T420 WEI seems way off, any ideas?

Processor 3.4 - i5 2540m
RAM 5.6 - 6gb ddr3
Graphics 4.2 - intel 3000

All of these seem far to low, system seems fast and responsive though.
Any suggestions would be helpful.

 

Ignore it. You said yourself the system feels fast and responsive. I dont understand why people get so wrapped up in the WEI score.

 

I know it's not the end all be all, its just strange since I see other peoples systems with the same processors in the 7s. I wonder whats different, settings or something physical?

 

Should be about this, but as amtbr said, if your system is snappy, then it does not matter. Run it again to see if anything changes

CPU 7.1

Memory 7.2

Graphic 5.8

 

Check your Power Profile to make sure the CPU hasn't been toned down accidently. A CPU rating of just 3.4 is really low, my Core 2 Duo has a rating of at least 6.1.

 

Did that, put it on maximum performance and ran it again. Same scores.

 

Just a thought, could it be that Windows only sees 1 core?

 

Review Lenovo Thinkpad T420 Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

While notebookcheck has a different processor, the difference in scores of your RAM and graphics, are you running this test while plugged in?

 

Remember that the final WEI score is whatever the lowest-scoring component is.

Also remember that WEI isn't a hard-and-fast rule for how well a system performs. Benchmarks like PCMark, while imperfect, are still better measures of a system's capability.

That said, 3.4 is odd. Maybe Speedstep is kicking in for some reason.

 

Those scores seem low, too.

 

Yes ran it plugged in. The intel gadget you can download is showing 4 cores, two with hyperthreading. Keeps showing clock speed 780mhz though.

 

1. Can you download HWiINFO32? Grab the portable ZIP version.
2. Unzip it to a new folder your desktop.
3. Run HWiNFO32.exe
4. Pick "RUN" on the dialog box that pops up. Wait a few seconds.
5. Click on the System Summary Window's title bar.
6. Take a screenshot by holding down SHIFT + ALT and hit Print Screen.
7. Open Microsoft Paint. Hit CTRL + V. You screenshot should show up.
8. Save the file to your desktop and attach it to your post in this thread.

Once you do that then we can try to help you further.

For example, this is what the System Summary looks like on the computer I'm on...

 

The cpu definitely isn't throttling up when windows assesses the cpu performance. While it was running it stayed under 800mhz the entire time. Not sure why it's not being triggered, power managers is set at maximum performance with cpu deeper sleep disabled.

 

Your WEI should be closer to



Looks like there's another T420 review at Lenovo ThinkPad T420s - mini review - Keith Combs' Blahg - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

 

That Technet link is useful, Thor. Thanks for posting it.

 

I'm starting to think that something is seriously wrong with my new computer. Cpu never spools up, just sits at 780mhz. Just installed a bunch of windows updates and it took forever.

 

To everyone having the issue --what happens if you run something like Prime95, and keep CPU-Z open to watch what happens with the clock-speed?

 

Leaving CPU z open and running anything intensive it still sits around 797mhz. I posted another thread about how its a speedstep problem. When I disable speedstep it runs at full speed but all the time. That fixed the WEI score but obviously this shows the real problem.

 

What appears to be the same issue is also being discussed here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/len...s-lowest-speed-unless-speedstep-disabled.html

At least one user that was having this problem solved it by installing a BIOS update (from 1.16 to 1.22) and making sure to keep the battery plugged in.

 

Intel have a special TurboMode driver. It's possible that if it is absent / broken then it also affects the more normal speedstep.

John

 

I was thinking about that myself John, because I remember the Latitude E6410/E6510 having a driver available, but I didn't see one listed on the T420 drivers/downloads link from Lenovo, so I didn't mention it here. Is it there, and I missed it?

 

The other thread about the speedstep is from me also. This was the culprit resulting in my low wei score. I was unaware the the cpu throttled way down when you don't have a battery installed while using a 65 watt ac adapter. Put in a battery and ran wei again, went waay up.

cpu 7.1
ram 7.5
graphics 6.2
gaming graphics 6.3
hard disk 7.5

Needless to say I'm glad it's not my new laptop and just my lack of knowledge.

 

Aren't you glad you didn't just "ignore it?"

 

I am actually, stuff like that really bugs me when I don't know why it's happening. Never dawned on me since my T61 had a 90 watt ac adapter.

 

Now that you know the hardware and electrical side of this, you can explore the Power Manager plans and settings a little. You have the ability to throttle everything way down and conserve battery if needed, or throttle everything way up for peak performance on CPU and GPU intensive works loads.

The default plans are pretty good.

 

I usually make my own but the power source optimized is pretty good.