When on battery, severe CPU throttling kicks in at 35% charge: how to change ?

Anonymous
2019-12-19T16:39:57+00:00

Brand new Spro7, Firmware up-to-date.

I noticed drastic CPU throttling when battery charge level reaches 35%: CPU tops at about 0.5 GHz and setting the power slide to "Best Performance" doesn't change that.

I found no setting that would allow to change this excessively conservative threshold to something more reasonable like 12 or 15% (my Battery Saver level is set at 15%, but it has obviously no impact on this).

Is this hard-coded in the firmware ?

Any ideas ?

Surface | Surface Pro | Power and battery

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-10-09T04:18:07+00:00

    Thank you so much Adrian! This fixed it immediately after restart! Finally I can use my surface with less than 35% battery...

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-01-14T09:55:57+00:00

    Things are getting worse for me

    Yesterday while working on fully charged battery, I felt my system was performing slowly but didn't pay much attention.

    Today I restarted the system several times (Restart or Shutdown then power on), with battery charged at 58% and no matter the Power Mode perf cursor position, the CPU speed tops at about 1.30 GHz with demanding apps. Switching Power plans has no effect.

    Plugging the power made the CPU instantly jump to 3.25 GHz

    Please don't tell me I should return this unit !!!!!

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-01-24T09:41:26+00:00

    Hi, I also have this problem with the Surface Pro 7 i7 16 256

    Below 35% Charge the CPU throttles extremely. 

    With the App Intel Graphics Command Center you can see the power consumption and it is reduced below 35% to about 13 watts. For example, if you charge a mobile phone via Type C, the CPU is throttled even more.

    It appears to be under a certain battery limit of power consumption limited by the CPU.

    On 22.01.2020 I got a driver / firmware update, there was also the UEFI Bios and Batterymanagment Surface System Aggregator - Firmware (improves battery performance), but it didn't help.

    does anyone know a solution?

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-01-06T11:51:16+00:00

    The same happens to me with a brand new surface pro 7.

    I am on Best performance settings.

    When battery level reaches 35%, CPU is throttling, making the laptop extremely slow.

    I am using only the type cover and surface mouse.

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-12-22T17:51:00+00:00

    Hi Jeanette,

    Sorry it took so long for me to back.

    Here is some interesting additional info:

    It looks like the problem occurs only when the unit is connected to external monitor (USB-C -> HDMI), mouse (BT) & keyboard (USB)  (no docking station).

    When the unit is used with internal display + typecover, the CPU is not throttled down (until it reaches the defined low batt setting)

    Benoit

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