Turbo Boost no longer works after laptop wakes up from sleep (m15, possibly other models)

I've noticed the following annoying issue back in my old AW 15 R2 (running 6820HK), then again in a new m15 with i7-8750H on two different motherboards: whenever the laptop is put to sleep and woken up short Turbo Boost no longer works (e.g. the CPU will just stick to the long Turbo Boost TDP of 45W by default even under heavy load).

For the sake of being explicit, since I will copy and paste this this to a Dell support ticket, the following steps reproduce the issue:
1. Restart the PC (to make sure the CPU has been correctly initialised)
2. Run Cinebench 20 and observe the following:
a) Score around the expected maximum
b) CPU initially Turbo Boosting to maximum frequency on all cores as expected
c) CPU package power around the expected maximum initially
All good.
3. Put the PC to sleep and wake it up
4. Run Cinebench 20 and observe the following:
a) score well below the expected maximum / previous score
b) CPU not Turbo Boosting to maximum frequency on all cores as expected under load (or doing so just very briefly)
c) CPU package power not exceeding the TDP (45W for i7-8750H) or doing so very briefly, for 1s maybe

There seems to be a workaround: ensure the PC doesn't sleep but rather hibernates (need to remap the lid close/power button actions as well as timed sleep events in settings).

Still, short Turbo Boost should work correctly after the notebook wakes up from sleep, and I'm sure this has confused many users.
Can people reproduce this issue on their machines? More evidence would be helpful. BTW I tried with and without TS - makes no difference.
A quick google suggested this is likely a BIOS issue whereby some CPU config registers are not set correctly after wakeup so I'm hoping Dell will be able to fix this.

Intel support suggested this is a BIOS issue.

 

Dell PCs have issues with hibernates, it exists on previous gen and affects future generation as well. Disable it and default to sleep mode.

 

Hibernate was indeed broken in AW 15 R2. It's actually somewhat opposite in the m15. Not that sleep is completely broken, but there is a subtle bug, as explained above.

 

Do you observe this issue after a driver update or something? Just use TS and post what C state it idles.

 

So, Dell support have passed this on to a team who will attempt to reproduce. Stay tuned!

 

OK, so Dell have managed to reproduce this although they believe that Turbo Boost no longer working is "normal behaviour". I explained to them why it's not normal and why it should be fixed. Stay tuned

 

Pretty poor response from Dell:

"I already consulted your case with our L3 engineer and he confirmed that the mentioned behaviour is normal. The system is working as designed.
As I wrote before, the Turbo Boost technology is quite complex and affected by many circumstances. So it's quite difficult to say why and how exactly it's affected by the Sleep Mode.

If you are not happy how the computer behaves, you can ask for the full refund."

Just LOL. Frank Azor to the rescue I guess.

 

Ask for Full refund and call it a day. Everything just works at Dell and Nvidia, Doesn't it? Even their A51m going up in flames are normal since end users tax their system too much and game at ultra settings. Thank you Dell for wise words.
Grab something else and call it a day!

 

Grab what, though?

 

Legion Y740 with 8750H and RTX 2060 because of heavy price cuts when 9xxx series are incoming.

 

@Skolar can you do me a favour and try to reproduce this bug?

 

So, Dell support not being much help, I opened an Intel support ticket. Let's see if they think this is normal behaviour of their processors

 

Pretty much hope they can answer it.

 

"Thank you for contacting Intel Customer Support.
In this particular case, I would suggest installing the latest BIOS version for your laptop, however, you need to contact the laptop manufacturer for instructions on how to install the latest BIOS version.
Also, if this does not solve the issue, then, you will need to contact the laptop manufacturer for support on the laptop or warranty options. This is because the warranty for laptop processors is covered only by the laptop manufacturer."

Awesome, so basically Dell should fix the BIOS. There is also a small chance it's already fixed in 1.6.2.

 

I hope Dell won't blame end user for buying their flawed product

 

Amazing and here I thought I had gone mental. I had noticed that my m17 didn’t hibernate it would wake up to hibernate and just not and loop this cycle till it either cooked in my backpack or drained the battery. And sure enough the turbo does disable after sleeping. That’s just remarkable, my co workers joke with me and say full data center core switch migrations seem less difficult than getting this laptop to work right and he’s right. I’ve been saying all along this is straight firmware. Looks like intel agrees. I’ll be watching this thread.

 

Many thanks for confirming the issue on your machine. Please can you also open a support ticket via Support Assist app (should take just a moment). The more hammering they receive on this, the more likely they are to take action.

 

Updated the issue description to reflect the fact that there is a brief power spike under load, so possibly Turbo Boost Time Limit is set to 1s after wakeup.

 

BTW Which BIOS version are you on?

 

I’m on rev 1.6.2 I was hoping that it would silently solve the hibernation issue. I guess I’ll keep hoping. I didn’t initially see the turbo problem because I had my machine set to hibernate on sleep button or lid closure. I will definitely open a ticket and let them know I have this as well I already mentioned the sleep issue and they do elegantly said well you’re inside the 30 day mark return it for a refund. I’m out of that window now and it otherwise works well. Here’s to hoping we all start hammering them and they fix it.

 

Incredible, don't think their prompting customer to return in case of an issue they don't know how to fix is good enough especially given how much time it takes to get a new laptop from them, as opposed to grabbing something off Amazon for next day delivery. I'd rather they just passed the info to a competent BIOS team and solved the problem. The fact that they told me they had already spoken to "an engineer" who had supposedly claimed this is normal behaviour is frightening.

BTW They also advised me that, when it comes to return eligibility, what matters is when an issue is reported. If it was within the return period, you can still return if the problem is unresolved. I'm not planning to personally, very happy with the laptop. Still, would be good to get to the bottom of this.

Any material improvements in 1.6.2 you have noticed?

 

Things might be moving in the right direction. Support have asked me to send them HWINFO logs exhibiting the issue which I have done. Stay tuned

 

Support advised me to uninstall AWCC to see if it could be causing this - no difference. They suggested Intel might be at fault, and I reminded them of the Intel response claiming this is BIOS. Even if Intel is at fault, Alienware should ask them to patch the microcode. Let's see what they say.

 

Support gave up claiming it's all working as designed. Tweeted Frank Azor as a last resort.

 

Yeah its working per design. End user doesn't know how to use Turbo boost. Everything just works yet again at Dell camp.

 

Hang on, DellCares are following up with engineering now - stay tuned!

 

Good luck and most likely the result will be same. Wait for m17 rev2 to get the T.boost issue fixed.

 

They should send me one for free, for all the effort I've put into this!

 

Haha... They didn't even Echo users a new laptop when random 15r1/r2 first owners burned their laptop because of high current that screwed up DC cable. Luckily I bought it before EOL which has got fixed parts.

 

@DellCares came back to me with another confirmation from the engineering team that the system is working as designed, however, the information provided will be useful for future updates
I guess it's their way of saying they are aware of the issue and may fix it in the future lol