WACKY CPU!

[ninaholic37]

When I woke up this morning, my laptop was going super slow, in both Windows and Linux... like it was running at 16MHz (if I had to guess). I still ran it for a few hours, trying to surf the net and chat on it while watching anime on TV. After a reboot, unplugging the power cord and plugging it back in, everything was fine, but I managed to some tests in FreeDos first.

Here is what this Core2Duo SP9600 CPU normally runs at:

Speedstep 1.1 by Falcosoft
usage: sstep [multiplier] [voltageid] -without parameters shows CPU info
LastTriedFid: 9x
LastTriedVid: 37
CurrentFid: 9x
CurrentVid: 37
MaxFid: 10x
MaxVid: 44
MinFid: 6x
MinVid: 23

speedstep utility
USAGE:
SPEEDSTP mmvv
(mm=multiplier, vv=voltage) EXAMPLE: 0607
startup: 0617
current: 0925
max: 0A2C

Multiplier between 6 and 10 (which somehow translates to 800MHz-2535MHz?), Voltage 23 to 37.

During my supermegaslow 16MHz thing this morning, this is what the programs told me instead:

Speedstep 1.1 by Falcosoft
usage: sstep [multiplier] [voltageid] -without parameters shows CPU info
LastTriedFid: 134x
LastTriedVid: 17
CurrentFid: 134x
CurrentVid: 17
MaxFid: 10x
MaxVid: 44
MinFid: 6x
MinVid: 23

speedstep utility
USAGE:
SPEEDSTP mmvv
(mm=multiplier, vv=voltage) EXAMPLE: 0607
startup: 0617
current: 8611
max: 0A2C

Voltage is only at 17, multiplier is at 134x. I wonder what each step is at that rate? 1MHz? hahah

It certainly was not running at 800MHz, maybe it was running at 134MHz? Or 13.4MHz? haha. Has anyone ever had this happen to them, or understand what is happening here internally with this CPU? I remember seeing a post once by VirtualLarry about his MeeGo Computer stick going down to 200MHz or something like that when it was too hot, though I never experienced anything under the bottom speedstep value (600MHz) myself until today on this laptop because I've been using Pentium M laptops, which don't seem to have this "feature"... whatever it is.

 

[ninaholic37]

My first guess when googling is that it started up in C4 Deeper Sleep, C4E/C5 Enhanced Deeper Sleep, or C6 Deep Power Down (reducing Voltage) mode... when it was actually completely awake! (stuck at the same freq). Is that possible? Haha I don't know though, still reading about this stuff.

 

[ninaholic37]

I found this, which might explain the 134x
http://www.freebasic.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17226#p196373

The base clock is 200MHz and the only available multipliers are 6,7,8,9. But when it is set to 8, there is a separate bit (high bit of FID byte) that can be set which cuts the bus speed in half and knocks it down to 800MHz.

So it could just mean 6x + 128 (high bit), meaning 1600MHz / 2.

It was definitely slower than that though, I could see FreeDos stalling when I typed "dir". Haha

 

[Ratman6161]

Take it apart, blow out all the dust, especially from fans, heatsink, etc. Then put it all back together.

I've seen this numerous times. Old laptops get full of dust causing them to run hot. The built in thermal throttling kicks in, slowing it down to prevent a melt down.

 

[SandInMyShoes]

Take it apart, blow out all the dust, especially from fans, heatsink, etc. Then put it all back together.

I've seen this numerous times. Old laptops get full of dust causing them to run hot. The built in thermal throttling kicks in, slowing it down to prevent a melt down.

Yep. Also many of them from that era have failed thermal paste on the CPU; it is old and dry and cracked, and there's mostly air between the heatsink and the CPU. If you pull the heatsink off and it looks like it didn't have full contact with the CPU, a copper shim may be in order. You can get an assortment of them reasonably cheap on eBay.

 

[DigDog]

not to mention the motherboard that thing is running on ..

 

[Valantar]

That struck me as a very uninformative readout. Where's the FSB speed? Actual voltage?

I would reset the CMOS (pull the battery, hold the power button for 20-30 seconds usually does the trick), if that doesn't help, du a full strip, repaste and dust the h*ck out of it. I usually do that every 2-3 years anyhow, keeps my laptop(s) running smoothly.

 

[ninaholic37]

Thanks for the replies. I hadn't even thought of the "you should clean it out and replace the thermal paste" angle. My dad is letting me use it while he fixes the hinge on my older (2005) laptop. The strange thing is that this "16MHz speeds" thing only happened one time, and never happened since, and I had it off for about 8 hours before turning it on when it happened, so it should have been colder than normal - lol. I did notice when I shut it down the night before, that it instantly turned off rather than saying "Now Shutting Down" for some reason, so I think it really did go into some weird sleep state that it didn't get out of, rather than turning off, and was still in that weird state when it "woke up" until I turned it off again. I do agree with @Valantar that the information I provided isn't very much, but I didn't really install any programs to test what is on or off or at what speeds things besides the CPU were going, not sure what program would help give the right clues. I actually want it happen again, because my FreeDos runs at a constant 2535MHz and I would like to run it at 800MHz (like I could do on my Pentium M). That was the only time I was able to magically have Speedstep off in FreeDos (the BIOS in this laptop is locked out with a password my dad doesn't know). I can easily change how the CPU states work in Linux (I have it set to use 800MHz and only go up to 1600MHz under load now instead of 2535MHz, and it doesn't get that hot any more), and can use Dosbox in it though I guess, even though it's more annoying than a real DOS.

 

[Ratman6161]

... (the BIOS in this laptop is locked out with a password my dad doesn't know)...

Tip: You don't say what brand it is. But I had a Dell Latitude laptop I was working on at work one time that someone had put a password on and none of us knew. I called Dell tech support and based on the Dell service tag on the machine they gave me their back door bios password. True story. I don't know if other brands do this but it wouldn't surprise me.