super pi will not use 100% cpu on X60, help

hi, i was tyring the super pi thing using my x60 and see how fast it is, but after a few tries, it gave a consistent 2minute 10sec with AC plugged in. and just 2minute 14sec without ac.

then I check the cpu usage and found out that the cpu will only give 50% to superpi, why? if i then try to open any other window during the calculation, the cpu will then spike up a bit higher which makes it so that computer will still function well with super pi running.

I tried to set cpu priority to superpi to high, still gives 50% usage.
tried turn off power save in bios, tried settin cpu perforamce to max on ac in bios, nothing worked

what is going on?

 

sounds like you have a core duo

 

yes i do, but calculating using t2400 to 2 million with 2min 10 sec is double the time most people have, well, almost double, thats why i thought it needs to run 100%, but then, they might just need 50% to run for the fast time people get?

do i have a bad cpu?

 

you dont have a bad cpu, the program just isnt utilizing the second core.

 

I've never used an X60 before, so I'm not sure if any of this will help you, but here goes.

When I got my notebook, I formatted the drive and did a clean install of XP from another CD [Note: the 'other CD' is from my employer since we have a site licence from MS - not a pirated version!]. Things were fine but performance was kind of slow. When I tried Super Pi, I found that it was only utilizing 50% CPU.

I tried everything you did but nothing worked so finally I performed a 'restore' from the factory CD and Super Pi is now running at 100% CPU utilization and is about 89% faster. I guess the factory restore version of Windows has some power settings that were not accounted for/available in the generic CD(?). Again, I did try everything from BIOS to Windows power settings, but nothing else worked.

Have you installed a different version of Windows?

 

Hello SJ393. Did you have the battery unplugged?

 

Yes, I have the ac plugged in with battery inside the notebook.
I understand that sometimes some notebook will underclock cpu to save power if it's running only on battery, but will run full power if plugged in with battery.

I understand that there arent many, if any, porgram that is coded to utilize both core of the cpu, since super pi was designed quite a few years ago, it is most likely certain to be able to run only one core at a time, which in instance some people have tried to run 2 instance of super pi at the same time to have 2 similar scores (good scores). It got me thinking that then, all those scores with 1 minute 12 sec or so scores from core duos are just that, using only one core of the cpu. That is prob the whole idea of core duo better than P. M However, my score is what most people get when they are runnign super PI on battery only, 2 min 10 sec.

what is going on? is my cpu underclocking for some reason even when it's on batter WITH ac plugged in? or are all those "core duo" super pi scores being devided in half because the argument of " hey, i have 2 cores, i only use one, so the real score should be devided by 2" which I highly doubt.

 

Ok, let me know the exact steps you use for testing with the Super Pi. I'll test it out for you and see what I get.

 

I ran SuperPi on our Athlon X2 4200 desktop, it was within a second of our computers using an A64 3500 (same clock speed and cache) and the 3500s also have 1/4 to 1/8 the RAM as well.

 

I downloaded superpi, extracted, plugged in ac with battery still inside, to ensure that cpu will run at full speed, i went to power manager and select max performace, apply, and to ensure no conflict or whatever in xp, I then restarted computer.

now computer is restarted, with everything runnin at full blast, i double clicked on superpi.exe, main window started, selected calculate, chose 2M, which is to 2 million digits, it takes 20 iterations,( i think, by memory, dont have it on right now) result numbers always seemed to be the same, i remember specifically it had always taken 19sec to hit 3rd iteration, or something like that, i ran it quite a few times, because I kept getting 2min10sec as time to calculate to 2 million digits.

 

SJ393: The first time I ran it, SuperPi gave me 1min 21sec. Subsequent runs gave me 1min 23secs and I am unable to replicate the first timing anymore despite clean reboot.

I checked Task Manager and it shows one CPU core hovering above 80-90%+, while the other core was idle in the lower half.

How much juice does your plugged in battery have?