W520 Problem: Speedstep is not working

Just ran into a problem where my CPU frequency won't is stuck @ 1.4Ghz on battery and 768Mhz on A/C when set to max performance. How on earth would the outlet frequency be lower than battery?

I've tried every setting with no results. The only way to get my full 2.2Ghz is to turn off speedstep in the BIOS. Anyone else have this issue?

 

How is your Power Manager set up?

 

I just use the default settings. I only use max performance when encoding video other than that I'm using balance. Also in the the resource monitor it says 68% maximum frequency.

 

Plug your battery in and see if that does anything. I heard that the W520 throttles the CPU without the battery in.

 

Choose Power Source Optimized and see if it does anything.

 

The battery is in and power souce optimized takes it down to to 768Mhz-1200Mhz. No joy.

 

We helped someone else with this issue... there are a few things to check:

1. Do you have the correct 170 watt power adapter?
2. Is the battery properly inserted?
3. What BIOS version do you have?
4. What software are you using to monitor CPU frequency?
5. What happens when the system is plugged in and ran with the High Performance profile?
6. Can you post a screenshot with HWiNFO32?

 

1. I'm using the adapter that came with the W520.
2. The battery is properly inserted. As people with the W520 know, the battery is loose on the W520, but it is in properly.
3. Lenovo BIOS 1.21 dated 3/30/11. SMBIOS 2.6
4. I'm using the All CPU monitor gadget and CPU-Z.
5. Clock speed drops to 797Mhz in both the CPU Gadget and CPU-Z.
7. Unable to post screenshot.

Did a Lenovo update yesterday and still having the same problem.

Thanks everyone for your assistance!

 

Even if you received the 135W adapter, it should work fine unless you have the extreme quad.

What power settings are you using in the BIOS? They do have impact.

 

Intel Speedstep Techonology = Enabled
-Mode for AC = Max Performance
-Mode for Battery = Battery Optimized

Adaptive Thermal Management
-Scheme for AC = Max Performance
-Scheme for Batt = Balance

CPU Power Management = Enabled
PCI Express Power Management = Enabled

 

Go into the advanced settings of the power management menu. There is an option for you to setup maximum processor speed. You may not have set max speed to 100%. The field is set by percentage.

Make sure to set what you want for both battery and A/C power schemes.

C.

 

Already check that.

Minimum processor state
-On battery: 100%
-Plugged In: 100$


Thanks for the reply.

 

I had something similar to what you are experiencing......

Check with CPU-Z program and see how many corp and threads you have showing. My returned T420 only showed one core, one thread only and it should have read 2 cores and 2 threads. My processor speed was also out of whack and no one could assist at the time. So I used ThinkVantage and reinstalled windows which fixed the core read and speed.

Just a thought for you to consider.

 

Yeah, I'm just going to reinstall. With the low clock speed an the fan constantly being on I think that would hopefully work everything out.

 

At least then you'll know if it's hardware or software.

 

Another option is downloading an Ubuntu LiveCD and seeing what it reports.

 

Let us know if this worked or not

 

Low clock speed + fan constantly on? You might want to use a program like RealTemp to monitor your CPU temperature to make sure it's not overheating and throttling.

 

Thanks...will do.

 

Did you solve your problem? I had the same issue. stuck at low frequency and it wouldn't change. I shut down took out the battery for 2 mins and powered on again and it's fixed now but I'm wondering why speedstep is not working properly and if others have the same problem.

Before this happened I let the battery get below 10% (was testing battery life). so that may have sth to do with this.

 

I reinstalled, and I'm getting the same issues...had to completely turn off speedstep if I wanted Max Performance...I'm getting tired of having to do a complete reboot when I want to switch between Max Performance and Max Battery.

I've this thing for 4 weeks and I'm afraid to transfer my data from my T-510 cause I might have to reinstall again...Lame.

 

What are you doing to load the CPU, and what are you using to see the frequency? Every one of the eight cores (4 real cores + hyperthreading) reports its own independent frequency.

Running 8 computations in parallel I get:

Code:

$ grep Hz /proc/cpuinfo
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2720QM CPU @ 2.20GHz
cpu MHz		: 2201.000
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2720QM CPU @ 2.20GHz
cpu MHz		: 2201.000
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2720QM CPU @ 2.20GHz
cpu MHz		: 2201.000
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2720QM CPU @ 2.20GHz
cpu MHz		: 2201.000
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2720QM CPU @ 2.20GHz
cpu MHz		: 2201.000
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2720QM CPU @ 2.20GHz
cpu MHz		: 2201.000
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2720QM CPU @ 2.20GHz
cpu MHz		: 2201.000
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2720QM CPU @ 2.20GHz
cpu MHz		: 2201.000

 

I'm having the exact same problem as stryfe.

CPU speed is locked at 800MHz per core (8x multiplier) in AC use and 1500 Mhz per Core in Battery Mode.

I've confirmed the clock speeds with cpu-z and trottlestop. Using prime95 to stress the processor does not change the clock frequencies.

Only way to receive higher clock speeds is to manually set the multiplier via trottlestop. I simply don't know why it isn't working. I'm on the Lenovo install, I've just updated all the drivers via the toolbox.

I've made 2 screenshots to illustrate:






Does somebody have any idea what to try next?

 

Ummm, did you screw up your screen captures? They are both on A/C.

 

You're right. I managed to upload the same file twice. I've corrected it now.

 

There is a new BIOS update out today.

One of its listed fixes is for the following:

(Fix) Fixed an issue where a particular AC adapter might not be detected.

It may be worth trying to see if updating might help you.

Lenovo Support - BIOS Update Utility for Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), Vista (32-bit, 64-bit), XP - ThinkPad

 

Hmmh... I might try it tomorrow. I just noticed another curious thing. If I switch from max performance to power source optimized profile, the cpu clocks at 2,2 Ghz in Prime95 tests. So I guess there is an issue with turbo boost mode. As soon as I choose turbo or max turbo the system clocks back to 800mhz.

 

Did you boot up on battery or plugged in? I know that without a slice battery plugged in that if you boot on battery it disables turbo boost until you power cycle plugged in (at least mine seems to).

 

My W520 works fine on AC without the battery on Max Turbo settings for the CPU. I've seen it turbo to 3.4GHz when only one core was used and 3.2GHz when both cores are used. I think it could be a problem with the quad core W520's.

 

Seems I have same problem... i7 2820QM running on 170W A/C adapter with prime95, all 8 "cores"/threads at 100% and CPU-Z shows 800 MHz; Intel Turbo Boost utility shows minimum size (2mm) blue bar with green Energy Saver leaf.
My W520 came with v1.25 BIOS. Fan is also still running (1950rpm), 65 degrees of Celsius cpu temperature.

System performance in Power Manager: Maximum turbo (Maximum Performance scheme)
In BIOS I have some setting for Max Performance on AC.

Disappointing. Is there some reliable fix for this?

Thanks.

EDIT:

I disabled SpeedStep in BIOS (to get rid of those locked 800 MHz of CPU power) and now the system says it doesn't have Turboboost too (very nice). CPU-Z is showing 2.3 GHz also in idle - fine, but the dumb Intel Monitor is still showing "Energy Saver" (same as when CPU was running at 800 MHz with lowest Speedstep).

In prime95 now the CPU stays at 2.3 GHz (with load also the Intel Monitor shows 2.3 GHz). So it seems the Intel's own utility is NOT accurate.

So the result now is I do not have TurboBoost as well no power saving options if i would switch to battery....

 

BIOS 1.26 fixes the issue on AC.

 

Not for me. Mines still locked at 797mhz

 

first select max performance --> shutdown --> remove the battery and power supply --> connect power supply ONLY --> restart --> now CPUZ and HwInfo shows 2980MHz...

but as soon as I connect battery it down to 1483Mhz with 1.26 bios... go figure...

luckily I don't need battery most of the time so I am fine (also don't keep battery when you use power supply all the time)