Surface Book 2 throttles excessively, often down to 0.4 GHz

Hi,

I'm astonished people still have the same problem as me while Microsoft just ignored this and doing nothing.

In the previous month, I tried to learn things about CPU. Now I got a new conclusion, at leat for my case, that the throtting are caused by Power Limit Throtting, not Thermal Throtting aka overheat protection.

Since the Power Limit can only be configred by the manufacture normally. So yes, it's Microsoft to blame.

By ThrottleStop, we can know the reson why CPU is limited to is PL1.

From this One, we can see when throttle happened, Power Limit Throttling was ON.

And the core TDP dropped to an unbelievably low number at 1W. What's that mean? My smartphone got a CPU with power greater than 1W.

Now, what's the designed TDP for I7-8650U? Check this:

TDP-down is at 10W and 800MHz, whcih means, in the worst cases 8650U shouldn't go down beyond this line. UNLESS, I have said this before, the manufacture configured it to another line. Let's see what my 8650U truly got:

Maximum is normal, shown as 300W but could go around 25W. However, the minimum is 0W!!!

What's this crap? Allow 0W as minimum means it can go down beyond 10W at 800MHz and run at 1W at 400MHz.

Now I am choosing to believe that Microsoft did this intentionally in oder to fix that power drain problem. And it's not as simple as a overheat protection.

Why not providing a power supply greater than 102W? Come on.

NOT FIXED

I tried testing with the Surface Dock and latest firmware / drivers, noticed the computer lagging as soon as it was docked with lid closed, checked Task Manager, and sure enough CPU stuck at .4GHz. Touched it and it was super hot. As soon as I lifted the lid, the fans came on, once it cooled, it seems to be fine. I have a feeling its overheating and the fans should be coming on when the lid is closed. I have reported this to Microsoft so many times, they just don't care.

I have solved the 0.4ghz problem. Is an OverHeat Protection..

Follow those step then you can fix it:

First rename file "C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\dptf_cpu.sys" to disable "Intel(R) Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Processor Participant".

Then reboot Download ThrottleStop and uncheck "BD PROCHOT".

The Final, Limit "Turbo Boost Long Power Max" in ThrottleStop TPL Setting to 14w to prevent from OverHeat Poweroff!!!( 14w is fine on my surface book 2 15', you need try your self for best value) 

A Tip ThrottleStop Often crashing, you need to keep it running. e.g: some watchdog program.. 

我解决了这个0.4Ghz的问题，这个问题是由于过激的过热保护机制造成的....

你可以尝试根据以下步骤修复这个问题.

首先重命名 "C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\dptf_cpu.sys" 文件 来禁用掉 "Intel(R) Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Processor Participant".

然后重启 下载 ThrottleStop 打开并去掉 "BD PROCHOT" 的复选框.

最后 为防止过热关机, 你需要在 ThrottleStop 的 TPL 设定里设置 Turbo Boost Long Power Max 为14w. (14w 是基于我的 surface book2 15', 你需要自己摸索最佳值...)

顺便 ThrottleStop 会经常自己崩溃 你需要为他启用一个守护进程 保证它一直在运行.....

Same problem here.

The SB2 worked fine until recently. I don't know it's the temperature (I bought SB2 in winter and there's no throttle problem encountered by that time) or updates, they said there is battery drain problem because of the poor power supply. Maybe they lowered the frequency in order to solve this.

Setting to Best Performace didn't fix the throttle at all.

Here is a test chart by XTU, it's tested under Best Performace setting, room temperature 30℃.

The valley of the frequency curve is 0.4GHz.

Core temperature never goes beyond 65℃. Actually, if the throttle was caused by heat protection, it's too conservative. Other laptops trigger its' heat protection at 80-90℃ normally.

This is the post that has helped me out.

Next easy solution is to disable the Intel dynamic platform and thermal framework which overrides almost all software-level control of the TDP.

"Go to control panel, devices, find "Intel dynamic platform and thermal framework processor participant", de-function it. If not able to do so, you can just go to c:\windows\system32\drivers\dptf_cpu.sys, rename it and restart, and the TDP throttling feature seems totally gone from my system (don't forget the disable it in the control panel for a double security). The temperature of my CPU has soared to 100 degree celsius under both CPU/GPU stress tests and the system just went down locked without a single throttling."

Happy lovers day!