E6400 overheating throttling

How much are you asking for your laptop? I could use another one for my wife if the price is right. I've dealt with the overheating issue long enough not to worry about it any more. We have lots of E6400s arround. PM me if you really want to sell for a fair price.

 

I've tried to read the first 5-6 pages and the last few here, but it will take too long to read the entire thread. So I apologize if this is repetitive, but can someone tell me if my CPU is throttling itself? This is a screenshot with no programs other than RMClock running, and probably a minimal amount of background processes (I did a fresh install a few months ago and keep the computer clean). The slowdown tends to get triggered more often when the weather is hot (75 F and up indoors), but it also happens at cooler temps.

I have a Latitude E6400, NVS 160m video card, and dual core CPU.

 

Look at the first graph (CPU core clock and throttle) on RMclock's monitoring page. If the frequencies in the first and second columns are significantly different then the CPU is being throttled.

John

PS: Alt+Fn+Prnt Scrn will capture only the active window.

 

It must be noted that by default, the CPU downclocks (slows down) when your not doing anything with the computer to reduce heat and conserve power. On battery, based on the power plans you pick (or custom settings set for the selected power plan) the CPU speed will go accordingly. Under Power Saver and on battery, the CPU will be at about 800Mhz no mather what.

The conclusion if the throttle problem is as follows:
- Very few with the Nvidia GPU has the problem.
- Those who got a motherboard and heatsink (both at the same time) replaced, got their problem solved. Those who did not got it solved, probably ended up with the same revision of the motherboard (I suspect... not possible to confirm)
- Since BIOS A19 (which you can update easily. You can get it on Dell website where you get the drivers for your system. Once downloaded, just run the executable file downloaded, and follow the 1 step wizard. Call Dell tech support for assistance). The problem solved for many.

 

Thanks John and Goodbytes. The graph showed 846 for the first column and 200-something on the second one. I have my laptop plugged in 99% of the time and on max power settings (but with the display dimmed).

 

I think that means that you have a throttling problem. You may want to investigate Throttlestop or, in RMClock, select Use Throttling in your power profile and then enable the 100% index (and none of the others - 100% means no throttling).

John

 

If your computer is set to "High performance" power management in Vista/WIn7 and plug-in, you CPU should go at full speed. If you use XP, then XP has no power management feature, meaning the CPU will take over.

 

Thanks again. I will look into throttlestop. I figure since the CPU temp is staying around 42 C, there's no chance of overheating/damaging if I override the throttle feature, right?

 

I wouldn't worry about the temperature until it reaches 85C but which time the cooling fan should be very noisy. Once you have got the throttling under control then you can also look into undervolting the CPU (follow the guide). It should be possible to drop the maximum temperatures by at least 10C.

However, what is causing the throttling in the first place? Is it a high northbridge temperature? HWmonitor might give a clue.

John

 

Idene: Your screen shot has clock modulation throttling written all over it. When this happens the CPU Load number in RM Clock goes up and the purple MHz number goes down to a physically impossible number.

Run ThrottleStop in monitoring mode and it will quickly show you the exact throttling method that is being used. Post a screen shot of that without RM Clock running so the two programs don't try to fight over control of your CPU.