Suddenly Cannot Undervolt

[Valour549]

GP76 with i7-11800h here, using TS 9.3.1

So I was able to use TS to undervolt no problem even without changing anything in BIOS. When I first looked at the Advanced BIOS it showed Overclock has been set to Disabled, but as mentioned it didn't affect the ability to undervolt. Changed it to Enabled, still could undervolt, no problem so far.

I then tweaked a few settings in BIOS and later deciding not wanting them, I decided to set BIOS settings to default.

That's when I suddenly lost the ability to undervolt in TS, the whole block just became greyed out. I looked into the BIOS but can't figure what exactly caused it, as far as I know only the "Overclock Enable/Disable" affects the ability of some programs like XTU to undervolt, but as mentioned it doesn't seem to affect TS. In any case I did change it but still was unable to undervolt. Of course I also tried deleting the .ini of TS, but that didn't work either.

Any ideas what happened here?

 

[unclewebb]

Here is a video that shows how to enable undervolting on a MSI GS66.

ThrottleStop cannot be used to lock out CPU voltage control. When you reset your BIOS to default settings, something must have changed to lock out voltage control. Hopefully you can get this working again.

 

[Valour549]

What he shows in the video at 1:00, the section on enabling Overclocking, is what I've already tried and mentioned but to no avail. So I'm wondering what other settings could be stopping the UV.

Also at 2:52 he shows how to change the passive triple point (defined in BIOS as the temp whn OS throttles the CPU). I'd like to know how this is different from the Prochot offset we can set in TS. I thinl Triple Pt and Prochot are somehow diff though I dunno which one takes precedent.

 

[unclewebb]

I think the Passive Trip Point and PROCHOT Offset that ThrottleStop lets you set are two different things. I have never used or adjusted the Passive Trip Point. The PROCHOT Offset value gives me full control of the temperature that my CPU will thermal throttle at so I only use that.

I have no idea why CPU voltage control is now locked out. Is there a previous BIOS version that you can roll back to? Were there any Windows Updates recently?

Setting a single bit in a single CPU register is enough to lock out voltage control. If the BIOS does not set this correctly, you will be locked out. It is impossible to explain why it used to work but now it does not.

Try doing a sleep resume cycle. Sometimes that trick will unlock CPU voltage control. Just leave the FIVR window open. It will update itself automatically if the lock bit clears.

 

[Valour549]

When I flash a BIOS file, does it take on the default values or could it possibly take on the value in that particular copy of the BIOS file?

Because I only flashed the BIOS 3 days ago, and had no prob afterwards. The problem all came when i chose to reset to default. So i guess that means if I flash it again using the exact same file I should be good right?

BTW do u know any good default settings for TPL for i7-11800? Or should I just use the same values as I posted for my i7-8750h?

Also forgot to mention, on the latest version of TS clicking the "Reset Turbo" button doesn't seem to do anything, Turbo ratio limits stayed where I had set them.

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UPDATE: I just flashed the BIOS using the exact same file I used 3 days ago, and I know for certain that the BIOS and its settings were set to the same 3 days ago. Because they definitely changed from what I had before I flashed it, and is also different from the settings one would get from hitting use default BIOS values. In other words, there is no difference in BIOS settings from when I last had TS working.

Yet... TS is still blanking out FIVR Control, which leads me to believe TS may have some sort of bug which was what blanked it out FIVR in the first place, and indeed not to do with my BIOS settings.

Not sure on the exact specifics of sleep resume cycle, I assume it's just hitting sleep while FIVR is open and then waking it up again? In that case also no luck :'(

LAST UPDATE: Ok, I just set Overclocking in BIOS to Enabled and now I can undervolt!!! I swear to god it was set to Disabled after I flashed it 3 days ago and I was still able to undervolt at that time. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact I enabled Overclocking on the previous version of the BIOS? Guess we'll never know.

 

[unclewebb]

TS may have some sort of bug which was what blanked it out FIVR in the first place

Thanks for your vote of confidence. ThrottleStop had nothing to do with locking out CPU voltage control. TS does not make any changes to the voltage control lock. TS only reports whether the BIOS has set the lock bit or not.

I just set Overclocking in BIOS to Enabled

Good to hear you solved your problem.

 

[Valour549]

Not sure what to set for my TPL, is this ok?

 

[unclewebb]

No point setting the time limit to 3+ million seconds. The default 28 seconds is good enough.

 

[Valour549]

OK thanks. A few questions:

1) Is the Reset Turbo button in FIVR supposed to return all the Turbo Ratio Limits to their default values? Because on my machine clicking it doesn't do anything.

2) Do you know what causes a program to not use as much CPU or GPU as possible? Take for example in this game my FPS clearly has room for improvement, yet the CPU and GPU usage are low along with the temperature and power wattage. Does TS provide any tools to rectify this? I tried checking the Limits after a session but nothing shows up.

Spoiler

 

[unclewebb]

Is the Reset Turbo button in FIVR supposed to return all the Turbo Ratio Limits to their default values?

That was the plan. Unfortunately, I did not have enough documentation or access to a variety of hardware so I never completed this feature. As you found out, that button does not yet do anything.

Do you know what causes a program to not use as much CPU or GPU as possible?

Many games only have 1 or 2 main threads. It is difficult to write games that that can fully take advantage of an 8 core - 16 thread CPU. ThrottleStop does not have any features to transform single threaded games into multi threaded games.

 

[Valour549]

I see.

Lastly, I've also noticed that ticking Prochot Offset and setting a value doesn't change the PROCHOT 95 in the main interface, which I guess is a sign that it didn't work (on my old i7-8750H it worked and immediately changed). I've tried with both Lock Prochot Offset ticked and unticked, didn't make any difference.

Changing the Prochot Offset in the BIOS however immediately reflected in TS. On a side note, what's the point of Lock Prochot Offset? (saw it in BIOS as well) If I set Prochot to a value shouldn't it just be that value?

 

[unclewebb]

Do you see a lock icon near the PROCHOT Offset setting? If the BIOS has locked this setting, you cannot change it by using ThrottleStop.

Locking this setting is useful. It prevents other software from screwing around with this setting.

 

[Valour549]

Yes I see this. So lock icon means Prochot is locked by BIOS... which is a little confusing since the icon appears beside the "Lock PROCHOT Offset" option, one could easily mistaken it for just a icon for that option.

Maybe could consider making it so that if the BIOS locks it, the option is just greyed out (kinda like my problem with UVing above), that may reduce the ambiguity of the lock icon.