k10stat and suspend questions

[86waterpumper]

Alright I don't exactly know which forum is best for this so I will stick it here. I have recently built a htpc with biostar a880g+, & 5200 regor cpu. I am happy with the cpu. I have played with k10stat, and am able to run stable at 2.5ghz (218x11.5) on 1.0125 vcore! I can run 400mhz low as .68 but since it has no effect on wattage I run it at .70. With this setting, the max draw is around 70.5 to 71 watts under full prime 95 which is great. However, the idle consumption stinks...it is pulling 49 or 50 watts on idle even at 400mhz. I am using a older antec basiq 350 watt psu maybe this is the reason for the high draw? I have one sys fan, ssd drive no other harddrive yet, or add in cards etc and a stock amd cooler with the fan on 50%. Idle temps get as low as 15c which is hard to believe but that is what coretemp says. Sorry to be longwinded but here are my main questions.

Here is a pic of my k10stat program to show how I currently have it set, advice on how to set it up better is welcome!

http://cl.ly/2c2l0N1h0r060k283X00

1. I can't find much info on k10stat, I need to know how to make the settings permanent and apply on boot. I know that it involves a command line setup but have not found a good guide on how to do it..

2. I notice when the computer is doing light tasks, that sometimes it jumps from 400 all the way to 2500 without stopping in the middle pstates. Why is this? Alot of times it will jump high and then settle back down to 800 or 1700 etc, but seems like I could mod the settings where it would not do this?

3. I see how to set the clock speed and volts, and the way it looks in my pic is stable on prime95, how does the up and down % alter things? What is the auto and unganged settings? and up and down ms?

4. Last, I have my bios set to s3 suspend, but cant get back up properly. It goes to full hibernate and shut off. When I pwr on, I get warning about possible wrong o/c setting? I go through bios and exit. No settings are changed & I know it is not a o/c prob. It will then boot and resume. I notice in the bios there is a setting to reset video upon suspend but I have tried both enabled and disabled so doesnt seem to matter. I have acpi version 3.0 enabled & set to wake on lan/pcie/pci etc. I'm assuming s3 is better than s1? I need to be able to go to standby and wake up with a keyboard or mouse input like a laptop otherwise I will not be wanting to leave it run alot etc.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[mfenn]

The BIOS is probably complaining because it finds the voltages set very low with k10stat and knows that it didn't set them that way. I would attempt to undervolt via the BIOS and not mess with Windows software at all.

As for the S3 issue, if you have a very low voltage set, it could droop a bit too far under load, causing the system to shutdown. Try suspending at stock volts and see what happens.

 

[86waterpumper]

thanks for the help!
I understand what you are saying to a degree, at least with the system possibly shutting off due to voltage droop etc. That is a real possibility I guess, although the thing seems rock solid. however, once the system does suspend, and it is restored, why would it then cause issues? I mean I have the voltage still set to 1.3vcore in the bios, so would it not revert back to that? In fact at the moment even windows is not setting the voltage differently I am doing that manually myself. Oh well I will try a suspend without the voltage or clockspeeds tampered with and report back!

 

[86waterpumper]

alright I just tested it without fooling with kstat or setting clocks or voltages from windows. Still acts exactly the same way. The computer goes back through the bios and gives the o/c warning. I need a way to suspend this thing or make it go to sleep without a full reboot, if anyone has ideas please let me know. thanks!

 

[dorion]

1) This is the best guide on K10Stat: http://aspiregemstone.blogspot.com/2009/06/k10stat-amd-griffin-processor.html

2) This is probably related to the % and ms settings explained in 3. I did lots of experimenting before finding my perfect settings.

3) Up and down percent determine when the P state will change. A up transition of 60% will mean it goes up a transition at 60% cpu usage, a down 20% means it will drop a state at 20% cpu usage. The unganged option allows your processor to run each core at a different speed, the auto option locks each processor at the same speed but each option changes how the speed is selected. The ms is how long the processor waits before transitioning to a new p-state.

4) To fix a problem my K10Stat had with applying my overclocked P0 state I set the computer to boot at the overclock speed/voltage. Is it possible for you to set the bios to your P0 state's undervolted settings?

Did you Prime95 each P state, you know just in case?

 

[86waterpumper]

Thanks dorion very informative. I will check that guide you linked. I do need to do some more bios testing to see if my k10stat voltage settings will boot from the bios. I have primed on the lowest pstate and that highest so I know that those are stable, but the middle ones i admit I haven't. HoweverI do not have them set super aggressive on voltage so I don't think that's a issue but I will do that just in case.
I have never had much luck in the past getting a desktop system to suspend and standby like a laptop will. I don't plan to leave the system on 24/7 anyway so not a huge deal I guess.

 

[mfenn]

alright I just tested it without fooling with kstat or setting clocks or voltages from windows. Still acts exactly the same way. The computer goes back through the bios and gives the o/c warning. I need a way to suspend this thing or make it go to sleep without a full reboot, if anyone has ideas please let me know. thanks!

So even with everything at stock, it will not suspend? You could try replacing the CMOS battery in that case.