Intel speedstep - monitoring the clockspeed accurately.

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Torque · #1 Post by **Torque** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 2:14 pm

Hello thinkpads.com

Im looking for a simple and effective way, of accurately monitoring the exact frequency on my T41p. Somehow, I'm don't really trust the 'right-click-my-computer-select-properties-system-info-way', that i've used so far. It's either at 598GHz or 1,69GHz. Doesn't Intel Speedstep feature more 'steps'?

..and how are your Speedstep settings in the thinkpad BIOS?
I don't use the IBM battery maximizer software, because the schemes with XP and proper BIOS settings do the job just as good. But maybe thats just me

Torque · #2 Post by **Torque** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 2:33 pm

...and by the way. When I set the Speedstep option for 'Battery' to 'Automatic' in BIOS, the CPU runs at 1,69GHz at all times, and the fan just blazes on. Shouldn't the 'automatic' setting be selecting the most battery effecient clock?

Sasha · #3 Post by **Sasha** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 2:46 pm

IIRC, the OS settings take precedence over BIOS settings with respect to power saving. So unless you set your settings to "Optimal Battery Life" in the OS, I don't think that the BIOS settings make any difference.

g8ina · #4 Post by **g8ina** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 3:48 pm

"Everest" is quite a useful app for this, and gives lots of other useful things on the PC. eg : it shows you your Windows serial number and ID without having to dig it out from the registry.

http://www.lavalys.com/

hth

Sasha · #5 Post by **Sasha** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 3:50 pm

My bad...forgot this....

Try MobileMeter

http://dssc3031.ece.cmu.edu/~tamaru/mob ... adme-e.htm

#6 Post by **daeojkim** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 9:06 pm

Use mobilemeter as mentined above. You can change the update frequency in "Frequency" tab. If you set that to 0.5 sec you will witness speedsteps quite often

JonathanW · #7 Post by **JonathanW** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 5:17 pm

I was about to post a very similar question and found this thread!

I have noticed with my T21, X22 and X31 all CPU's are either at 66% or 100%. That's it - as Torque originally asked, can anyone shed some light as to how many 'steps' there are supposed to be - I didn't realise I had to take Intel's technology - 'SpeedStep' literally!!

Jonathan

#8 Post by **daeojkim** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 8:26 pm

From what I can see from the mobile meter read out, my CPU clock changes from 600MHz, 800MHz, 1GHz, 1.2GHz, and 1.7GHz. May be there are few more in between 1.2 and 1.7 GHz but I have not witnessed them yet.

SKYravefever · #9 Post by **SKYravefever** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 1:54 pm

Reviving this thread as I was unable to find a thread similar to my inquiry. I've been using MobileMeter for the past two days, and it shows that my T42's running at 1.5 consistently. I don't think I've ever seen it step down, even when the machine's sitting idle and am on battery.

I've poked around the "Advanced Settings" tab in the Control Panel --> Power menu. It is currently on Automatic. How would I go forth in troubleshoot this?

#10 Post by **K. Eng** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 3:30 pm

Open the Mobile Meter application. *Right* click on the application and choose 'Options' on the menu that pops up. Go to the Frequency tab. In the middle area are some radio buttons for choosing method of getting CPU frequency. Make sure 'Measure Actual' is clicked. I have found that the 'Driver' and 'OS' methods are unreliable, and verified this through running 3DMark2001SE.

I've been able to observe the following steps on my T40: 600, 800 MHz, 1.0, 1.20, and 1.30 GHz.

I do have the battery Maximiser Software installed and I have my CPU setting to 'adaptive'.

SKYravefever wrote:Reviving this thread as I was unable to find a thread similar to my inquiry. I've been using MobileMeter for the past two days, and it shows that my T42's running at 1.5 consistently. I don't think I've ever seen it step down, even when the machine's sitting idle and am on battery.

I've poked around the "Advanced Settings" tab in the Control Panel --> Power menu. It is currently on Automatic. How would I go forth in troubleshoot this?

#11 Post by **K. Eng** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 3:31 pm

The T21 and X22 are Pentium III based and have only 2 steps. The X31, on the other hand, should have 5 steps.

JonathanW wrote:I was about to post a very similar question and found this thread!

I have noticed with my T21, X22 and X31 all CPU's are either at 66% or 100%. That's it - as Torque originally asked, can anyone shed some light as to how many 'steps' there are supposed to be - I didn't realise I had to take Intel's technology - 'SpeedStep' literally!!

Jonathan

SKYravefever · #12 Post by **SKYravefever** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 3:41 pm

K. Eng wrote:Open the Mobile Meter application. *Right* click on the application and choose 'Options' on the menu that pops up. Go to the Frequency tab. In the middle area are some radio buttons for choosing method of getting CPU frequency. Make sure 'Measure Actual' is clicked. I have found that the 'Driver' and 'OS' methods are unreliable, and verified this through running 3DMark2001SE.

I've been able to observe the following steps on my T40: 600, 800 MHz, 1.0, 1.20, and 1.30 GHz.

I do have the battery Maximiser Software installed and I have my CPU setting to 'adaptive'

Thanks for the prompt reply. That's exactly where I needed to go to get the settings right. My CPU setting was on "Maximum" since the scheme I was using was "best performance." I've created and am using a custom one with the CPU setting on "adaptive," and can see the CPU frequency fluctuating. Thx again.

a31pguy · #13 Post by **a31pguy** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 3:41 pm

SKYravefever wrote:Reviving this thread as I was unable to find a thread similar to my inquiry. I've been using MobileMeter for the past two days, and it shows that my T42's running at 1.5 consistently. I don't think I've ever seen it step down, even when the machine's sitting idle and am on battery.

I've poked around the "Advanced Settings" tab in the Control Panel --> Power menu. It is currently on Automatic. How would I go forth in troubleshoot this?

Try this app: SpeedswitchXP - set to dynamic switching.
http://www.diefer.de/speedswitchxp/index.html

The other thing is that you would need to optimize XP to take advantage of speedstep.

The IBM extensions to windows have an advanced settings in which you can set the CPU power management and a PCI Bus Management setting.

Setting them to automatic is best with Speedstep. Setting them to disabled is best for full power mode.

Set the BIOS setting for power managemen as well.

#14 Post by **K. Eng** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 6:40 pm

No problem

SKYravefever wrote: ...
Thanks for the prompt reply. That's exactly where I needed to go to get the settings right. My CPU setting was on "Maximum" since the scheme I was using was "best performance." I've created and am using a custom one with the CPU setting on "adaptive," and can see the CPU frequency fluctuating. Thx again.

Romeo · #15 Post by **Romeo** » Sun May 22, 2005 2:21 am

I have problem with my A30. I have latest maximiser installed and there is no difference between "Slow" and "Very slow" options. Both runing at 733 Mhz. Few days ago I was able tu run 468Mhz with Very slow setting. I don't know what went wrong.

Intel speedstep - monitoring the clockspeed accurately.

Intel speedstep - monitoring the clockspeed accurately.

A30

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