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Dell Precision M2800 i7 4900MQ Turbo Boost

HU
Beginner
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Hello all, The Turbo Boost technology on my Dell Precision M2800 doesn't seem to be working. The CPU clock never increases, even when I'm doing solidworks flow simulation anaylsis, which maxes the CPU for at least a 45 seconds, or when I am gaming.

I can't find the driver in Device List, or in System Drivers under, though it does exist and is checked in the BIOS. Obviously I can't find it on Dell Drivers. What do I need to do to fix this? Dell lists this computer as a Precision M2800 (Early 2014) on the drivers site. I have the i7 4900MQ, with 16gb of ram.

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15 Replies
Silvia_L_Intel1
Employee
2,233 Views

Hello Hunger993,

The only way to find out if the Intel Turbo Boost Technology is or not enable will be on BIOS.

This feature comes enable by default in our motherboards, but in your case, it may be disable by your computer manufacture.

I recommend you to post your inquire on Dell community or get in contact with this company so they can explain you how to enable this technology.

Regards.

HU
Beginner
2,233 Views

Thats the problem. Turbo boost IS enabled in the BIOS but it doesn't seems to ever work.

My BIOS was just updated to A03 but that didn't seem to help

I have contacted the Dell Community, but I haven't received any help.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19603790 Precison M2800 Turbo Boost Not Working - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

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Silvia_L_Intel1
Employee
2,233 Views

Hunger993, would you please try running the Intel® Processor Diagnostic Tool. http://www.intel.com/support/processors/sb/CS-031726.htm http://www.intel.com/support/processors/sb/CS-031726.htm

Which operating system are you using?

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HU
Beginner
2,233 Views

Huh. More trouble. I do not know why this would be the case.

Thanks for the suggestion, at least I'm further down this rabbit hole, and so hopefully closer to the end.

I had the diagnostic already installed on my computer, and I believe it passed before, so this is very strange.

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HU
Beginner
2,233 Views

So I disabled CPU stepping (locking into max performance mode) in the BIOS, and now my cpu is performing at max CPU Turbo Boost! (I'm monitoring CPU clock with Argus Monitor). This seems to solve my problems!

Strangely, when I plug or unplug the power supply, or fiddle with the Power Plans, the CPU clocks will change, seemingly at random. Sometimes when i plug in the power cable they will fall from max boost of 3.8 to no boost but max clock of 2.8, and be locked there, and then go back to max boost when i adjust power settings, or sometimes they will become unbound and bounce around based on demand (like i expected they were supposed to). However my problem is fixed, however strange the results may be.

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Silvia_L_Intel1
Employee
2,233 Views

This was a very unusual way to troubleshoot your system Hunger993, however I'm glad you were able to solve the issue.

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HU
Beginner
2,233 Views

This is a graph of my cpu clocks when I fiddle with the power cable. Each of those downward spikes is when I unplugged or replugged the cable. It's strange but it works. Remember, this is with cpu stepping disabled in the BIOS

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HU
Beginner
2,233 Views

AHA!

Im starting to get to the bottom of the whole fiasco. So I was looking around at what might cause speedstep to be locked into minimum performance level. I looked once more through my power settings, and noticed i couldnt find the settings for min and max processor state.

so with the help of these fine people: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/51027-power-options-add-remove-min-max-processor-state.html Power Options - Add or Remove "Min/Max processor state"

I discovered something most curious.

Now I belive i have found the problem (this behavior happens in all of the power plans including if i try to make a new one) and i cant change them. This will require more digging. but i think i found the problem.

I have the weirdest computer problems sometimes.

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HU
Beginner
2,233 Views

I FIXED IT!

All i had to do was change this to a 64 from a 0 and restart and the whole thing worked. It was a butt ton of work figuring it out though. This is the value that says how much range you get on the maximum processor state, before i had zero range now i have 100%

happy CPUs!

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BPrij1
Beginner
2,233 Views

Dear hunger993,

I need desperate help...

I have the same exact laptop as yours (good taste!). I ran Argus Monitor with the setup above (SpeedStep disabled, Turbo Boost enabled), but I get a graph exactly like the last thread above but running between 2.4GHz and 2.8GHz.

How do I get this to run up to 3.5GHz as your graph displays? Or do I have to "force" the CPU to run max (what software do you use to induce the turbo?). Maybe I don't need to overclock and just need to run the correct stress test software!

Appreciate much your help.

bud

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BPrij1
Beginner
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Btw, I was running Super PI to induce the core frequency increase to 3.5GHz, but I stayed clamped at 2.8GHz and the Super PI 32M Calculation test ran almost 12 minutes! (A review I read for M2800 ran this test for 9 minutes 31 seconds). Sigh.

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HU
Beginner
2,233 Views

Im not sure if you're still working on the problem, It may be a little late for a response, But id try messing with the turbo boost setting, turning it off and re running the bench mark to see if it worked. This is assuming youre not temp throttling.

Look at the registry value i had to fix and see if theres anything screwed up there.

Ive since updated to win 10 and have had no problems

 

Oh, also check your power settings to see if youre in a high performance preset or not. Battery saving presets limit max clock

 

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IUman
Honored Contributor II
2,233 Views

I can see that your processor is running perfectly fine, please run the latest version for the Intel® Processor Diagnostic Tool, you can download it here:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/19792/Intel-Processor-Diagnostic-Tool-64-bit- Download Intel® Processor Diagnostic Tool (64-bit)

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HU
Beginner
2,233 Views

It is, i was just demonstrating that it is working fine under windows 10

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IUman
Honored Contributor II
2,233 Views

Great! Thanks for the information I really appreciate it

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