Very Confused with 4710HQ / Toshiba Satellite S55t-B5260 Behavior [No Turbo Boost]

[boddole]

Hello everyone,
I've been having a hard time trying to work out some performance issues on my 4710HQ on a Toshiba Satellite S55t-B5260, here is a brief history:

Initially, the cpu would not boost past 2.8 to about 3.0 ghz when I would expect around 3.5 all core in Cinebench R15 [TS showed EDP Current on Core / Ring often].
I did an undervolt (with ThrottleStop) on core / cash to about -70mv, all core went up to about 3.3. Not great, but better.
Laptop was running near its thermal limit (around 95c after a few minutes of R15), so I did a re-paste, now I cannot get the cpu to boost at all, and its stuck at 2.5 [TS now showing PL1, PL2, and EDP Current on Core / GPU / Ring], and the iGPU won't boost either...

I thought I must have somehow un-set Turbo in BIOS, but it is 'on'. And the only other BIOS setting is 'adaptive power' and the only options for that setting other than 'enabled' is 'low' (meaning low power only). So I don't know what on Earth changed from a re-paste...

And just as additional info, according to HwInfo64, the cpu package power is rarely going much over 20 watts, where it would hit 45-ish before.

Any ideas on this one?

Data for the 4710HQ:

Intel® Core™ i7-4710HQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.50 GHz) - Product Specifications | Intel

Intel® Core™ i7-4710HQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.50 GHz) quick reference with specifications, features, and technologies.

www.intel.com

 

[unclewebb]

Post screenshots of ThrottleStop. Main window, FIVR and TPL and Limit Reasons window too. How about a log file too?

Show this info while the CPU is loaded.

What thermal paste did you use?

 

[boddole]

Post screenshots of ThrottleStop. Main window, FIVR and TPL and Limit Reasons window too. How about a log file too?

Show this info while the CPU is loaded.

What thermal paste did you use?

-screenshots
Link to a picture gallery (I hope...):

Album — Postimages

postimg.cc

-log file
(generated during a R15 run)

TsLog - Pastebin.com

Pastebin.com is the number one paste tool since 2002. Pastebin is a website where you can store text online for a set period of time.

pastebin.com

-thermal paste
Artic Silver 5 (same as I've always used for computer projects)

Arctic Silver Incorporated - Arctic Silver 5

www.arcticsilver.com

 

[unclewebb]

The log file and your screenshot shows constant PL1 and PL2 power limit throttling. This is what is limiting your CPU to its base frequency, 2.50 GHz.

This usually never happens. Normally you have PL1 or PL2 throttling but not both at the same time. First you will see only PL2 light up red and then that will switch to only PL1 in red.

If this first happened after you repasted then you will have to repaste again. Perhaps you used too much paste and some squeezed out and is shorting out something on or near the CPU. ThrottleStop cannot be used to fix this type of issue.

 

[boddole]

The log file and your screenshot shows constant PL1 and PL2 power limit throttling. This is what is limiting your CPU to its base frequency, 2.50 GHz.

This usually never happens. Normally you have PL1 or PL2 throttling but not both at the same time. First you will see only PL2 light up red and then that will switch to only PL1 in red.

If this first happened after you repasted then you will have to repaste again. Perhaps you used too much paste and some squeezed out and is shorting out something on or near the CPU. ThrottleStop cannot be used to fix this type of issue.

Well, I'll re-paste (got nothing else to try), thought isn't the whole point of non-conductive paste that it won't cause shorts? Also, why would paste have anything to do with clocks if heat isn't a problem (aside from shorts)?

 

[unclewebb]

It might not be the paste that is causing this problem. You might have shorted something out when you repasted.
Were you wearing an anti static wrist strap? Probably not. I know I never do.

All you can do is take your laptop apart and see if there are any obvious problems.

if heat isn't a problem

This is not a thermal throttling problem. It is a power limit throttling problem. The CPU is not working like it should. When I set both power limits to 0, this causes power limit throttling but I only see PL1 and PL2 light up red one at a time, never both together.

In the Turbo Power Limits window try checking the MMIO Lock box near the top right. I doubt this will do anything. I cannot think of anything else software related to solve this.

 

[boddole]

Well...had it off for a day or so, turned it back on, now it boosts again....because...who knows...If I ever figure anything out I'll update this.

 

[boddole]

Had some more time working on this thing after it stopped boosting again...Seems it has something to do with the battery (either the battery being goofy or the system not 'reading' it correctly). I noticed it will do things like say 'battery 100%, consider replacing battery' - Could be understandable given how old it is, but then if you click on the battery icon, sometimes it will say 4%, or 0%, charge from 0 to 22% in seconds, all sorts of odd things [and this is while it is currently plugged in].

More to the point, note in the screenshot the large black box of...missing text? It has a checkbox that does something (it 'fixed' the turbo issue), but it also caused the computer to shut down when it wasn't plugged in...so...yeah.

Make of that what you will but 'the battery' seems to be the source of this nonsense.

battery — Postimages

postimg.cc

 

[unclewebb]

A dead battery can cause a lot of weird problems. All you can try is replacing the battery.