i7-4800mq on Sager NP7330 stuck at 1.6 ghz

I am having an issue with the CPU in my Sager NP7330 / Clevo W230ST. I have a i7-4800MQ running windows 8.1. The problem is that my processor will not go over 1.6 ghz. During stress tests, the cpu utilization will reach 100% for all 4 cores, but the clock frequency will not go over 1.6 ghz, which is odd because the cpu is rated for normal use at 2.7 ghz with a turbo of up to 3.7 ghz.

I have done a number of troubleshooting steps already and was wondering if anyone here has any ideas on what to do next.

I have used CPU-Z, HWiNFO64 to confirm that the CPU does report that its non-turbo max is 2.7 ghz and its turbo max is 3.7 ghz. The Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool noticed the discrepancy that the processor is rated for 2.7 ghz but runs at a max of 1.6 ghz. I have tried fiddling with the power settings by switching between power saving, balanced, and max performance and fiddling with their minimum and maximum processor state. In particular, on the max performance power plan, I went to Change Advanced Power Settings -> Processor Power Management -> minimum processor state and maximum processor state and set both to 100% for plugged in. But my CPU still was maxed at 1.6 ghz during a stress test. In the power saving profile, with the max processor state set at 50%, the CPU hovers around .8 ghz. So it will hover between .8 ghz and 1.6 ghz, but never go above that.

I thought the error was possibly in the BIOS. So I updated from a stock BIOS to the most recent prema mod version of the BIOS. The issue was still there, even after loading the defaults. I tried disabling turbo, Processor C States, C1E, C6 separately in the BIOS and also had no progress. I thought that the issue may have been in the Intel Speed Step (EIST), so I disabled that resulting in the cpu staying around 3.5 ghz on idle, reaching an appropriate 3.1 ghz during a stress test without an undervolt and 3.4 ghz with a -70mV undervolt through Intel XTU as noted in HTWingNut's great review ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/htwingnuts-sager-np7330-clevo-w230st-review.725922/). But I find this not ideal as the CPU stays at a high clock rate even during idle.

I read the following links which all noted that BD Prochot may be the problem
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1793709/3570-running-6ghz-load.html
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2355426
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1762299

So I used Throttle stop and unchecked BD Prochot, but nothing happened. Clock Modulation and Chipset Clock Mod did not lead to any results, but setting the clock multiplier did work, so its clear the CPU is able to run at the right clock speeds, it just by default is not going above 1.6 ghz for some reason. For my stress tests throughout I have used the CPU stress test in Intel XTU for 30 seconds, wPrime with a 32M test and Throttelstop with a 32M test as well.

Currently I have set up Throttlestop with a few profiles that I am switching through depending on my needs, but I feel this is more of a workaround rather than a solution. I am willing to go through the steps above again if someone gives me a step by step breakdown, as it may be possible that I am not troubleshooting correctly because I am missing a step. I want to make sure that this is not something I can fix on myself so that I can diagnose that it is definitely a motherboard problem before moving forward. Thanks so much in advance to anyone who read this whole thing.

 

Hmm ... Hotkey Control uses EIST and both " Quiet" and " Power Saving" setting would limit multiplier (my 4900MQ limits to 1.7GHz using either).

 

Have you double checked it's not an engineering sample CPU? It's unlikely but stranger things have happened. Have you talked to your reseller?

 

Thats it! I completely forgot that the Clevo Control Center has profiles for this. I set it to performance and the CPU frequencies works like it should. Thank you so much.

So it probably not this. But thank you for your reply as well.

 

Glad you got it figured out this will probably be helpful to others too!