JRSCCivic98

Join Date 12/2005

Everyone with laptops.

Everyone that has a laptop needs to check into this problem. I contacted SD about this and they have yet to duplicate the problem which is getting kind of old. Anyway, everyone that's got WB5 on their laptops needs to set their Power Management to Laptop (to allow the PM to throttle their CPU speed) and then look at the CPU speed (Right click on My Computer and Properties) with WB5 unloaded and then with it loaded. For some wacky reason on my AMD Turion ML-37 proc in my Ferrari with WB5 loaded the proc maxes out it's speed. When I unload it goes back to it's 800MHz setting (maxed it's at 2.0GHz). Anyway, nothing is killing the task manager so something with WB has to be pushing the CPU just enough to make it think it needs to go to full power. Anyway, people with Intel Centrino setups should have speed stepping as well. Anyone out there with WB5 on laptops really need to check into this and see if you're seeing the same issues. Thanks

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All's well on my laptop with Centrino while runnin WB5

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Pentium 2 ThinkPad: runs well, not using per-pixel on borders (System Info options) just to save time. Runs well in both environments. Although, if I power on when not plugged in, my start speed is reduced to 133. But this is a norm for this laptop.

Strange that you get full throttle when in mobile mode.

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central

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Only Intel Pentium M (Mobility) and AMD Turion to my knowledge do the speed stepping. I think the Celeron and Semperons do as well but only on laptops. Pentium 2 didn't have this feature if I remember correctly.

Yes, I do think it's weird as well... especially since I've tried disabling perpixel and it still does it. If I totally unload WB5 then it's fine. It's weird, but anoying. Also the cpu time in task manager bumps up every few seconds to 2-5% with WB5 loaded. Never did this before with WB4.6.

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Corky_O

Join Date 04/2004

No difference here between WB5 loaded with StealthOS (alpha) loaded and default "Luna" theme....

Inspiron 9300 w/ Pentium M class 1.6 Ghz.

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So are you guys stating that the CPUs don't max out in "speed stepping" not "utilization"? Just want to make sure we're all on the same page here.

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Corky_O

Join Date 04/2004

CPUs don't max out in "speed stepping" not "utilization"?

Need clarification on this one.

I thought you were referring to CPU usage in Task Manager.....

Please explain how you are testing (other than having Power Management Options set to "Laptop".

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Yeah, that's what I thought. If you go back and reread my op you'll see what I mean. Speed stepping has nothing to do with task manager cpu utilization (well, it does, but not in this perticular case). Anyway, speed stepping is the CPUs ability to switch from full speed (in my case 2.0GHz) to 800MHz if the extra cpu speed is not needed. Basically if the laptop is idle the speed will be 800MHz. You can check this speed by right clicking on My Computer and choosing properties. Then look at the advertised CPU speed on the main information page. On mine when it's at idle the speed usually states 800MHz. Then it goes up in 2 other incraments of 1.6GHz and finally 2.0GHz if there's really a lot going on. In order for speed stepping to be in affect you must have your laptop in the "Laptop PC" power scheme in XP Power Management (unless the laptop has nother power management tool in which case you'll need to check those settings out). When you have it set right, unload WB5, close out of all your opened programs (task manager ones don't count). Then check the speed. Then load WB5 and check the speed again. For me when I have WB5 loaded the CPU automatically jumps to 2.0GHz (like there's a lot going on), but my task manager obviously doesn't peg the cpu utilization. Is that clearer now?

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Corky_O

Join Date 04/2004

Is that clearer now?

Absolutely,

Here are the results:

Processor = 1.6 Ghz Pentium M class with the following step speeds available:

1 - 399 MHz

2- 798 MHz

3 - 1.05 GHz

4 - 1.6 GHz

Test #1 with battery power only, Power Management settings at "Portable/Laptop" =

- Processor speed with 'Luna' theme running, AV & Firewall running = 798 MHz

- Processor speed with 'StealthOS' (alpha) loaded, AV & Firewall running = 798 MHz

Test #2 with AC power, Power Management settings at "Portable/Laptop" =

- Processor speed with 'Luna' theme running, AV & Firewall running = 798 MHz

- Processor speed with 'StealthOS' (alpha) loaded, AV & Firewall running = 798 MHz

I ran the tests with WB5 loaded (StealthOS applied) to start > unloaded WB > applied 'Luna' theme via Display Properties\Themes tab > reloaded WB5 (Stealth OS reapplied). Viewed advertised speed during changes, as well as closing System Properties and reloading to verify speed had not changed.

Rebooted machine to check for any speed change after reapplication of WB5 in both tests = no change.

Speed consistent at 798 MHz throughout.

Sorry for the misunderstanding on the correct test you were looking for.

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OK, great test... one last thing to test. Start playing a video or something and see if the speed gets bumped up to the full value or higher then your 798MHz. Just want to make sure it can go higher then that under load... Thanks.

Also, others can follow the same test... it could just be something in the AMD Turion camp... who knows.

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kona0197

Join Date 02/2003

+86

Yeah it looks like you need to talk to someone who has a Turion laptop. Interesting problem.

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I've got a Dell 9200 w/1.6gHz Pentium M. Running XP with Windowblind 5 the speed, as measured by i9Kfangui, is usually 0.6gHz, including the McAfee Security Suite (firewall and anti-virus). If I run the anti-virus scan or something else equally processor intensive, the CPU speed kicks up to 1.4gHz or 1.6gHz. If I run Civ4, it stays at 1.6gHz for the duration. My conclusion is that WB 5 doesn't seem to affect the Intel Pentium M.

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Corky_O

Join Date 04/2004

Start playing a video or something and see if the speed gets bumped up to the full value or higher then your 798MHz

Playing video using same tests in #8 using WMP, playing Serenity = bumped speed to 1.6 GHz each time.

Note - one anomaly was the step speed in Test #1 (battery) after loading StealthOS, before playing Video was 1.05 GHz.

I also had to reboot after loading Video each time, due to speed remaining at 1.6 GHz for both Luna and StealthOS (battery and AC voltage).

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Still waiting to hear from people with AMD Turion laptops. This problem is getting very anoying. Might have to ask for my money back or something.

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Back to the top people... Still waiting on a fix for this.

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Neil Banfield

Join Date 04/2001

+1104

Does that dialog update in real time, or are you having to reopen it each time to look at the current cpu speed?

Also did you try with an older WB skin (Say Blackcomb UIS2 ), does it happen with that too?

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I have to reopen to view the current speed. It happens with all skins as long as they are running under WB5. I tried disabling PP support, but that had no affect. Apperently it's not tied arround the PP support of WB5. If I unload WB5 it goes back to normal opperation. Also, as a side note, someone on the notebook forums was having the same issues with their Turion laptop not speed stepping down... they had no idea what was causing it. I asked them if they were using WB5 and low and behold... they were. When they unloaded WB5 the speed stepping returned to normal. You're going to have to find someone with a Turion64 proc in their laptop to see this for yourself. Worse case senario... go to a store and load up WB5 on any laptop that has a Turion64 in it. You'll see what I'm talking about.

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Neil Banfield

Join Date 04/2001

+1104

Its just a thought, but could you use an app which constantly monitors the speed as its possible the processor has increased clock speed due to the cpu requirements when opening a new window and not dropped back when the cpu speed is measured.

AMD have a monitor utility for AMD64 desktop cpus to watch their speed in realtime, so they probably provide one for the newer turion64 chips too.

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Neil is right,

Here is a link to AMD's page look for AMD Dashboard Demo Software (I am using an older version, the one listed on the very bottom, but the new, 3rd for top, should work the same) It show in percent instead of actual speed)

Link

I use the dashboard both on my 64 bit Athlon desktop and on my Sempron laptop.
and it says it support the Turions.

I try looking at system properties but just opening system properties will sometime cause the speed to increase throwing off the reading.

I don't have WB 5 installed on my laptop yet, but I haven't see this problem on my athlon desktop at this time (I will have to try it on my sempron laptop later)

Thanks for pointing this problem out.

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I've looked at it through the AMD apps and the speed is still increases. Not only that, but even before I doublechecked with the core apps from AMD I could tell the speed of the proc was maxed because the cpu fan was on max blow, which it does when the speed increases incrementally. Something is causing it to max the speed out... could just be the added stress on the video card capabilities of WB5, but something is doing it. Also, for those of you that are trying to get your AMD desktop procs to do what I'm talking about here... it won't happen. The speed increase I'm talking about is speed stepping (available in laptops due to power consumption)... this also has nothing to do (in this case) with processor tasking. I see 0-1% flatlines on the proc in task manager and the speed is constantly maxed on it's GHz rating.... so it's not a task that's hogging up the proc if that's what you're thinking.

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Neil Banfield

Join Date 04/2001

+1104

All AMD64 processors support processor speed stepping including the desktop cpus. But this problem isn't happening with the AMD64 I have tried on. The cpu speed drops back correctly.

The latest laptop Stardock have purchased has a Turion cpu in it, so I will get WB5 checked on this. It is possible WB is exposing a flaw in the power saving driver as clearly if the cpu load is near 0, then it should be dropping clock speed automatically.

One possible thought is perhaps your video card shares the main memory? AMD chips have the memory controller on die, so perhaps graphics requests require it to be running full speed for some reason.

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I had looked at the new AMD Turion powered laptops, they seemed a little buggy and latent issue than other mobile cpu's...Id go get something like a P4, I never have problems with it and OD

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This actually looks more like a CPU problem than a WB problem. I think Neil is right that WB is merely exposing the problem. Just to be safe, you should send an email or call AMD and see if they have anything useful to say.

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Yeah, they will tell me that it's an application problem. Since no other app on my system causes this sort of issue with the speed stepping on my Turion all fingers currently point to it being a WB5 issue... it's the only vairable changed that causes the issue or solves it. As for the shared memory... X700 chipset with 128MB standalone... there's no sharing going on. I think it's something with the added stress of the video subsystem in WB5.

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I had looked at the new AMD Turion powered laptops, they seemed a little buggy and latent issue than other mobile cpu's...Id go get something like a P4, I never have problems with it and OD

No offense, but that's the tipical closed minded responce when it comes to the 2 Processor camps. I used to hate AMD as well prior to getting the new laptop... my mind has changed since then. The Turion64 procs kill everything Intel has in the mobile market right now... with the exception of the new dual-core chips just out. Dual-core Turions are right arround the corner as well and Intel will lose thier performance benchmarks yet again. BTW, run XP64 on your P4 and tell me if it works...

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1845

The Turion64 procs kill everything Intel has in the mobile market right now...

Kick me if I'm wrong...but if a Mobile P4 works admirably with WB5 and a Turion64 does not...then I'd be suggesting that the latter wasn't all that brilliant.....particularly if an app can expose a flaw in a processor.

Anyway....let's see what Neil can do to break this new lappy....and replicate the issue.....

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