Vista and Intel Speedstep.

I made a topic pretty much identical to this in the MSI brand section, but I'm making it again here because this forum section actually gets views.

Quick summary of problem: Intel SpeedStep doesn't seem to be working with Vista Home Premium.

Long Summary: For some reason, no matter what I change in Vista's power settings, I can't get the processor (Intel Core Duo 2.0Ghz) to budge from 2Ghz. I have tried disabling and then re-enabling SpeedStep in the BIOS, which is currently the latest version posted on the MSI site (2.6), but that made no difference. I also ran Windows Update to see if there was a magical driver that would do the trick, but that also was a bust.

SpeedStep works fine in XP both with and without Notebook Hardware Control, so I know that my laptop's processor is perfectly capable of throttling its clock. SpeedStep also works properly even in various distros of Linux of all things, so I'm fairly certain it can't be a hardware issue.

Is this a Vista exclusive issue? Does it have a solution? Are any other MS1057 owners having this issue? Is anyone else having this issue regardless of laptop brand? I would highly appreciate input.

Thanks for your time.

 

it would be hard pressed to say that it is Vista alone that causes the Intel stuck at higher speed. amd has no issue with "speedstep" under vista.

hopefully that either Intel come out with a bios update soon or vista making some extra modification to support Intel speedstep or NHC (currently in 2.0 pre.release) gets its gear up for vista environment.

in the mean time, as a stop.gap measure, i have heard (cannot confirm it myself) that using RM clock to temper the speed/fan has worked well for intel core duo system under vista.

cheers ...

 

I tried RM and there is no Speedstep for my Pentium M in Vista. Apparently the issue is in BIOS. Microsoft said that Speedstep works in Vista if it is enabled in BIOS in a standard way. Well obviously my comp has no standard way of enabling speedstep, cause I have the same issues as described above. And that is the main reason why I don't use Vista.

So until there is some patch for Vista that enables Speedstep like in XP, or until I upgrade BIOS with Vista ready speedstep (probably never) there is no way of using Vista for me (laptop is much warmer in Vista than in XP). The newest solution is possible too - I am going to buy a new Vista ready notebook!

Cheers,

Ivan

 

Unfortunately, my problem persists.

At this point I have tried the following:
-Reformatted Vista twice, trying different versions along the way.
-Tried different "power plans" and adjusted all options in "Advanced Power Management".
-Updated the BIOS to version 2.70.
-Sacrificed an old floppy drive to the technology gods.

After discussing it with Noclue4uhere, he concluded that it could be a hardware issue, but my problem with that is that SpeedStep works in XP and Linux distros, so if the hardware appears to work in these cases, how could it be the hardware with Vista?

My hopeful bias is that something is wrong with Vista that may be patched over in the future, but that could be wrong.

If you are having this problem, please post and indicate what model laptop is having the issue. It would be nice to have some reassurance that it's not just my computer, because then I would be out of luck.

 

What are you using to measure clocks in Vista? I have Everest, and it seems to measure everything. There is a delay, however, so I'm not sure how aggressive the stepping is. I do know that my desktop Core2 throttles normally in Vista Ultimate.

 

My C2D throttles as I want it or don't want it to in Vista Home Prem.

The way to control it is in Power Options -> (Pick a plan) -> Advanced Settings.

One of the items you can expand is Processer Power Management or something like that.

It's percentages so for example on my laptop I have it set to Minimum 50% and Maximum %100. This means on low load it runs at 1GHZ and at max load goes to 2GHZ - it also runs at speeds in between (1.33, 1.66) as needed.

I've tested this using CPUZ and it works REALLY well, actually better than XP or *nix distros.

I've tested changing the percentages and it works right as I hit apply..i.e. I set both minimum and max to 50% and it is stuck at 1GHZ, I set both to 75% and its stuck at 1.6ghz or something.

So it does work superbly...not sure why it's not working for you.

 

I have been using CPU-Z, RMClock, and Vista's resource monitor to measure the clock.

There is nothing in the advanced settings that even indirectly refers to processors, nor anything involving percentages.

 

So you're saying you don't see these settings at all?? Btw, these were always there even without Sony's VAIO power management software so it's not like Sony enabled these.

 

I don't appear to have that submenu.

 

Giskard, try downloading Intel chipset Inf files from Intel's website. Install those and see if that helps. It looks like Vista isn't recognizing your hardware too well.

 

I tried that along with all the MSI recommended drivers for my laptop ( http://www.msi.com.tw/html/products/nb/nb_vista_driver/vistadriver-chipset.htm) but to no avail.

Using Windows update to obtain drivers and whatnot didn't seem to help either.

 

It is (or isn't) written in your BIOS. Unfortunately. Vista doesn't recognize advanced powerstates because BIOS doesn't provide the required info.

Ivan

 

I'm just going to second ikovac. If your processor supports "Speedstepping", but Vista doesn't show ANY processor power management options in the advanced power settings, then your BIOS isn't sending the correct information. I would see if MSI is preparing a truly Vista-compatible BIOS for your system.

 

They just released the 2.70 BIOS for my laptop on the MSI website, but upon trying that there was no change. I guess I'll just wait for the next BIOS version and hope for the best.

 

Well, it turns out that ikovac and JadedRaverLA were correct. It was the BIOS after all. MSI released a newer bios version (7.02), and now SpeedStep works in Vista.

Case closed.

 

Great! I hope my Prestigio notebook can be fixed that way.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

I;ve been having similar issues with my AMD notebook. the notebook came with XP and a vista compatible logo, but i too need to use RM clock to get the CPU to throttle.

Its really odd how Ubuntu and Xp work well, but no-go on Vista.

It must be software and bios related as my CPU fan is doing all strange things. Sometimes it turns off when the temp it 43 degrees. Other times it will remain on even if the CPU is 18 degrees. It does its own thing.... bios must be coded by a monkey..


Insane

 

@ikovac or anyone else who uses RMClock:
I use performance on demand with RMClock and seems to be working fine. Did you have this option in RMClock?

See my two RMClock settings.

You should be able to adjust to whatever settings you like. I have performance on demand but you can obviously choose other profiles/settings.

 

I have tried rm clock with Vista and my Pentium M 750 and it didn't help. Now I have a new machine with T5600 and I will try rmclock to see what can be done in Vista. I really miss NHC in Vista, but I guess rmclock is also good. If I find something interesting I will post the findings.

Cheers,

Ivan