Processor throttling by windows power management

[S7R1DER]

Hello guys!
I have an ASUS R510VX-DM049D laptop, with an Intel i7-6700HQ processor (base speed 2.6GHz, turbo boost up to 3.5GHz), and I have started noticing a few weird things in the last few days.
First off: the cooling of my system isn't the best, in games it can get overheated to the point where the safety shut-down feature gets triggered, and this can happen quite quickly, if I don't use my external cooling pad. So like a year ago I received some advice from a friend saying that I should turn down the max power percentage in the windows power plan settings. So I did that, and based on my needs, I kept it on 60-80%, with no noticeable throttling, and no overheating.

Two weeks ago I was still playing games with the power capped at 60%, and no problems. However, I heard that maybe XTU-undervolting would be a better solution - as it would not affect performance that much (like I said before, I couldn't really notice performance changes with power capping, in a wide variety of scenarios). So I went ahead, downloaded it, noticed that the option to undervolt is disabled, googled it, found out something like it's not encouraged by manufacturers/OEMs, so they disabled the feature with a silent BIOS update (through a windows update), so I gave up on that trail, and uninstalled XTU.

Now, I don't know if XTU has anything to do with my processor behaving weirdly, but a few days ago I noticed some performance drops, and checked my processor speed, which was a constant 1.97GHz (on 60% power). This was weird, so I tried giving it a bit more power, and bit by bit I reached to 100%. The problem is that on 99% the clock speed was 2.49 GHz, and on 100% it jumped up to 3.4GHz, and started moving around, like it normally should, except that on 100% it does not fall below 3-3.1GHz, and of course, the temperatures are often spiking up to 70-75C on idle.
The problem is that since then, day by day the base speeds have gotten lower, eg. right now, at 60% it has a constant clock speed of 1.48GHz. When I turn it up to 100%, it is still in turbo boost mode, but my laptop makes some creaking sounds (which I've heard before for short intervals, but now it's constant at 100%), and I am afraid that the processor might get damaged.

As for heating: the problem persisted for a long time now, though I have tried repasteing it this summer, and nothing has changed.

What should I do? Is my processor going to die? It's a 4 years old laptop, and modern CPUs should have longer lifetimes than that...

Thank you in advance for any help/advice provided.

[Sebastian_M_Intel]

Hello S7R1DER, 

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.   

As this is a laptop, chances are that you are facing problems with your cooling solution and that is why you started facing this problem, most likely you should check with Asus for help on this. Additionally, I would like to check some details from your system, please provide the following: 

1. Run the Intel® System Support Utility (Intel® SSU) and attach the report generated:  

• Open the application, check the "Everything" box, and click on "Scan" to see the system and device information. By default, Intel® SSU will take you to the "Summary View".   
• Click on the menu where it says "Summary" to change to "Detailed View".   
• To save your scan, click on "Next", then "Save".   
• Use the option under the reply window to attach the report to the thread (Drag and drop here or browse files to attach).  

2. Run the Intel® Processor Diagnostic Tool and send the results either in a screenshot or .txt file. To save the report, once the test is done, click on "File >> View Results File" and attach the .txt file to your reply. 

3. Double-check the Intel® XTU has been completely uninstalled: 

Try these two steps first. 

1. Uninstall the Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility. 
   1. Use the Windows* 10 Apps and Features. 
   2. Search for Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility. 
   3. Click uninstall. 
2. Open the Task Manager. 
   1. Check under Processes for XtuService. 
   2. If found, click End Task. 

Then, follow the steps below to completely remove it: 

1. Locate installutil.exe at C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe. 
2. Locate XTU service at: C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Extreme Tuning Utility\XtuService.exe. 
3. Using those pieces of information, open a command prompt as an admin and enter your information for the location of the Extreme Tuning service. (Your location may be different. An example is given below.) 
4. C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe /u C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Extreme Tuning Utility\XtuService.exe. 
5. Delete any folder named Intel® XTU from these locations: C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel and C:\ProgramData\Intel. 
6. Delete the folder named Intel® Intel Telemetry under C:\ProgramData:. 
7. You may want to reboot your system (optional). 

Regards, 

Sebastian M  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[S7R1DER]

Hello!

Thank you for your reply! I have run the tests both on 90% (I'm currently using it on 90) and 100% percent maximum processor power state. I have attached the generated reports.

Regards,
S7R1DER

[Sebastian_M_Intel]

Hello S7R1DER,  

Thank you for your reply. 

Please try the following steps and let us know about the outcome: 

1. Update the BIOS to the latest version provided by your system manufacturer (OEM): https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/X550VX/HelpDesk_BIOS/. You need to check with Asus* for guidance on the installation. 

2. You may additionally want to try installing the drivers available on the above website. 

3. Set the BIOS settings to their defaults, remember to check with the OEM for support on this. 

4. Make sure that you are installing all the updates missing for your Operating System (OS): https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/update-windows-10-3c5ae7fc-9fb6-9af1-1984-b5e0412c556a#:~:text=In%20Windows%2010%2C%20you%20decide,Update%20%26%20Security%20%3E%20Windows%20Update%20.  

5. To rule out any OS issues, you should consider reinstalling the OS from scratch also: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10startfresh  

On the other hand, I can see that the Intel® Processor Diagnostic Tool passed, so it shows that the CPU works fine at functionality, operating frequency, specific processor features, and responding to a stress test. Chances are that your laptop is running into cooling problems. 

Regards,  

Sebastian M  

Intel Customer Support Technician   

[Sebastian_M_Intel]

Hello S7R1DER,  

Were you able to check the previous post and follow our recommendations? Please let me know if you need more assistance.   

Regards,  

Sebastian M  

Intel Customer Support Technician  

[Sebastian_M_Intel]

Hello S7R1DER,  

We have not heard back from you, so we will close this inquiry. If you need further assistance or if you have additional questions, please create a new thread and we will gladly assist you.  

Regards,  

Sebastian M  

Intel Customer Support Technician