CPU staying underclocked while on battery

[aaronkupen]

Okay so I have a Thinkpad T60 with a core 2 duo @ 2ghz.

While plugged in, I get accurate readings -- it is said to be running at 2 ghz while under load, and speestep works i.e. it clocks down when idle. Great.

While on battery this is a different story, it constantly is staying at 900 or so Mhz, and no matter what I throw at it it refuses to clock higher. At this moment I have speed step disabled, my power management set to high performance, and I'm trying to watch a few hd videos -- no progress.

Any ideas?

 

[NightSurge]

I was going to come in here and tell you to do exactly what you've already tried....

Are there any BIOS updates? I have had a Q6600 that would down-clock even with Speed Step disabled, so I'm not sure how affective actually disabling that in the BIOS is.

 

[aaronkupen]

Yeah that has been my problem with this so far, all I have been reading has just been stating the obvious to a relatively knowledgeable person. I've read mumblings around the realm of possibility that a lot of manufacturers have this hard wired into the motherboard while on battery-- and essentially there is nothing you can do about it.

I'm not sure I buy this, but I'm gonna check for bios updates anyway.

 

[NightSurge]

Yeah, I doubt a BIOS update will fix anything. Just a random thought of something you could try. I have also heard similar to you that for laptops the manufacturers do things such as this. My example of the Q6600 not staying at max clock with Speed Step disabled was for desktops which would have no need to have this hard wired into the motherboard, so I don't know.

 

[aaronkupen]

Just updated my laptop, now I'm having issues while it's plugged in as well.

I hate computers.

 

[NightSurge]

Just updated my laptop, now I'm having issues while it's plugged in as well.

I hate computers.

Updated OS or BIOS?

If it is now having issues while plugged in, something is definitely not right. Still under warranty? Contact Lenovo if so.

 

[aaronkupen]

Not under warranty anymore, fixed the issue on powered, so now I'm back to the original issue with an updated bios.

 

[Alvin.C]

Hello,

Have you installed the ThinkVantage Power Manager, and if so, are you using it to set your power settings?

 

[hikaricloud]

I didn't have much luck with this software since I have a macbook and everything is completely locked down, but you may benefit from it:

Notebook Hardware Control (NHC) - Homepage, Downloads, Help, Docu, FAQ, News - www.pbus-167.com