E6500 Stutter FIXED

My new Latitude E6500 has been suffering from a "stuttering" problem. The symptoms:
1. When watching videos on the web (CNN.com, for example), the video and audio would stutter and pause, with "breaks" occuring multiple times a second.
2. When moving windows around the desktop, they would jerk along rather than gliding smoothly.
3. Most windows and programs would open slowly (for example, opening the control panel would take several seconds).
4. Task manager would never settle down to 0% or even 1%, but rather bounce along at 2-7%.

I tried re-loading the OS (Windows XP SP3) from scratch. Drivers, etc. Three times. Same problem.

Things seemed to run fine without Control Point software, which I was prepared to dump--but I do like some of its features.

But I discovered that choosing a Control Point power managment scheme was the problem! The solution was to select a regular old Control Panel power managment preset (one without DELL in the name). Problem solved! Task manager now settles down to 0%, videos run smoothly, etc.

My E6500 specs:
P9500
4GB RAM
Nvidai 160M
260 GB HD

I'd be curious to see if anyone else can verify my results!

 

This is similar to an ongoing issue I have with my E6400: It insists on booting up with a throttled CPU. Probably because I sometimes use the 65W PSU which Dell seem to think cannot deliver enough power for a fully-functioning computer. I use RMClock to set the throttle to 100%.

Try running RMClock and look at the monitoring page. It will show if the CPU is being crippled.

John

 

Oh absolutely!!

With a Dell power management scheme loaded my E6500 is as jerky as hell for screen updates and generally feels slower than my old D800, with a standard windows power management scheme loaded it's smooth as silk.

I've not tried the "Ratsey RMClock" method yet.

 

OK, looking with RMClock ...

With a DELL power scheme, core clock stays locked at 800MHz and CPU is throttled approx 330MHz

With a non-DELL power scheme, core clock and CPU throttle float between 800MHz and 2.4GHz

 

I see the same.

Do you either have the 65W PSU or load the "all day power" add-on for Dell ControlPoint. I have both but I am not currently using the 65W PSU. I uninstalled that "all day power" add-on but I suspect it has buried something deep in the registry and uninstalling the add-on does not remove it. I even uninstalled Dell ControlPoint system manager and this did not clear the problem.

I spent several hours yesterday trying to identify the cause of the problem. The drop to the lower speed occurs while Windows is booting. My mains power meter shows a drop in power as Windows loads. I tried booting from my original HDD and this does not show the same problem. I exported the PowerCFG registry keys from that installation and imported them into my current installation but no fix there either.

Fortunately, I normally use hibernation so this throttling problem only occurs on the occasional restart.

John

 

This is with a PA-10 90W PSU, and my own "clean" XP SP3 install, no controlpoint modules installed.

No doubt all this is due to Dell extracting the maximum 19hour number for the 9+12 battery config ...

 

It's kind of funny that the community has to find out these kind of things.. When I called Dell and complained about this exact issue they offered to exchange the MOBO and several other components. Yesterday I updated to the newest BIOS (A05) and it seems that it has the same effect than your solution. Dell states that the new BIOS addresses the following issues:

1. Fixed low performance issue in XP64 with 8GB memory after S3 resume.
2. Added SMBIOS support for reading/writing Password Changes option.

But maybe they also did something to throttle the CPU up..

 

After much effort I seem to have stopped my E6400 using a Dell power plan and it just started without throtting. It is necessary to make sure that Dell ControlPoint accepts you aren't using a Dell power plan.

So maybe the solution to the throtting is to avoid the Dell power plans unless you need the maximum battery time (and then remember to switch back at the end of the session).

John

 

There have been several mentions on this forum of audio glitches. I wonder if this is the same issue? When using one of the Dell power modes, the sound is certainly terrible.

I'll download the new BIOS to see if it helps.

 

Dell ControlPoint System Manager A06

Issues Fixed-
===============

1. Issue where Optical drive cannot be enabled after restarting system on All Day Battery Mode or Extended Battery Life mode.
2. The All Day Battery Mode status is not synced up correctly on the DCP UI.
3. Issue where using DCP custom power scheme would throttle CPU by 75%.
4. Issue with All Day Battery Mode where the state is not synced after restarting the system.