Why does my CPU no longer throttle back???

[Hogan773]

Hi all - wondering if anyone can answer a question.

I have a 2600K with ASRock P67 Extreme 4. I set it up 18 months ago with a 42X setting and offset voltage, so basically it idled at 16X (1.6ghz) and whenever the CPU gets used it jumped to 4.2ghz. Under Prime95 my voltage was good in the 1.23 area. It would throttle back to 0.95-1.05 when not under load.


So honestly in the past 12-15 months I've just been USING the computer and not futzing around with Prime95 or the BIOS. Last night I was using Handbrake to convert a movie and just for fun I pulled up CPU-Z to see how it was being loaded. I haven't looked at CPU-Z in awhile.

To my surprise, CPU-Z reports that my CPU is just stuck at 42X now. It doesn't seem to come back to 16X at idle. BUT the voltage is still dropping back to 0.95 etc.

NO I HAVEN'T CHANGED ANYTHING IN THE BIOS.

So my questions:

1) What could have changed? Is this a CPU-Z problem or perhaps there is a program in the background that is "running" and causing the CPU to stay throttled up? But my task manager shows CPU use at 0% and it is still at 42X. I updated to the newest version of CPU-Z and it shows the same.

2) the only thing I've changed in Windows is to add an Administrator account so that my kids don't install all kinds of crap when using the main account (which has now been demoted to a non-admin). I have to run CPU-Z as an Administrator in order for it to show all the details. Not sure why that could affect the reporting of the CPU speed.

3) Should I care? If the voltage is dropping properly, am I doing any long term "damage" to my CPU if it is staying fully caffeinated at 42X on a 24/7 basis?


Thanks guys

 

[T_Yamamoto]

You were converting a video right? Then it would be fine to be running at full speed.

And there could be some input lag between cpuz and taskmanager

 

[Hogan773]

You were converting a video right? Then it would be fine to be running at full speed.

And there could be some input lag between cpuz and taskmanager

No....it doesn't throttle back at all. I only happened to look at it as I was converting the video. It just sits at 42X no matter what is going on....or not going on as the case may be (when CPU usage is at zero). The voltage does drop back though (which I assume is the most important thing for chip life)

 

[Idontcare]

On my asus motherboard this happens if I set the phase control to extreme. For whatever reason the phase control interferes with the power saving features of the cpu.

 

[Hogan773]

On my asus motherboard this happens if I set the phase control to extreme. For whatever reason the phase control interferes with the power saving features of the cpu.

Yeah the weird thing is that I haven't actually changed anything.....it was working before.....time passed.......and now it doesn't seem to be working. I went into the BIOS and it appears that all the settings remain intact.

 

[Makaveli]

Are you on the newest bios for this board?

 

[Hogan773]

Are you on the newest bios for this board?

No, but again it was working before under this BIOS so I don't see why it would change on its own.....


I had a scary time when I first built the PC where a BIOS update didn't "take" 100%.......the PC worked but the BIOS wouldn't show up on screen and then the stupid fact that ASRock defaults away from AHCI on the HDDs meant that my existing HDD load of Windows wouldn't load up nor could I see the BIOS to change it to AHCI. I needed to spend a bunch of time reloading another HDD with a different load of Windows, then try to reflash the BIOS, etc. Ultimately got it fixed, but I wasted a sh&tload of time and stress so I have hesitated to reflash everytime they release a new BIOS as it appears the changes have been minor and didn't apply to things that would affect me.

For all I know, the PC has been stuck at 42X for 1 month, 6 months or 12 months....I just haven't been playing around with CPU-Z.

Does anyone have a view on the crux of my question which is "should I care" if it sits at 42X if the voltage is dropping back to around 1.0V when the CPU isn't working hard. If there are no negative effects of having it running at 42X then I'll probably just leave it alone. And for all I know, this could be some software reporting issue with CPU-Z and/or my machine....it may be that the chip is actually dropping to 16X but CPU-Z isn't seeing it.

 

[know of fence]

No frequency scaling means the CPU runs hotter and consumes much more power.

Resolving this issue is as simple as opening task manager (showing all processes) and removing the process that keeps your CPU busy. It can be malware or it can be some updating thing. Last time it happened for me, was with Intel Rapid Storage Technology acting up for various reasons as I was swapping system harddrives from one PC to the other. You can look up the processes under ProcessLibrary dot com.

Also if you're having trouble getting into the bios (strange), you can simply disconnect your system harddrive (or all drives), until you are done fiddling with the settings. You have to double check if EIST in enabled in the bios, for starters...

 

[MadScientist]

Have you updated CPU-Z? Version 1.61 shows my 2500K running at 1600 Mhz at idle. The latest update, version 1.62, shows it running at 4600 Mhz at idle. Bug??

Edit: didn't completely read your first post. Try an earlier version of CPU-Z than the one you are using.