E6400 overheating throttling

Throttlestop has definitely done the job for me in stopping the throttling.


Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut, my laptop now gets severely hot on the bottom, especially after streaming internet video for a while. I just took a snapshot with CPUID (thanks John) after watching video on espn3.com for about two hours:



It actually hurt to touch the bottom. So maybe throttling is necessary?

Also: check out my battery life. Max charge is about 14% of the original. FAIL.

 

Your GPU is overheating. Remember that laptop are not desktop. It uses only 1 heatsink for all processors (GPU, CPU , northbridge), so if one heats up too much the rest are affected.

I think that happens is that because your graphic card is so hot, the stupid safety system kicks in and throttles the CPU (Oops! - Dell)
My GPU doesn't get THAT hot unless I overclock it and play a demanding game.

I would get a motherboard and heat-sink replaced. Why both? Because Dell doesn't remove (and re-apply in the case of the heatsink) the old thermal paste on the processor of heatsink. Change both and your system should be fine. This advise assumes that your fan and heatsink is clean of any dust.

Your CPU temperatures are fine for what you did.

P.S: I think it's time to replace your 2 year old battery.

 

Sorry about the slow reply. Been to busy. Anyway, I got the exact same setup as you. Throttling is happening on daily basis, but ThrottleStop is just a gift from heaven. Every time I experience throttling, I fire up ThrottleStop and my computer starts working as normal again immediately. Dont even need to press the "Turn On" button which I find a little strange.

Never seen CPU temperature above mid 50C. It is hot in the tropics where I am now and my room usually stays around 30C as I prefer fan over aircon. Maybe grasping at straws, but can this fool some other temperature sensor and cause the throttling?

Paillote

 

My laptop has Intel GPU. I will turn on logging and leave ThrottleStop running in monitoring mode from now on. As I wrote in a previous post merely starting that program (monitoring mode) fixes the problem so I am uncertain I will see the symptoms while ThrottleStop is running. Anyway, I will give an update if so happens. That ThrottleStop fixes my problem even in monitoring mode is definitly not a fluke as it does so consistently within a second or two after starting it up.

Paillote

 

Did not have to wait long. Left ThrottleStop on for a couple of minutes in monitoring mode and throttling set in. Below are a few lines from the log which I hope is enough to draw a conclusion. At 08:18:22 I forced clock modulation to 100% where you can see a change in the logged data.

09/13/10 08:18:15 9.00 16.0 12.5 100.0 52
09/13/10 08:18:17 9.00 15.9 12.5 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:18:19 9.00 15.6 12.5 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:18:21 9.00 15.2 12.5 100.0 52
09/13/10 08:18:22 9.00 14.9 100.0 100.0 52
09/13/10 08:18:23 9.18 17.2 100.0 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:18:24 9.62 13.0 100.0 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:18:25 9.73 13.8 100.0 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:18:26 9.88 12.3 100.0 100.0 53
09/13/10 08:18:27 9.85 12.1 100.0 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:18:28 9.73 11.4 100.0 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:18:29 9.79 11.6 100.0 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:18:30 10.22 11.5 100.0 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:18:31 9.95 12.8 100.0 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:18:32 9.99 12.5 100.0 100.0 50
09/13/10 08:18:33 9.79 13.8 100.0 100.0 50
09/13/10 08:18:34 9.50 13.4 100.0 100.0 49
09/13/10 08:18:34 9.71 13.7 100.0 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:18:35 10.44 12.7 100.0 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:18:36 16.20 9.1 100.0 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:18:37 15.44 10.5 100.0 100.0 52
09/13/10 08:18:38 16.11 9.9 100.0 100.0 50
09/13/10 08:18:39 16.54 10.0 100.0 100.0 50
09/13/10 08:18:40 16.20 9.2 100.0 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:18:41 15.39 8.6 100.0 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:18:42 15.88 8.8 100.0 100.0 50
09/13/10 08:18:43 14.30 7.0 100.0 100.0 52
09/13/10 08:18:44 16.40 8.6 100.0 100.0 50
09/13/10 08:18:45 16.02 9.2 100.0 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:18:46 16.21 10.4 100.0 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:18:47 16.40 10.2 100.0 100.0 50
09/13/10 08:18:48 16.73 9.5 100.0 100.0 50
09/13/10 08:18:49 16.05 10.5 100.0 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:18:49 16.41 10.6 100.0 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:20:27 17.90 21.6 100.0 100.0 51
09/13/10 08:20:28 16.13 9.8 100.0 100.0 50

 

When the bios sets clock modulation to 12.5%, your laptop will start running like a slug. This is a bug that Dell needs to fix but it has been ignored for over a year so I wouldn't hold my breath.

Whether ThrottleStop is in monitoring mode or not, when you first start it, I believe it immediately sets this to 100.0%. There's no reason in the world for the use of clock modulation so I thought I'd do users a favor and immediately turn it off to save them the hassle.

If this is a regular problem for your laptop, which it sounds like it is, your best bet is to run ThrottleStop 24/7 and keep it minimized in your system tray. It is surprisingly efficient and can run for hours while consuming very little in CPU resources. Just put a check mark in the Clock Modulation box and set it to 100.0% and you might as well maximize the multiplier and put a check mark in that box too. Click on Turn On, minimize it and you're done.

You can ask Dell what's the deal but I doubt you will get anywhere with them. It usually ends up just being a waste of your time trying to get them to admit to any inherent flaws in their laptops.

Idene: Your reported CPU core temperatures look like you haven't adjusted TJMax to 105C yet in HWMonitor. High GPU temperatures don't mean you need throttling. It means you need proper cooling. Here's an NVS 140M that has a TDP rating 2 watts less than the NVS 160M but runs in the mid 70C range during Furmark and I haven't even replaced the thermal paste yet.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6382811-post552.html

You need to take your laptop apart and snug up your cooler and apply some decent paste so you get better thermal contact and transfer of heat away from your GPU.

Have you also tried to use ThrottleStop to reduce your CPU VID voltage? That can take a significant amount of heat out of your system while still running 100% reliably.

 

Thanks a lot for your many replies. You and your program have been extremely helpful. All the best!

Paillote

 

just wanted to throw out a big thank you to the developers of the throttlestop application!

got an e6400 with the nvidia gpu and the latest bios (a20)
yet the laptop starts to throttle once in a while...
interestingly it's mostly related to flash video and browser scripting.

got throttlestop linked in the quicklaunch toolbar and after a second i can recover the system into workable state.
what a shame that dell seems to be uncapable/unwilling to fix that problem.

rgds
cavoknosig

 

It a strange problem, that even I don't get.
Because, not everyone has the problem. At the begging I thought it was Intel GPU solution as they are way more to complain. Then most but not all with Nvidia and few with Intel GPU solution got the porblem solved with a motherboard + heatsink replaced at the same time ('same time' is the keyword here).

I have 2 theories:
- The heatsink or base is designed in a way that does not provide a good bond between the processors (northbridge, GPU, CPU) or
- a miss installation step done at the factory that is being performed byu the trained assemblers.

 

Thanks! I have been dealing with an issue that happens most frequently with Video Calls on Skpye, I have been messing with the software side of it for the longest time and I just happened to notice my clock on a CPU Gadget drop to 784mhz one day and started investigating.

I'm not quite sure whats going on but I did notice the clock modulation drop down to 12.5% and just starting up your program made the problem go away.

The CPU Clock was still at 784 MHZ though so I checked the box for the set multiplier to 11 and clock increased to 2793 MHz. I Think the max is 10.5 for my CPU (P9700). Only odd thing is I don't think I can undo it once I starts. I have to reboot, the little CPU Gadget program does not seem to register any change though and stays stuck on 784MHz which I'm sure is a problem with the programming.

Just in case your wondering I have a Dell e6400 with W7 64 hooked up to the Dual DVI docking station.

The only bad thing I see with this is if I was to do video encoding or something along those lines I think my CPU would fry. just running the Prime 95 for a bit dragged my CPU to 97C and GPU to 99C.