new laptop, auto throttling, anything i can do!!

[deets]

hi all,
Well i just purchased a new laptop with the intention of dumping the old desktop. Its only a centrino duo 1.6 (T2050) but i dont play PC games anymore and i thought it would be ok for the general video encoding. Its a gateway MX 6920.

Amyway, im happy enough with the machine, but it seems to have one huge flaw. There seems to be no way to control the cpu throttling. It drops the cpu down to 700mhz after about 15 seconds of doing anything that uses the CPU and then it pretty much keeps it that low. So encoding video is useless...

I had an acer laptop 1.6 single centrino and that had software to let me set the cpu speed to 1.6 all the time. Ive tried various online progs, but nothing seems to be able to set the cpu to a speed permanently, its always changing down :(

anyone got any help before i take it back :(

thanks

[UofC]

1) Always keep it plugged in when doing heavy tasks.
2) Make sure it is being cooled properly. The vents on the side or bottom should have access to open air.
3) Look in the BIOS for additional settings. Laptops tend to hide stuff there.
4) Gateway tend to skimp in areas and the laptop may not have sufficient cooling to support the heavy loads.

I could be something else but ... Intel’s throttle down when over heating.

[deets]

yep its always plugged into to the AC. its not overly blocked up on the back or sides.

I hope the gateway comment wasnt true or i will have to take this back, the acer allowed me to set the cpu to 1.6 permanently and it ran fine :(

do you think best buy would give me hassle on returning it as i cant keep the thing if its gonna do this and im not paying a restock fee for a laptop that runs over half its displayed speed...

[foxyshadis]

Check out RMClock (http://cpu.rightmark.org/), which replaces the OS power management. You might be able to find out why it's being throttled so badly. If it's heat, you can turn the voltage down with RMClock. (1.1 is the lowest that was always stable with my T2300, although 1.06 is usually stable, but it's also hot here in the summer.)

Touch the bottom, as well. If it's scorching over the CPU/GPU heatsink, it's heat problems. It could be that it's just stuck at 1.2V all the time because of a bios bug, or fan might not be working correctly, so that's another option to explore. Lots of core duo machines seem to have finicky fans. Or it might need a reseat or thermal fluid applied.

If it appears to be a hardware problem, and you don't want to chance voiding a warrany or hassling with gateway to get it repaired, take it back and complain to a manager. Threaten to chargeback if they charge restocking for a defective product.

[deets]

thanks. the voltage seems to stick at 1.262 no matter what i do...

man this is peeving me right off, i like this darn laptop!

seems anything that uses the dual cores seems to cause it to throttle back. encoding audio pushes the 1.6 to the top and it stays, x264 or xvid just cause it to throttle :(

gateway suggested i put a house fan behind it...

ok this gets weird.. i download autogk to test it, set xvid to 2 threads and the speed doesn change and the temp tops at 65c...

maybe its megui???

[foxyshadis]

Just in case, the way you set voltage in RMClock is to highlight index 0 on the profiles page, set it to minimum (.95), and hit apply, then switch to performance on demand profile and select use P-states, checking the ones you want. If the monitoring tab still shows 1.262 for voltage...

the temp tops at 65c...
This is a T2500? The normal temperature range is 25-40C. Something's bad, perhaps the bios or the ACPI interface with windows, perhaps hardware. The fan should be screaming by that time. Take it back.

[UofC]

I hate to bring it up again but you may just not have a good fan in there.

If Gateway recommends putting a house fan near it, I think they did not do their job building a complete system. Of course you have to ask what are your house temperature is and how that relates to the laptop.

65c is very hot. On the good side if it does crash and burn they should replace no questions asked.

[deets]

well i found the problem, it was a bad video clip. I just ripped the nearest thing I could find and somehow it messed up the d2v file, so after 20 seconds it stopped processing and the cpu idled down to 700....

but you guys are also right, gateway do seem to have skimpped on the fans. the normal windows temp is 40c, but doing anything cpu intensive and it goes up and takes a while to come back down.

Just for the record, im in Dallas Texas and the current temperature is about 38c!!

thanks for all your help guys :)

[feedback]

gateway suggested i put a house fan behind it...

Do you have that suggestion in writing? If they try to charge a restocking fee show them the written suggestion they provided you then threaten to post it all over the internet that the Gateway MX 6920 requires a house fan to function properly.:rolleyes:
Also, tell them you are sending the written suggestion via snailmail to corporate headquarters to Richard Snyder Chairman of the Board, Interim CEO (the CEO info. is current).
Check out this complaint letter below for some ideas.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/gateway_letter.htm

P.S. All the executive bios are below...
http://gateway.com/about/news_info/executive_bios.shtml

EDIT: You fixed it so Never Mind!

[deets]

ha yeah i do have it in writing, well the chat log thing anyway!

yeah the throttling thing was the clip, but it really seems these gateway laptops are awful at cooling.

thanks for all you help though, I probably would take it back if it wasnt going to be sitting on a nicely chilled room most of the time.

[deets]

also, i have worked out the voltage only changed if you set the power options to laptop in control panel and thus the machine gets a lot cooler....

the power management options seem to control a lot of things, like the top cpu speed etc. but its not labelled directly as to what changing them does to cpu speed.

but saying that, the laptop now runs at full speed when supposed to and cools down when its not being used, so all is good :) just wanted to post in case any other folk are used to managing that sort of thing through manufacturers software like i was with Acer.

[swaaye]

These CPUs should be able to handle a lot higher than 65C. RMClock can control just about everything so, like he said above, try undervolting. It should work on all machines.

You could also try one of the laptop cooling stands. I'm not sure how well they work though. I've never needed one. Clearance between the base of my machine and the surface it's on has always been enough.

Make sure you don't close the lid when it's churning away on stuff. That stops airflow too.