Cpu running half speed

5

0

While playing a game few hours ago I noticed my computer suddenly became incredibly slow. The windows task manager showed that the cpu was using half its capabilities. I have been playing this game since 4 years, with this same 4 years-old laptop, and it had never happened before. I have to mention I installed windows 10 few days ago, which also changed my graphic card's drivers. I suppose it is a feature preventing CPU overheat. It may be a new feature, changed parameters that enables it sooner than before, or dust accumulating past 4 years that activates it sooner than before as @Bokan's answer suggest.

The problem is that this feature does not get disabled when I quit the game, making the computer unusable for several hours. When I first posted this question I had to wait about 8 hours before it came back.. by itself. The only other way to get this speed back is to restart windows in any safe mode, but that is not very satisfying. I have checked battery and power parameters, they are not changed and changing them does not restore the cpu speed. I have checked the graphic card's parameters, same.

What is this feature ? How to disable it or change its parameters ?

NOTE : I have an intel CPU that has the SpeedStep technology. But the normal speed is not back after reboot (as I read it does when SpeedStep reduces it), I do not see any option to enable/disable it in the BIOS, neither on the GPU desktop UI. Last time the normal speed was restored while the computer was active (see comments).

EDIT : I just completed the first reboot of the second time this problem appears, and this time it disappeared ! This is madness.

This question has also been asked on answers.microsoft.com :

You can admire how microsoft does not care about giving the **** name of this feature to its unanimous customers, not even mentionning speedstep or battery / power / cpu parameters.

Also on other website, mentionning speedstep :

Here on SuperUser but does not solve my issue :

On 'Answer Tech', live Microsoft's technicians all answer the same epic crap (they all prefer blaming the manufacturer, asking the customer to return his computer (!!!!) than answering that they do not know). This one was particularly good :

epic crap

Atrahasis

Posted 2015-11-01T20:00:19.563

Reputation: 151

First check your power scheme and set it to high performance. It'll likely solve your problem. By default its set to balanced, and I had the exact same thing with my laptop. It was freshly installed windows 7 and it was not performing fast. Changed its powerplan to high performance and everything was fixed. – LPChip – 2015-11-01T20:05:52.670

Overheating can cause this on some PCs. The processor will slow down when it overheats in order to cool down. – Ron Maupin – 2015-11-01T20:09:48.327

@RonMaupin It has been hours now that it is like that :( – Atrahasis – 2015-11-01T20:12:32.360

If is is caused by overheating (maybe, maybe not), you need to check inside the box. One or more of the fans (including on the CPU heatsink) may have quit working. The overall temperature inside may be too high due to other components like a video card. Air intake (check filters) or exhaust may be blocked, or dirt inside the box may act as insulation, holding the heat in. – Ron Maupin – 2015-11-01T20:23:52.670

@RonMaupin but it does have its correct speed on safe mode, launching programs as fast as usual – Atrahasis – 2015-11-01T21:03:35.700

Then you have some software which doesn't load in safe mode turning the speed down, and you need to track that down. Good luck. – Ron Maupin – 2015-11-01T21:07:57.490

Again, this is likely due to the power plan set to balanced (default) where windows tones it down. Setting it to high performance will quite likely fix it. Can you test this for me? I've altered the balanced power scheme and it didn't work. I've then set the high performance one, and it did work. – LPChip – 2015-11-01T21:25:40.430

@LPChip indeed, but I am not sure this was the solution. I actually right clicked > graphic properties > advanced parameters that took me to Intel Media & Graphics Manager. The power part was on balanced, i clicked to maximum performances. When switching to windows task manager the cpu speed value was correct and program can now work at normal speed. As I did not even know this Intel Graphics manager I was surprised so set the 'power' part to balanced mode and the cpu speed did not change. So I now think this has come back on its own few seconds before I test this. Mystery. – Atrahasis – 2015-11-01T21:36:03.973

1Good to hear you got it sorted. I'll post an answer so you can makr this as answered. – LPChip – 2015-11-01T21:47:21.477

@LPChip The problem appeared again ^^ I edited the question so it describes the problem more precisely. I confirm last time's solution was actually not the answer : the cpu speed stays at 50% whatever the GPU's parameters. There is this question on a windows's support website but no answers are given.

– Atrahasis – 2015-11-06T09:56:55.223

Solved on reboot this time, today it may was speedstep. – Atrahasis – 2015-11-06T12:55:35.567

Answers

5

Having a "balanced" power scheme is not the issue.
It allows your CPU to downclock, go to 100%, and even turbo boost if needed.

If your CPU speed is halved, it may mean:

  • The CPU is thermal throttling.
    Intel's XTU utility can help you check this.

  • Your laptop feels like it's on battery power, yet you have AC on.
    Try removing your battery (you should remove it anyway when using from AC!) and try again.

  • Check if your power profile is really what is should be.
    Like "Maximum" is really 100%.

  • Sometimes turbo boost can cause throttling or issues on poorly cooled laptops, you can disable it by setting 99% in the Balanced power profile. It will still run your CPU at it's max clock speed, yet will not use Turbo Boost. It's also a great way to have a cool and fast laptop, minus the loud fans. I do this all the time on my laptop - because plenty of apps just waste CPU cycles for no reason.

Applying the latest BIOS can also be a good solution.
Just make sure you have your battery in the laptop, and it is charged > 60%.

Apache

Posted 2015-11-01T20:00:19.563

Reputation: 14 755

3

This sounds like windows using the balanced power setting. If you set it to high performance it should fix the issue.

Your graphics card may also have a setting, which you can find by clicking with your right mouse-button on the desktop, and choose Graphics properties -> Advanced parameters.

LPChip

Posted 2015-11-01T20:00:19.563

Reputation: 42 190

Yep not sure I really solved it by clicking anywhere but those are the 2 interfaces I have checked. – Atrahasis – 2015-11-01T21:52:53.437

1

I experienced the same issue on my Lenovo Carbon X1 after upgrading to Windows 10. You might want to try resetting the power options (Change plan settings -> Restore default settings for this plan). This solved the problem on my laptop also I couldn't see any difference with respect to the settings I had made before.

futuremind

Posted 2015-11-01T20:00:19.563

Reputation: 11

Had issue on my Lenovo YogaBook Windows. Just reset the profile settings as mentioned and now up to max CPU with boost. – Nick.T – 2017-01-28T13:19:45.637

1

Do you clean your computer on regular basis ? I mean opening it, sucking dust with a vacuum cleaner, then with both vacuum cleaner and pressurized air. Remember to lock fans while doing this.

You should do it every year on a laptop.

bokan

Posted 2015-11-01T20:00:19.563

Reputation: 299

Thanks for the suggestion, indeed after 4 years I was wondering if dust was not affecting it. I will do that soon then ! But about this question, until now I never noticed the fans speed being particularly higher than before. And now that i have quit the game that make the cpu overheat, now the temperature is normal, I am sure it only is a software problem. – Atrahasis – 2015-11-06T12:12:06.660

It still might be a good idea to carefuly clean out the dust. A clogged heatsink might not be the problem today but after a few years they do tend to become dust filled and less efficient at cooling. Do remember what Bokan wrote about the fans though. Hold them. Do not let them spin wildly. – Hennes – 2015-11-06T12:28:14.850

0

I had same issues but in power settings it was on stable, and within this is minimum CPU speed when plugged in which was set to 5% , changed this and it fixed it.

philip hutchinson

Posted 2015-11-01T20:00:19.563

Reputation: 1

0

If you are absolutely sure your computer is not overheating and it is throttling by mistake you can use throttlestop: https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-throttlestop/

This has nothing to do with speedstep, speedstep is inmediately disabled the moment the cpu has any significant load, and it is for energy saving, not for overheating, despite entering the same low-voltage-and-frequency state.

BUT judging by your post I supose the throttling has a real reason to happen, so you should check your temperatures (you can use the free utility hwinfo64, or even throttlestop, but do not touch anything) and if they are high (i suspect they will be) phisically clean the dust before doing anything.

It is normal that sometimes the normal performance is recovered fast and other times takes longer. It depends on many factor (heat built up on the inner components, air temperature, etc). A reboot usually helps (because the cpu will be able to cool down a bit) but sometimes it wont be enough if the case is severe.

Igb

Posted 2015-11-01T20:00:19.563

Reputation: 419

0

well i am using a hp pavalion gaming processor: i7 8750H and a gtx1050ti , moreover i also had this problem after hours of gaming my laptop onerheated and the performance got halfed ; but it is a normal problem which happens when your processor gets overheated , so not to worry in my case the performance came back after 10-15 hours ,just keep your pc shutdown it will recover fast from its problem of this speedlock ....

Abishek Birdi

Posted 2015-11-01T20:00:19.563

Reputation: 1

0

Is this a Steam distributed game? It could be the game itself has been updated, possibly without you realising. This could introduce small problems (like bugs, localisation changes, texture changes) or big changes (a complete rewrite of a rendering engine to make the most of DirectX 12, new to Windows 10).

So the machine may have taken x effort for the machine to run prior to an update (that Steam would insist on), but 2x effort to run after the update.

And unfortunately if this is the case there is nothing you can do about it - it is not possible to roll many games back to a previous binary.

David Vernon

Posted 2015-11-01T20:00:19.563

Reputation: 804

Actually it was 2 different games on different technologies that both have not received development support since a while ^^ The one I was playing last week relies on directx indeed but not today's one. What happened each time is that i heard the fan speeding up, then the problem appearing. Until now I had been able to let the fans cool the cpu those last 4 years, without anything deciding to switch the speed. – Atrahasis – 2015-11-06T12:30:26.853

Make sure you are not using Microsoft's browser re. The web games. Both IE and Edge in Windows 10 are very different. Stick to Chrome or Firefox which are both (almost) platform agnostic – David Vernon – 2015-11-06T13:38:26.387

Asked: 2015-11-01T20:00:19.563

Viewed: 33 819 times

Active: 2019-08-18T18:02:31.777