CPU lowers clock speed to 0.8 GHz even though fans are quiet

[notATechGuy]

I have a Dell XPS 15 9560 of which i re-applied thermal paste to 3-4 weeks ago, but as of 3-4 days ago i noticed the clock speed was at about 0.8 GHz while playing games. I read somewhere that the CPU lowers its clock speed if it is overheated, but my fans are always quiet when this happens.

So why is aren't my fans cooling down the CPU?

 

[Arctucas]

What leads you to believe it is overheating?

Have you checked the temperatures?

 

[notATechGuy]

I can't see the temperature on task manager, so I'm not 100% sure that it is overheating, but i read somewhere that the CPU lowers its clock speed to 0.8 GHz when it's overheating

 

[FreedomEclipse]

@unclewebb might tell you its a shitty design of the laptop where Dell themselves have set the thermal limits well under what Intel says is their thermal limit... If Intel says 100'c. Dell will set it to 70'c in the bios so it starts throttling before it reaches Intels specs

They do this with newer models. Im not sure about yours being an older one so take what i have said with a grain of salt till unclewebb gets here.

Things you can do while you wait.... Make sure that you didnt apply too much thermal paste and double check that the heatsink is mounted back on correctly and making good contact with the things it should be making contact with.

Which thermal paste did you use?

 

[Arctucas]

I can't see the temperature on task manager, so I'm not 100% sure that it is overheating, but i read somewhere that the CPU lowers its clock speed to 0.8 GHz when it's overheating

Use HWiNFO to check temps.

 

[notATechGuy]

@unclewebb might tell you its a shitty design of the laptop where Dell themselves have set the thermal limits well under what Intel says is their thermal limit... If Intel says 100'c. Dell will set it to 70'c in the bios so it starts throttling before it reaches Intels specs

They do this with newer models. Im not sure about yours being an older one so take what i have said with a grain of salt till unclewebb gets here.

Things you can do while you wait.... Make sure that you didnt apply too much thermal paste and double check that the heatsink is mounted back on correctly and making good contact with the things it should be making contact with.

Which thermal paste did you use?

I used Arctic MX-4 thermal paste, it was also my first time re-applying thermal paste.

Use HWiNFO to check temps.

I don't know where it says what temperature the CPU has in HWiNFO. From what i can see it only holds the information about the CPU

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I hope you didnt over do it. Heres a pretty good guide if you have time

Point being that putting too much on can also have a negative effect on temperatures.

 

[notATechGuy]

I hope you didnt over do it. Heres a pretty good guide if you have time

Point being that putting too much on can also have a negative effect on temperatures.

I used the 2x rice sized dot techique. Seems like it isn't that good. Would it be a bad idea to re-apply thermal paste again?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I used the 2x rice sized dot techique. Seems like it isn't that good. Would it be a bad idea to re-apply thermal paste again?

No problem at all. Just make sure you clean up the old goop as best you can. Double check the mounting when you put it back together

 

[Arctucas]

I used Arctic MX-4 thermal paste, it was also my first time re-applying thermal paste.


I don't know where it says what temperature the CPU has in HWiNFO. From what i can see it only holds the information about the CPU

Select Sensors Only and look at CPU Package.

 

[GerKNG]

I used the 2x rice sized dot techique. Seems like it isn't that good. Would it be a bad idea to re-apply thermal paste again?

direct die needs to be fully covered.

 

[Frick]

direct die needs to be fully covered.

Two rice-sized drops is enough for that.

 

[GerKNG]

Two rice-sized drops is enough for that.

yeah.. and then you have a tiny angle while mounting it and the paste does not reach a tiny piece of the die and you have extremely hot spots in the chip.

direct die = proper manual application.

 

[notATechGuy]

@unclewebb might tell you its a shitty design of the laptop where Dell themselves have set the thermal limits well under what Intel says is their thermal limit... If Intel says 100'c. Dell will set it to 70'c in the bios so it starts throttling before it reaches Intels specs

They do this with newer models. Im not sure about yours being an older one so take what i have said with a grain of salt till unclewebb gets here.

Things you can do while you wait.... Make sure that you didnt apply too much thermal paste and double check that the heatsink is mounted back on correctly and making good contact with the things it should be making contact with.

Which thermal paste did you use?

Yeah, I checked HWiNFO and it says the maximum temperature is 76°C. Is there a way to make the throttle limit higher?

 

[unclewebb]

I used Arctic MX-4

Some popular thermal pastes that work great in desktops can quickly pump out when used in a laptop. Something to keep in mind if you see a significant increase in CPU temperatures a couple of weeks or a month after applying the paste.

Dell XPS 15 9560

It is not always high temperatures that cause throttling in many Dell laptops. Often times sensors fail and the laptop simply thinks that it should slow down to a crawl like 800 MHz.

Download ThrottleStop.

ThrottleStop 9.7.3 Download

ThrottleStop is a small application designed to monitor for and correct the three main types of CPU throttling that are being used on many lapto

www.techpowerup.com

Post lots of screenshots of the various windows within this program. When your CPU is stuck at 800 MHz, have a look at the Limit Reasons window. This Dell problem is typically caused by BD PROCHOT throttling. If you see that lighting up in red, on the main screen of ThrottleStop, clear the BD PROCHOT box.

Post lots of pics and I will help you understand this latest Dell disaster.

When you changed the thermal paste, was there previously a thermal pad being used? It is possible that the voltage regulators are now overheating.

 

[notATechGuy]

Some popular thermal pastes that work great in desktops can quickly pump out when used in a laptop. Something to keep in mind if you see a significant increase in CPU temperatures a couple of weeks or a month after applying the paste.


It is not always high temperatures that cause throttling in many Dell laptops. Often times sensors fail and the laptop simply thinks that it should slow down to a crawl like 800 MHz.

Download ThrottleStop.

ThrottleStop 9.7.3 Download

ThrottleStop is a small application designed to monitor for and correct the three main types of CPU throttling that are being used on many lapto

www.techpowerup.com

Post lots of screenshots of the various windows within this program. When your CPU is stuck at 800 MHz, have a look at the Limit Reasons window. This Dell problem is typically caused by BD PROCHOT throttling. If you see that lighting up in red, on the main screen of ThrottleStop, clear the BD PROCHOT box.

Post lots of pics and I will help you understand this latest Dell disaster.

When you changed the thermal paste, was there previously a thermal pad being used? It is possible that the voltage regulators are now overheating.

No, there wasn't a thermal pad being used. I don't know where the Limit Reasons windows is though.

 

[unclewebb]

Limit Reasons

Push the Limits button to open the Limit Reasons window.

Your computer is not overheating. It has a power limit throttling problem.

Open the FIVR window and check the Disable and Lock Turbo Power Limits box. That can help with these issues.

Press the TPL button and show me a screenshot of that window. Check the Speed Shift option and press Apply. Now you can set the Speed Shift Min and Max variables. I know the Max for your CPU is 38. I think the Min is 8. ThrottleStop will tell you what values to use after you first press Apply. Intel 7th Gen CPUs used Speed Shift Technology but Intel was too lazy to enable this important laptop feature.

Clear the BD PROCHOT box on the main screen. Post some more pics when done tweaking.

 

[notATechGuy]

Push the Limits button to open the Limit Reasons window.

Your computer is not overheating. It has a power limit throttling problem.

Open the FIVR window and check the Disable and Lock Turbo Power Limits box. That can help with these issues.

Press the TPL button and show me a screenshot of that window. Check the Speed Shift option and press Apply. Now you can set the Speed Shift Min and Max variables. I know the Max for your CPU is 38. I think the Min is 8. ThrottleStop will tell you what values to use after you first press Apply. Intel 7th Gen CPUs used Speed Shift Technology but Intel was too lazy to enable this important laptop feature.

Clear the BD PROCHOT box on the main screen. Post some more pics when done tweaking.

 

[unclewebb]

@notATechGuy - Would you look at that. Your CPU is no longer stuck at 800 MHz. Dell should cut me a check for fixing all of their issues.

SST in green on the main screen means that Speed Shift Technology is enabled. Good work. Now you can check the Speed Shift EPP box on the main screen. Where it says 128, you can click on that number and edit it. If you want maximum CPU speed regardless of load, change the EPP value to 0. If you want your CPU to slow down when it is lightly loaded, I recommend setting EPP to 80. If you set EPP any higher than 80, you can start losing maximum performance. Higher values might be OK when you are running on battery power. I would set EPP to 0 when plugged in.

In the TPL window the Speed Shift Min and Max values are set to 1 and 255. This will work. The proper values are listed above these numbers. Min 8 and Max 38.

Your laptop has locked out CPU voltage control. There are ways to work around that issue but most 7th Gen Dell laptops have decent enough cooling so you can probably get away with running your CPU at default voltage without any issues. The maximum safe operating temperature is 100°C so do not lose any sleep if your CPU gets up in the 80°C to 90°C range. Intel CPus can handle this.

To add ThrottleStop to your Windows startup sequence, use the Task Scheduler. Here is a guide on how to do that.

TechnologyGuide

Thank you for visiting the TechnologyGuide network. Unfortunately, these forums are no longer active. We extend a heartfelt thank you to the entire community for their steadfast support—it is really you, our readers, that drove

forum.notebookreview.com

Edit - When your computer is idle with only ThrottleStop open on the desktop, the C0% should be down around 0.5%. If you are way above that number when idle, open the Task Manager, go to the Details tab and find out if there are any useless tasks running in the background. For maximum performance, the less background stuff running all of the time, the better.

 

[notATechGuy]

@notATechGuy - Would you look at that. Your CPU is no longer stuck at 800 MHz. Dell should cut me a check for fixing all of their issues.

SST in green on the main screen means that Speed Shift Technology is enabled. Good work. Now you can check the Speed Shift EPP box on the main screen. Where it says 128, you can click on that number and edit it. If you want maximum CPU speed regardless of load, change the EPP value to 0. If you want your CPU to slow down when it is lightly loaded, I recommend setting EPP to 80. If you set EPP any higher than 80, you can start losing maximum performance. Higher values might be OK when you are running on battery power. I would set EPP to 0 when plugged in.

In the TPL window the Speed Shift Min and Max values are set to 1 and 255. This will work. The proper values are listed above these numbers. Min 8 and Max 38.

Your laptop has locked out CPU voltage control. There are ways to work around that issue but most 7th Gen Dell laptops have decent enough cooling so you can probably get away with running your CPU at default voltage without any issues. The maximum safe operating temperature is 100°C so do not lose any sleep if your CPU gets up in the 80°C to 90°C range. Intel CPus can handle this.

To add ThrottleStop to your Windows startup sequence, use the Task Scheduler. Here is a guide on how to do that.

TechnologyGuide

Thank you for visiting the TechnologyGuide network. Unfortunately, these forums are no longer active. We extend a heartfelt thank you to the entire community for their steadfast support—it is really you, our readers, that drove

forum.notebookreview.com

Edit - When your computer is idle with only ThrottleStop open on the desktop, the C0% should be down around 0.5%. If you are way above that number when idle, open the Task Manager, go to the Details tab and find out if there are any useless tasks running in the background. For maximum performance, the less background stuff running all of the time, the better.

Thanks for helping me out