The speed of processor x in group 0 is being limited by system firmware

Anonymous
2013-11-30T23:32:10+00:00

Hello all,

I have a new Surface Pro 256 and I keep noticing these warnings (Event ID 37) in my System Event Log and wonder if anyone else is getting these.  There are 4 warnings in a row as follows (see attached screenshot):

The speed of processor 2 in group 0 is being limited by system firmware. The processor has been in this reduced performance state for 71 seconds since the last report.

The speed of processor 0 in group 0 is being limited by system firmware. The processor has been in this reduced performance state for 71 seconds since the last report.

The speed of processor 3 in group 0 is being limited by system firmware. The processor has been in this reduced performance state for 71 seconds since the last report.

The speed of processor 1 in group 0 is being limited by system firmware. The processor has been in this reduced performance state for 71 seconds since the last report.

Thank you in advance!

Hal

Surface | Surface Pro | Power and battery

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Anonymous
2014-03-28T13:43:08+00:00

Did you change the advanced options in the power plan such as the PCI express and processor power management?  I know the default for the cooling policy is passive which will slow the processor before increasing fan speed.  Active will do the opposite increase fan speed before slowing the processor.  Also the minimum processor state will need to be changed it allows allow the CPU to automatically down clock.  Default is 5% increase it to 100%.  Also change the graphics to max performance since it is built into the CPU.  Changing all of this will really cut the life of your battery an heat things up. 

I will warn you though, if you are in a situation where some rouge process is unknowingly maxing out the processor for a period of time and the fan can't keep up with the cooling the thermal protection will kick in and shut your pc off with no warnings.  Bad flash is a prime example.

I think you all are getting this warning because you are running hot at times and some function is kicking down the processor speed to dissipate the heat and this is where the firmware and power saving in windows is conflicting generating the warning.  A example might be a windows process says I need 100% CPU and the firmware says sorry I am to hot you only get 5% and logs it as a warning or vice versa.

Not all warnings are bad and if you see this in your event log and can't tell when it is being logged expect by looking into he event log I say ignore it.  If you are crashing and see this event logged right before the crash its something to worry about and I would suspect heat.  My guess is unlike a desktop and laptop the fans in the surface are not running all the time or barely spinning to preserve battery power and if the surface heats up real fast it dials back the CPU to cut down on heat and logs the warning and if it still does not cool down it cranks up the fans.... if that does not cool things down it just shuts off - just a guess.

The only 2 scenarios I can come up with that would cause this warning is aggressive power management so they can say the battery lasts 4 hours give or take or heat.

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Anonymous
2015-09-13T20:04:49+00:00

I stopped-in to the MSFT store.  They immediately agreed that this is problematic.  They uninstalled all drivers and let Windows (10) reinstall all drivers.  Device Manager showed all sorts of problems.

After this process, the issue in Device Manager went away.  I have been using the machine for hours since then without any issues.

They did say, however, that if the issue comes back, this would be a candidate for a swap-out for a new Surface.

On a side note, I can't say enough how helpful the folks at the MSFT store have been, in multiple locations.  Nice to see it from MSFT.

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63 additional answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-01-07T21:43:29+00:00

    I believe my issue to be related to overheating, I installed HWMonitor to track the CPU temperature on the taskbar and see it is excessively high for even low cpu loads. When the temperature hits 80C I just stop using the PC till the temperature drops and since then I've had no shutdowns. I've bought a laptop cooling mat to use as a stopgap till I can RMA this.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-01-28T05:28:52+00:00

    Hi reids_955 and others,

    I am new to this community so please bear with me. This week, I encountered these warnings in my Event Viewer: "The speed of processor 3 in group 0 is being limited by system firmware." My PC was 35% busy doing nothing. For almost a day, I wrestled with this problem. I ran Advanced System Care but that didn't help get rid of the warnings. I browsed the internet and got here, relieved that I was not alone in this problem. Anyway, I remembered a freeware program that has helped me before to get rid of adware and toolbars. The program's name is AdwCleaner.exe.  The description from its website says: " AdwCleaner is a program that searches for and deletes Adware, Toolbars, Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUP), and browser Hijackers from your computer." I ran AdwCleaner, using its Scan function and then selected all the items it found and clicked on Clean. I did a restart and the warnings have stopped. My Acer Aspire 5755, 64-bit Win 7 is back running full speed. Three days have passed without any recurrence. You can google AdwCleaner 4.1.0.9 and download it. Thank you to the developers of this software...don't know if I can mention them here. I am in no way connected with them. As always, create a system restore point before running this software just in case you encounter a glitch. Hope this helps you and others with PC's afflicted with this malady. 

    andejesus

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-03-13T12:30:08+00:00

    shutting off problem just started in December after having surface pro2 for a year.

    randomly shuts off after going into sleep.

    did a factory restore and still does it.

    very frustrating.  notice logs also contains many of the processor errors. same as listed above

    did this thread die?  still having same issues.

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