Hi, all. First post.
I bought a Dell Inspiron N7110 17.1" laptop with the Intel Core i7 2670QM CPU (2.2 GHZ, Turbo Boost to 3.1 GHz). It's running Win7 Home Premium 64-bit, and it's got 6GB of RAM.
I got the All CPU Meter v3.9 sidebar application to monitor the CPU (it shows 8 cores because of hyperthreading). With the CPU fully loaded, the sidebar app only shows it going to 2.2GHz, but the Intel TurboBoost Monitor confirmed that it was indeed boosting to 3.1GHz. I noticed that it never went below 792 MHz when idle, and I was curious as to how low I could make it go.
So, I started digging into the registry.
I found the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00
Under that key are all the settings for the CPU. You won't see them in Control Panel >> Power Options until you go to each subkey of the above key. Under most of the subkeys, you'll find a DWORD named 'Attributes'. If you rename it to '_Attributes' (add an underscore to the front of the name), it'll show up in Control Panel >> Power Options.
Actually, the same holds true for all the subkeys of that key I posted above, changing 'Attributes' to '_Attributes' makes them show up in Control Panel >> Power Options. So you can tweak a lot more than just your CPU from Control Panel >> Power Options with this trick.
Anyway, once you've changed the name of the subkey DWORDs to '_Attributes', you can go to Control Panel >> Power Options >> Change Plan Settings >> Change Advanced Power Settings >> Processor Power Management, and tweak to your heart's content.
My settings (I'll only put the settings for 'Plugged In', but you get the idea):
Processor performance increase threshold: 90%
Processor performance core parking min cores: 5%
Processor performance core parking over utilization history decrease factor: 2
Processor performance decrease threshold: 75%
Processor performance core parking increase time: 10 Time check intervals
Allow Throttle States: On
Processor performance decrease policy: Single
Processor performance core parking parked performance state: No Preference
Processor performance boost policy: 100%
Processor performance increase policy: Ideal
Processor idle demote threshold: 33%
Processor performance time check interval: 30 Milliseconds
Processor performance core parking affinity history threshold: 150
Processor idle disable: Enable idle
Processor performance core parking decrease threshold: 33%
Processor idle threshold scaling: Enable scaling
Processor performance core parking decrease policy: Ideal number of cores
Processor idle promote threshold: 50%
Processor performance history count: 10 Time check intervals
Processor performance core parking over utilization weighting: 100
Minimum processor state: 5% <===== NOTE THIS!
Processor performance core parking affinity history decrease factor: 2
Processor performance core parking overutilization threshold: 40%
System cooling policy: Active
Processor performance increase time: 5 Time check intervals
Processor performance core parking over utilization history threshold: 40
Processor performance core parking core override: Enabled
Maximum processor state: 100%
Processor idle time check: 30000 Microseconds
Processor performance core parking increase policy: Ideal number of cores
Processor performance decrease time: 15 Time check intervals
Processor performance core parking increase threshold: 50%
Processor performance core parking decrease time: 100 Time check intervals
Processor performance core parking affinity weighting: 100
Processor performance core parking max cores: 100%
By doing the above, I was able to get the CPU to clock all the way down to 88 MHz. However, you'll note that I put Minimum Processor State at 5%. Twice, when down at 88 MHz, the laptop locked up, so by setting the Minimum Processor State to 5%, it prevents it from getting down to the 88 MHz speed, and instead the new minimum is 198 MHz (which is still pretty darn slow). I haven't had any lockups at 198 MHz, but if I do, I'll bump up the Minimum Processor State again to avoid that speed, as well.
At these speeds, the fan never comes on, and the battery lasts a long time. And the good thing is, when I need the speed, it jumps right up to it's rated 2.2 GHz (and when I'm really pushing it, it TurboBoosts to 3.1 GHz).
I'm still messing with it, trying to optimize it, but the above are the settings I'm using right now.
So, for you tweakers out there, there it is. If anyone knows why at 88 MHz the laptop sometimes locks up (but runs fine most of the time), and how to work around that, please post.
I bought a Dell Inspiron N7110 17.1" laptop with the Intel Core i7 2670QM CPU (2.2 GHZ, Turbo Boost to 3.1 GHz). It's running Win7 Home Premium 64-bit, and it's got 6GB of RAM.
I got the All CPU Meter v3.9 sidebar application to monitor the CPU (it shows 8 cores because of hyperthreading). With the CPU fully loaded, the sidebar app only shows it going to 2.2GHz, but the Intel TurboBoost Monitor confirmed that it was indeed boosting to 3.1GHz. I noticed that it never went below 792 MHz when idle, and I was curious as to how low I could make it go.
So, I started digging into the registry.
I found the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00
Under that key are all the settings for the CPU. You won't see them in Control Panel >> Power Options until you go to each subkey of the above key. Under most of the subkeys, you'll find a DWORD named 'Attributes'. If you rename it to '_Attributes' (add an underscore to the front of the name), it'll show up in Control Panel >> Power Options.
Actually, the same holds true for all the subkeys of that key I posted above, changing 'Attributes' to '_Attributes' makes them show up in Control Panel >> Power Options. So you can tweak a lot more than just your CPU from Control Panel >> Power Options with this trick.
Anyway, once you've changed the name of the subkey DWORDs to '_Attributes', you can go to Control Panel >> Power Options >> Change Plan Settings >> Change Advanced Power Settings >> Processor Power Management, and tweak to your heart's content.
My settings (I'll only put the settings for 'Plugged In', but you get the idea):
Processor performance increase threshold: 90%
Processor performance core parking min cores: 5%
Processor performance core parking over utilization history decrease factor: 2
Processor performance decrease threshold: 75%
Processor performance core parking increase time: 10 Time check intervals
Allow Throttle States: On
Processor performance decrease policy: Single
Processor performance core parking parked performance state: No Preference
Processor performance boost policy: 100%
Processor performance increase policy: Ideal
Processor idle demote threshold: 33%
Processor performance time check interval: 30 Milliseconds
Processor performance core parking affinity history threshold: 150
Processor idle disable: Enable idle
Processor performance core parking decrease threshold: 33%
Processor idle threshold scaling: Enable scaling
Processor performance core parking decrease policy: Ideal number of cores
Processor idle promote threshold: 50%
Processor performance history count: 10 Time check intervals
Processor performance core parking over utilization weighting: 100
Minimum processor state: 5% <===== NOTE THIS!
Processor performance core parking affinity history decrease factor: 2
Processor performance core parking overutilization threshold: 40%
System cooling policy: Active
Processor performance increase time: 5 Time check intervals
Processor performance core parking over utilization history threshold: 40
Processor performance core parking core override: Enabled
Maximum processor state: 100%
Processor idle time check: 30000 Microseconds
Processor performance core parking increase policy: Ideal number of cores
Processor performance decrease time: 15 Time check intervals
Processor performance core parking increase threshold: 50%
Processor performance core parking decrease time: 100 Time check intervals
Processor performance core parking affinity weighting: 100
Processor performance core parking max cores: 100%
By doing the above, I was able to get the CPU to clock all the way down to 88 MHz. However, you'll note that I put Minimum Processor State at 5%. Twice, when down at 88 MHz, the laptop locked up, so by setting the Minimum Processor State to 5%, it prevents it from getting down to the 88 MHz speed, and instead the new minimum is 198 MHz (which is still pretty darn slow). I haven't had any lockups at 198 MHz, but if I do, I'll bump up the Minimum Processor State again to avoid that speed, as well.
At these speeds, the fan never comes on, and the battery lasts a long time. And the good thing is, when I need the speed, it jumps right up to it's rated 2.2 GHz (and when I'm really pushing it, it TurboBoosts to 3.1 GHz).
I'm still messing with it, trying to optimize it, but the above are the settings I'm using right now.
So, for you tweakers out there, there it is. If anyone knows why at 88 MHz the laptop sometimes locks up (but runs fine most of the time), and how to work around that, please post.