A
ArtyChas
Good day,
Dell Inspiron 5537, Intel i7-4500U, 12GB RAM, AMD Radeon R9 M200X, Windows 10 build 1803-17134.523
Today, I experienced the most peculiar issue that I encountered so far. I was playing a video, using my dedicated GPU (AMD Radeon R9 M200X), and noticed frame drops and, at the same time, the CPU dropped its current (and maximum) speed to 0.79 GHz. No new drivers, programs, or updates have been installed that may have caused the issue, and last updates were installed 3 days ago (KB4480966/KB40979).
I attempted to fix the problem with a bold move, by restarting the laptop, and... well, it didn't boot. There was no three unsuccessful attempts to boot, it went straight to automatic repair. "Restart", "Continue to Windows 10", "Startup Troubleshooting", and "Startup Settings" were bringing me back to Automatic Repair - Diagnosing your PC - Troubleshooting menu. As I got sick of clean installations, I tried to restore point from last update (3 days ago), it initialized the restore, prepared for restore... then went straight back to Troubleshooting menu. At this point, however, "Continue to Windows 10" would successfully boot it up.
Figured that my BIOS is rotten, I upgraded it to latest Dell A11 BIOS and enabled Intel SpeedStep in the BIOS menu. However, now, if you boot up using the method above, it will still fail to boot, if restarted. Now, it throttles at 1.79 GHz, and upon testing, only if dedicated GPU is in use. Using AIDA64, I stressed CPU only, GPU only, CPU and GPU. As seen in figures below, first option shows maximum CPU capabilities, second - no stress on CPU yet 1.79 GHz throttle, third one - flat line in Task Manager. For the throttle to be removed, one can wait until GPU is not in use, kill the process that's using it, or disable/enable GPU device.
Few things to get straight:
1) Advanced Power Settings - maximum processing power at 100% for all;
2) Battery at High Performance;
3) Battery Saver is off (it's connected to AC, duh);
4) Issue persists on both AC and battery;
5) Connectors are fine, it's a sealed laptop;
6) IT'S NOT OVERHEATING;
7) IT'S NOT OVERCLOCKED BY MAGIC TOOLS;
8) I installed an update (KB4100347), but it still failed to boot up after, so I had to use a workaround (Upd. it actually did install update, which means that it doesn't really restore point, or restore fails half way through. Either way, it helps to boot up). At the moment, I am downloading a feature update to build 1809 [will update shortly];
9) Lastly, all the drivers are up-to-date, according to both Windows 10 Update and Dell Update, and no changes were made to cause the issue.
PS. Please don't ask me to Reset PC or Clean Install. I've suffered 4 Windows deaths in last 4 weeks and I'll go nuts if I have to re-install all the software again. However, please do let me know if it will work if I upgrade the build to Insider (don't wanna lose restore point workaround, as it's the only thing that helps to boot it up right now)
PPS. Please let me know if any tests / Event Viewer captions will help to locate the issue.
Continue reading...
Dell Inspiron 5537, Intel i7-4500U, 12GB RAM, AMD Radeon R9 M200X, Windows 10 build 1803-17134.523
Today, I experienced the most peculiar issue that I encountered so far. I was playing a video, using my dedicated GPU (AMD Radeon R9 M200X), and noticed frame drops and, at the same time, the CPU dropped its current (and maximum) speed to 0.79 GHz. No new drivers, programs, or updates have been installed that may have caused the issue, and last updates were installed 3 days ago (KB4480966/KB40979).
I attempted to fix the problem with a bold move, by restarting the laptop, and... well, it didn't boot. There was no three unsuccessful attempts to boot, it went straight to automatic repair. "Restart", "Continue to Windows 10", "Startup Troubleshooting", and "Startup Settings" were bringing me back to Automatic Repair - Diagnosing your PC - Troubleshooting menu. As I got sick of clean installations, I tried to restore point from last update (3 days ago), it initialized the restore, prepared for restore... then went straight back to Troubleshooting menu. At this point, however, "Continue to Windows 10" would successfully boot it up.
Figured that my BIOS is rotten, I upgraded it to latest Dell A11 BIOS and enabled Intel SpeedStep in the BIOS menu. However, now, if you boot up using the method above, it will still fail to boot, if restarted. Now, it throttles at 1.79 GHz, and upon testing, only if dedicated GPU is in use. Using AIDA64, I stressed CPU only, GPU only, CPU and GPU. As seen in figures below, first option shows maximum CPU capabilities, second - no stress on CPU yet 1.79 GHz throttle, third one - flat line in Task Manager. For the throttle to be removed, one can wait until GPU is not in use, kill the process that's using it, or disable/enable GPU device.
Few things to get straight:
1) Advanced Power Settings - maximum processing power at 100% for all;
2) Battery at High Performance;
3) Battery Saver is off (it's connected to AC, duh);
4) Issue persists on both AC and battery;
5) Connectors are fine, it's a sealed laptop;
6) IT'S NOT OVERHEATING;
7) IT'S NOT OVERCLOCKED BY MAGIC TOOLS;
8) I installed an update (KB4100347), but it still failed to boot up after, so I had to use a workaround (Upd. it actually did install update, which means that it doesn't really restore point, or restore fails half way through. Either way, it helps to boot up). At the moment, I am downloading a feature update to build 1809 [will update shortly];
9) Lastly, all the drivers are up-to-date, according to both Windows 10 Update and Dell Update, and no changes were made to cause the issue.
PS. Please don't ask me to Reset PC or Clean Install. I've suffered 4 Windows deaths in last 4 weeks and I'll go nuts if I have to re-install all the software again. However, please do let me know if it will work if I upgrade the build to Insider (don't wanna lose restore point workaround, as it's the only thing that helps to boot it up right now)
PPS. Please let me know if any tests / Event Viewer captions will help to locate the issue.
Continue reading...