm rnign my Audio-Applications, I have to set it to run fullspeed all the time. Otherwise the system usage jump up and down, and gives CPU spikes, causing errors.

Right now I have my CPU down at .9625 Volts. 100% speedtest. maximum stress.
Temp is a 67C solid, fan is runnign at 35%

 

In RMclock there is an option for single step transitions. I find that this stops the spiking in CPU speed. 0.9625V - impressive. Which CPU?

John

 

See my comments next to your questions.

Forget the throtting. Yes to the others.

Sorry about the delayed reply - it was bed time in my part of the world. But it seems you are making good progress.

Finally, when you have it all working, you should notice reduced fan noise (the original objective) and CPU speed and voltage fluctuation depending on load.

John

 

core 2 duo T7200

I ran the new dualcore version of prime95 for 4 hours.
No errors.
And I figur at that volatage, who relaly cares about NOT running it fullspeed all the time ayway?
I wish I coudl downvolt the GPU as well.

 

What is evident is that Intel could have dropped the voltage at the minimum CPU speed for these dual core CPUs. One could go down to 0.75V or 0.8V on the Dothan Pentium M CPUs, which would make a useful addition to battery running time.

I suspect that Intel locked the minimum voltage at a relatively high value in order to create a market segment for lower voltage CPUs. However, the L7200 and L7400 CPUs are clocked at only 1.33 and 1.5GHz but they draw a few watts less.

John

 

Just to add the accumulated experience in this forum to this thread : Look at this long standing undervolting thread: http://forums.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=20249. True, it is for single core AMD but the idea behind undervolting remains unchanged and very little has changed in the implementation phase.

By the way,

...I think this is a little bit higher than the optimal. I expect something like 60-64*C max but it might be that the fan is not at maximum speed

 

Well, critical temps are listed at 100-110c.
My temeperatures hover around 47-52, normal usage, 2ghz.
Only when I hit 100% usage, does it stay steady at 67c, but the fans at that point are only at 35%.

I think that's completely safe.

 

T7200 is running at 1.012 voltage now and has been stable so far.

 

That is a point I would never ever doubt. I wish I was still in contact with one of my old college roommates. He became some sort of QA/QC manager at Intel about 15ish yrs ago and would now have been there about 20 years. I always got the best inside info on CPU's back then...

 

Thanks for the update. How are the temperature and fan noise?

John

 

fan is alway on , though barely audible in this quiet room.

I guess it is because I am using BT a lot. I am planning shutdown BT and do some normal operations to see how the fan goes.

 

I think it's the Videocard fan that's on most of the time with me.
Anyway to udnervolt or do somethignt o trun it's power requiremst down?
Underclock it maybe, for normal use?

 

I am on 0.987 at 12x now. For low light use, the temp is about 41 degrees centigrade. But the fan is still on.

I noticed that the fan only goes off at about 38 degrees centigrade.

 

Go into the ACPI settign ss in NHC, and you can change the speed of the fans as well as when they come on.
I think you might only be able to do that with the registered version, which i have. It's totally worth it.

My first dan ON is at 55c. But only 20% of maximum fan speed
It then speed up to 35% when the temp hits 60c
Then up again to 70% at 72c
And max is 100% at 80c. Which is still a good 26 degrees away from critical.
I have yet to see that temperature. After undervlting it rarely goes above 70c even at max load.
What I hear most is the fan of the Videocard,w hcih I woudl like to get down.
Any way to underclock the Video card?

 

I just realised something.The loudest thing in my laptop at this point is actually the HD.
How can I access the S.M.A.R.T options of the drive?

 

In NHC, it says "ACPI has not configured for the system".
What does it mean?

 

I think it means you can't access the ACPI functions for some reason. mayeb you can't accessthe fans.

 

It seems that one needs to program ACPI for dv2000t.