Disabling Intel Speedstep

[dguy6789]

Hello.

I have an Emachines computer that has Speedstep enabled so that the processor clocks down when not under much load and clocks back up when under heavy load. The operating system is Vista. I would like to disable this so that it runs at full speed at all times. The bios has no options for this. I have tried going into the power settings in Windows and setting the minimum processor state to 100% and that still doesn't keep the processor at maximum clock speed when idle.

Any ideas for what I could do without having to install a 3rd party program?

 

[taltamir]

I have an Emachines computer

That is just a box with an emachine logo and otherwise off the shelf components made by hardware manufacturers. it is completely irrelevant information.

I would like to disable this so that it runs at full speed at all times.

Why would you want to do that? you enjoy wasting electricity for no reason whatsoever?

obligatory car analogy:
what is faster, a car in first gear going 15 mph, or a car in fifth gear going 15 mph. Answer, they are both traveling the same speed.
I wouldn't advise on sabotaging your gearbox to make your car stuck in one gear only, I wouldn't advise on doing the same to a CPU.

 

[Hacp]

Rm clock is a 3rd party program that will allow you to do this.

 

[dguy6789]

Originally posted by: taltamir

I have an Emachines computer

That is just a box with an emachine logo and otherwise off the shelf components made by hardware manufacturers. it is completely irrelevant information.

I would like to disable this so that it runs at full speed at all times.

Why would you want to do that? you enjoy wasting electricity for no reason whatsoever?

obligatory car analogy:
what is faster, a car in first gear going 15 mph, or a car in fifth gear going 15 mph. Answer, they are both traveling the same speed.
I wouldn't advise on sabotaging your gearbox to make your car stuck in one gear only, I wouldn't advise on doing the same to a CPU.

I felt the emachines part was relevant mainly because it would explain why there was no setting in the bios to disable it. They commonly dumb down bios options on such computers.

I've encountered some applications that don't play nice with Speedstep or Cool and Quiet. For some reason they will run slow and Speedstep and C&Q will not speed up or take too long to do so. It's not a big problem and this entire thread isn't a super high priority of mine, I would just like to disable it. I don't mind the minute cost of electricity increase. I turn everything off when it's not in use anyway.

I would like to not have to run a 3rd party application on start up if possible. I'd rather leave it as is than have another boot up program.

Thanks for the input so far.

 

[Fox5]

Can't you just set windows to max performance mode or whatever in the power settings to disable speedstep?

 

[dguy6789]

Originally posted by: Fox5
Can't you just set windows to max performance mode or whatever in the power settings to disable speedstep?

I tried that. It works in XP with my laptop, but it doesn't seem to work in Vista with that desktop.

 

[taltamir]

I felt the emachines part was relevant mainly because it would explain why there was no setting in the bios to disable it. They commonly dumb down bios options on such computers.

don't they just use a really crappy intel brand mobo?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...%2050001157&name=Intel

rather than actually make a modified bios?

 

[dguy6789]

I think the motherboard in my Emachines is actually an ECS Elite Group one.

 

[taltamir]

interesting, do they have a bios update for that particular board model? or maybe extra documentation?

 

[dguy6789]

I haven't looked into it, I will when I have time though.

 

[taltamir]

oh, also maybe a potential cross flash for that mobo?

 

[dguy6789]

I used CPU Z to get the exact motherboard model, went to ECS' site and browsed to their site for the mobo and downloaded the latest bios. It came with winflash in the download so flashing was a snap. The updated bios has all of the settings a regular one should have and I was able to disable the dynamic clock speed changes without issue.

Thanks for all of the help and thanks taltamir for giving me the idea to look for a bios for it. I originally had no intention of even looking for a new bios because I figured it had some proprietary motherboard and would be a pain to find.