Undervolting HP DV6000 (core 2 duo)

Ok... I just read through a ton of articles and posts regarding undervolting. I believe I sort of understand this crap... but I'm afraid of screwing anything up. I have an HP DV6000 w/ core 2 duo. The left side gets pretty hot sometimes and my battery life is about 2 hours, so I thought it would be beneficial to undervolt/clock. But I don't want to just do some random undervolt posted in an article, or by people who use different processors...

Is there anyone with the same machine (or at least the same processor - core 2 duo) who has successfully undervolted using the RM clock utility v. 2.15 (this is what I have DL'd on my computer)? If so, please share the configurations. I'm not entirely comfortable messing around with computers yet, so I'm asking before I try anything. Thank you.

 

Are you concerned about undervolting while on battery or plugged in? If the notebook runs hot/low battery life you are pretty much out of luck because intel decided to lock the lowest multiplier's voltage on the Core chips (.95v).

 

Ok. I was concerned about undervolting both with battery (at least while on battery to conserve some power), and while plugged in. So with the Core2 duo undervolting just doesn't work?

 

you just use the "power saving" CPU Clock function in the "profiles section". That will underclock your CPU core, saving battery life.

 

I've got mySamsung X60 with T7200 running at 1.012V at maximum speed. This reduces power consumption and heat generated under maximum CPU load by at least 8W, so the fan now never gets into second gear. I'm using RM Clock 2.2, but I doubt if the version makes any difference.

As already noted, undervolting no longer makes significant difference to batter running time (unless the CPU gets loaded) because the bottom voltage is locked at what seems to be an unnecessarily high 0.95V, but the undervolting does mean that you can leave the CPU power management on battery set to performance on demand knowing that you won't hit the battery.

For determining the safe voltage I used two separate copies of Prime 95 running at the same time (otherwise both cores won't get loaded). I would suggest that you start with a maximum voltage of 1.1V, wait for a minute, then step down one notch, repeat etc, until one of your Prime 95s stops because of an error. Then go up one voltage step and leave things running for an hour or more. If there's another error, go up another step and try again. Once you've found the error-free minimum voltage for maximum CPU speed, go up at least one more step. I had an error at 0.975V, hence I'm using 1.0V.

[For an indication of the power consumption I use MobileMeter from http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-Oakland/8259/ .You will need to have the power management set to performance on demand and then run the computer on battery to get the power used. The difference between power consumption for the normal and undervolted conditions is the power saved (and reduction in maximum heat).]

Hope this helps,

John

 

Alright, I read this post very very slowly, and I think I understand. The only thing I don't know how to do is to run Prime 95 2 times at once. Do you have to DL 2 copies? Sorry if that sounds like a stupid question... my knowledge is slowly building.

 

The other thing I can't find is where you alter the voltage levels in RMclock. Or maybe that is not where you do it? Thanks.

EDIT:
I read the page here: http://www.nordichardware.com/Articles/?skrivelse=465&page=5
That clearly shows how to alter the voltage in RMclock... however, it seems to be an older version. I'm running the 2.2 version, and I can't find where to alter the voltages for the life of me! If anyone knows that please let me know. Thanks.

 

I'm pretty new to mobile CPU technology. I'd like to ask a quick question related to undervolting or underclocking of mobile CPUs.

I purchased my laptop quite recently (barely a week ago) and I notice that when I go to Control Panel > System, it says "Core 2 CPU T5600 @ 1.83Ghz <line break>997Mhz, 1.00GB of RAM"

Why does it say 997Mhz? I understand this is done to conserve battery power. But the problem is it also says that while the laptop is plugged into an AC power source. Isn't it supposed to run at full speed? Or does it only run at full speed when I run an application that would really make use of the CPU?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: I tried different methods of powering up my laptop - Battery only, AC+Battery and AC only. The result is pretty random. Sometimes it says "997Mhz" and sometimes "1.83Ghz".

 

Yeah, Speedstep is dynamic, so it does not matter whether you are on battery or A/C power the processor will downclock to ~1GHz. If you want it to run at 1.83GHz all the time then just change your power scheme to Always On.

 

Bingo. The CPU will operate in bursts or spikes as you see it in the Task Manager. When it is idle, the SpeedStep technology will clock it down to save power for you.