Downthrottling reported from Engadget

Engadget reports on the X220 and some issues. Thought you guys would want to read this

Some Lenovo ThinkPad X220 owners report downthrottling, reduced performance -- Engadget

 

Thanks, it already came up in the owners thread. What is interesting is that in the comments, you'll see other laptop makes and models with similar issues. It does appear to be a more widespread issue than just on the x220 and Macbook.

 

I had read that the issue stemmed from the battery not being plugged in, although I may be wrong.

 

No, that was a related issue. There was an actual i7 throttling issue with the macbook in bootcamp, which required an EFI update.

There seems to be 2 different issues tied up in the x220 too. There is a fan/heat issue, and a throttling issue, both of which, I assume, are mixed together somehow.

 

I can also confirm that the CPU throttling is happening in the new Acer TimelineX laptops too. It doesn't appear to be a heating/fan problem in the forums, but on the fact that CPU's threshold temperature is set to low and is causing the CPU to throttle. There are some temporary work-a-arounds, but no complete solution from Intel or manufacturers as of yet.

In short, it looks like a Sandy Bridge problem.

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Thanks for the "encouragement." The last 10 or so pages of the x220 owners thread has a lot of discussion, and our testing if you're interested.

 

I don't think it's correct to call it a Sandy Bridge problem as my W520 works fine without throttling (yes, without the battery on AC). I think it only happens when the AC adapter can't meet the power requirements of the system (+ some overhead).

 

Interesting observation.

Maybe someone can test the X220 with a 135 or 170w brick to see if that solves the problem.

Perry

PS, I can do so but not for 3 weeks or so til the X220 is in.

 

I heard that the X220 runs fine without the battery on a 90W AC adapter.

 

How about a 1000W power brick
Should give Sandy bridge enough power.

Gotta admit Lenovo keeping the same power connector comes in handy. I have about 6 90W power bricks lying around.

 

It runs even better if you keep the d*** thing in!

 

I thought I read in the owner's thread or somewhere that it has no throttling with the 90W adapter.