How do I fix my speedstep problem?

[RWitt2]

Hi all. New here, so apologies in advance regarding posting tech and etiquette.

I have a 3 year old Dell Inspiron 7559 and have recently applied updates to drivers and the BIOS. Somewhere along the way, my CPU experience rating (as Windows 7 Pro sees it, about cut in half. Performance is terrible on the computer now. I am assuming this is not an Intel conspiracy but is a problem with SpeedStep. My benchmark is considerably slower than it used to be both by Windows and by PASSMARK. In fact, the CPU is now worse than my 6 year old Portege(i5-2467M @1.6 GHz) which was replaced by this this Dell Inspiron (i5-6300HQ @ 2.3 GHz). The old Windows 7.8 experince rating is now 4.8 !!! All sorts of applications (vid conf, gaming, etc.) now perform terribly!

Extensive web searching suggests this is likely to be a SpeedStep problem.

- I have tried reverting the BIOS to older versions, but that did not solve the problem.

- I have tried turning OFF speedstep - no help; tried turning it ON and playing with the POWER settings - no help

- I have tried running the Intel Processor Identification Utility which is complaining that is expects 2.3 GHz but is seeing a reported 2.19 GHz.

(even that, whatever it's about, should not cut the CPU performance in half.)

- I have tried running the Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool 64-bit, but it launches and says "...has stoped working" with no results.

It's out of warranty, but I've worked with Dell support and all they have are the released BIOS and drivers. All combinations now seem to fail to return to my previous out of the box performance. How can I get this fixed?

Thank you in advance.

[idata]

Hello SOHO11,

Thank you for joining the Intel® Community. I am sorry to hear you are having issues with this matter.

Have you tried with a system restore?

I noticed that this model comes with Windows® 10 installed, did you change it to Windows 7? See here http://www.dell.com/in/p/inspiron-15-7559-laptop/pd Inspiron 15 Inch 7559 Multi-Media Laptop | Dell India

Regards,

Amy C.

[RWitt2]

Hi Amy.

1) Yes, I've tried a system restore; no improvement

2) Notice this laptop is about 3 years old. After about 9 months of putting up with Windows 10 design flaws, I purchased Windows 7 Pro from Dell, installed, and the PC had been running great UNTIL THESE RECENT BIOS and DRIVER UPDATES!

I would recommend Windows 7 Professional "Microsoft Windows 7 Professional w/SP1 - License - 1 PC - OEM - DVD - 64-bit, LCP - English" to anyone, but not the Dell updates from the last few months. I see some downloads fixing and re-fixing Intel issues on the Dell support page.

[idata]

Thank you for that information.

Can you please let us know which specific drivers are you referring to? Let us know the driver versions.

Regards,

Amy C.

[RWitt2]

I have updated the Inspiron from these:

• http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/servicetag/91knb62/drivers Support for Inspiron 15 7000 Series 7559 | Drivers & downloads | Dell US

And in particular:

Dell Inspiron 7559 System BIOS

This package provide the BIOS for Dell Inspiron 7559 System.Fixes & EnhancementsFixes:- Updated Intel ME Firmware to address security advisory INTEL-SA-00086 (CVE-2017-5705 & CVE-2017-5708)- Update to the latest CPU microcode to address CVE-2017-5715.Enhancements:NoneVersionVersion 1.2.7, 1.2.7CategoryBIOSRelease date27 Dec 2017Last Updated09 Jan 2018ImportanceUrgentAvailable formats<div class="container marginLeft15 mdl_breaktext top-offset-20" style="ma...

[RWitt2]

I see the problem now....

https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/3/16844630/intel-processor-security-flaw-bug-kernel-windows-linux Intel's processors have a security bug and the fix could slow down PCs

So, when will a fix be out? How can I revert meanwhile? The old BIOS download is not solving the problem.

I am happy with the security risk and mad as hell about the performance drop!

[idata]

Thank you for this information.

In this case since the BIOS is provided by your computer manufacturer my recommendation is to contact them directly for more information. Their support should be able to advise regarding new BIOS updated an if it possible to use a different BIOS version. From my end you will find all the details on this topic here: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/facts-about-side-channel-analysis-and-intel-products.html Side-Channel Analysis Facts and Intel® Products

Regards,

Amy C.