Processor maximum speed locked at 0.76 GHz

Anonymous
2014-05-27T00:04:11+00:00

EDIT: The problem seems to have been fully resolved by doing a clean install of Windows 10.

Hello,

I use an AMD A6 processor on my Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 15D. Recently, my PC has been slow, and checking the Task Manager shows that the processor speed is only 0.76-0.78 GHz, while my processor's maximum speed is 2.00 GHz. The Resource Monitor says that my maximum frequency is 38-39% (0.76-0.78 GHz). This happens even when I'm in High Performance mode, and I've checked to make sure that the minimum and maximum speeds (in the power options) are set to 100%. I've also set the ATI Powerplay settings to Maximize Performance. The speed does not increase even when I'm running many programs at once.

Any help would be very appreciated.

I've noticed something interesting... The CPU speed in the Task Manager always seems to hang around 0.7-0.78 GHz, even when I'm not doing anything else on my laptop. Perhaps there's something that is not only preventing it from going above 0.78 GHz, but preventing it from going below 0.7 GHz. I have no idea why this is happening.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2014-05-27T00:22:00+00:00

Hi,

You need to check with Lenovo Support, their on-line documentation and drivers, and

ask in their forums about any known issues.

Lenovo Support and downloads

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/homeLenovo.do 

Lenovo Forums

http://forums.lenovo.com/Hope this helps.


Rob Brown - Microsoft MVP <- profile - Windows Expert - Consumer : Bicycle - Mark Twain said it right.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-05-28T17:25:58+00:00

    For any who may still be having this problem (as I have been the last 4-5 days) and find this thread, I thought I would share what just worked for me.

    Realized my game that can't even come close to putting a strain on my PC hardware was suddenly dropping FPS to about 10-20.  I restarted and noticed that Windows 10 was dragging on the start-up, slow to log in, seeing the login screen which normally doesn't even display and taking about 4-5x longer to get into Windows than normal as if the CPU was being overloaded.  I checked task manager's performance tab and saw that my CPU speed was at 0.76 GHz.  Keeping the window open, I tried a few things and found that it was not going over that amount.  A full shutdown did not fix this.  

    What I did find odd was that the issue seemed to be pretty sporadic, coming and going seemingly regardless of what I was doing on my PC, except for if I happened to run a program - in other words the PC wouldn't drop to 0.76 if it was at max speed to begin with unless I ran a game.  I also noticed that it was affecting even the BIOS splash screen speed after rebooting.  Windows doesn't have anything to do with that.

    In researching the issue I found that the problem exists outside of Windows.  I looked in the BIOS and found that my CPU said "0.80GHz (100mhz x 8 cycles)" or something like that.  The offending board type is the MSI M series, M3-5-7-etc... which is what I have.

    This thread sums it up, specifically 'Reply #5'.  In following the recommendation here, I've not had a problem with the CPU speed dropping below 4.65GHz ever since (reset the CMOS - look up how to do so for your board - and disabled Adaptive Thermal Monitor in the BIOS).

    https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=270601.0

    If you have a different mobo type, you may wish to see if your board has its own version of a slow mode switch.  According to this info, these switches tend to malfunction and the only way to fix it is to replace the board or disable the part of the BIOS that pays attention to it, which is explained at that link.

    Hopefully this fixes the problem for some and that eventually MSI comes out with a BIOS update to fix the issue (have they??  If someone knows please correct me).

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-11-10T14:39:54+00:00

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-11-08T14:12:53+00:00

    I also tried to just factory default in BIOS without removing the power adaptor, and that would not work either.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-11-08T14:09:28+00:00

    Here's what I found out. The problem is a defective DC jack on the laptop. Has a missing center plastic cylinder. the metal probes are still there, but with no housing support, so unless I looked into the DC jack with a flashlight I wouldn't have guessed there was a problem with the Power. This configuration powered up the laptop, AND charged the battery, so by first guess, power was ok, but probably not within specs. Now, just switching to battery would not work on the HP model. in order for the battery to allow it to work properly, I had to first boot into BIOS and select "default settings" (basically clearing the CMOS/BIOS). if this step is omitted, rebooting with just the battery power, or just unplugging the power adaptor would not unlock the slow down. In order for the full CPU speed to come back to normal, clearing the BIOS, and rebooting without the power adaptor had to be performed. As long as the power adaptor was not reinserted, and there was power in the battery, I could do many reboots, and the CPU speed was normal. as soon as I would plug in the adaptor, it would drop back down to .5Ghz (CPU is 2.1GHZ). And it would stay in that locked state even if I removed the power adaptor, or rebooted, or both, unless the BIOS has been reset without the power adaptor plugged in. Go figure. Bad DC jack. What threw me off at first as it being related to the power, was by just disconnecting the power adaptor, didn't fix the issue. Even a reboot without the adaptor plugged in wouldn't work either, had to clear the BIOS first. weird...

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