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
    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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  2. Anonymous
    2020-11-30T14:22:55+00:00

    Hello,

    I have tried the latest Intel graphics drivers 27.20.100.8935, and installed a newer Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Version 8.7.10400.15556 WHQL found on the web. Neither made any difference to the throttling.

    I have completed a fresh install of Windows 20H2, this has made no change to the throttling, though after a restart performance does return to normal.

    The problem seems to occur when the Surface is used, then shutdown. Once the Surface is switched on and battery is below 35%, throttling occurs until a restart. Usually on restart will resolve the issues.

    You can disable DPTF, but this defeats the point of having the CPU and GPU power and thermals managed.

    There does seem to be some relation between DPTF and battery level effecting performance. An un-related test shows different performance depending on battery level with a Linux test on a Core i7 1165G7. (Tiger Lake + Renoir On Ubuntu Linux For Battery vs. AC Performance - Phoronix)

    Hopefully as performance can be returned with a restart, its something that can be fixed with firmware/software, though is has been a year!

    MuckRogers

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-11-11T02:25:57+00:00

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  4. 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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  5. Anonymous
    2020-08-25T22:31:29+00:00

    Hi Everyone,

    There are registry settings that have a lot to do with power management.  You can find a lot about this by doing some internet searching.  For a start, try these:

    https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000211304-How-to-enable-the-High-performance-power-plan-Windows-10

    https://www.windowscentral.com/how-manage-power-throttling-windows-10

    https://www.thewindowsclub.com/configure-hidden-power-options-in-windows-10

    Yes, you can turn off throttling with a simple registry setting, but there are less drastic things to try.  For me, the High Performance Power Plan was the key.

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