So, I have recently got this machine secondhand, seller claimed it had some thermal throttling issues. It appears when it’s plugged in the CPU just goes pedal to the metal - it turboes non stop for no apparent reason. Clock's at around 4.6 GHz on all cores, the temps sit around 100C mark. No resourceful tasks running, CPU usage well below 10% - and it goes full tilt just like that.
- What I tried:
The laptop was thoroughly cleaned, repasted, repadded and reset - no changes in behavior, except for slight leeway prior to temps ineviatably hitting 100C. - Windows was reinstalled (clean install, no Razor utilities, all drivers etc installed via Windows Update) - still the same.
- BIOS was reset - no changes.
- BIOS was updated to the latest version - nothing. I would try to downgrade, but older BIOSes are not readily available on Razor's website.
- Tried charging via USB-C - same.
- Changed max CPU power from 100% to 99% in the advanced power settings. This helped bring temps down to around 60-70C. I presume it disabled the Turbo mode, as the multiplier went down from always around x46 to always around x23 and 2300 GHz.
- LatencyMon shows some hiccups with ACPI.sys and some NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver - but I've seen similar data in the notebookcheck.com reviews, so it's probably irrelevant.
- When messing around with ThrottleStop I noticed that sometimes after Disabling Turbo and disabling and enabling BD PROCHOT and saving configuration the CPU would get unstuck from x23 multiplier and jump down to x8, x12, x13 etc. This would reduce clock speed and temps down to under 40C - as it probably should be. But after a while (longest I got it was like 5-6 minutes) or after I enable Turbo this normal operation is gone.
- After a while of tinkering with advanced power settings I ended up with CPU always at x23 multiplier, again. I tried cargo-culting it back together (even running HWInfo just because it was running when I first observed this behavior), but it's stuck at x23 hard.
- UPD: Tried disabling Turbo and Intel SpeedStep in BIOS - no changes.
- Turned on Speed Shift EPP in ThrottleStop - it seems to have enabled the “normal” mode, where the multiplier isn’t stuck on x23. Still, it doesn’t seem to give the CPU proper rest. And it’s definitely not the way to operate the laptop.
Now, I've also read a bunch of similar topics, including on Razer support website, but there seem to be no solid answer for it so far. Sometimes a Razor support specialist(?) appears and closes the thread to talk about it in private, but I mean probably the solution should be out in the open. Especially considering that it would appear the issue is caused by a software/driver malfunction on Razor's side.
All in all, I’m running out of things to try, so any insights or suggestions would be highly appreciated.
System:
Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model (Mid 2021) - RZ09-0409 (CH570)
Intel Core i7-11800H
GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop