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Unlock TPL settings on M14x


Ixel

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Hi all,

I haven't been around here for a while, and if there is already a topic about this or somehow it's finally become available without the unlocked BIOS A05 and changing a setting the unlocked BIOS A05 then please feel free to disregard and remove this thread.

So, basically I'm going to explain how you can make your processor not drop down multipliers after a short time of maximum power, as such happened in the past (http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m14x/866-m14x-questions-about-cpu-temp-calling-aw-2.html#post10035).

After you've applied the steps mentioned in this guide you should find, like I have, that your processor multiplier remains fairly constant as if it was just beginning to be stressed. For example, my i7 2720QM starts at a multiplier of roughly x30, and in less than a minute it was originally dropping down to roughly x26 due to turbo power limits (TPL). Now it's remaining at roughly x30 for any length of time (lasted for the 352.404s test I did with 8 threads in TS Bench).

One word of warning before you begin, you must have the unlocked BIOS, preferably A05 but probably can be a different version. You must also be aware of the fact that without a cooling pad your laptop will likely throttle or shutdown before the CPU stress test (which lasted little more than 5 minutes) has completed. I am using a Coolmaster something, can't remember the name of it, suffice to say it is efficient and has three fans. Despite having this my CPU peaked at a temperature of 94C, and averaged at a temperature of 92C on the hottest core. You could reduce this temperature by disabling hyperthreading of course (if you have an i7). This test was also performed on the default BCLK (which registers as 99.7MHz on my laptop), I dread to think what would happen if I increased it with the TPL settings much higher/disabled.

Anyway, lets begin.

- Go into the BIOS (if you have the unlocked BIOS that is)

- Go to 7th tab which should be 'Power'

- In there go to 'Advanced CPU Control'

- In that scroll down until you find the option named 'Turbo PWR Limit MSR Lock', by default this is enabled, simply disable it

Save settings and reboot, remember to make sure your long and short duration limits are setup to their maximum BIOS values. Once you have rebooted, you will need something like ThrottleStop (I don't know of alternatives to hand, suggestions welcome).

Open ThrottleStop, go to the TPL button and then you should be able to disable the second limit,and increase both values of the limits. I was unable to do this with the locked BIOS and unchanged hidden BIOS setting. This will allow your CPU multiplier to remain at almost the same equivalent of the TRL settings depending on the number of threads running.

Like this thread/guide? Give feedback or 'like' it.

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Ixel, great post. The challenge that I have (can't speak for anyone else) is that the temps soar during gaming since both the gpu and cpu are on the same cooling source. I wish they would have separated them. Literally i just leave turbo disabled in my bios now for gaming. Most game (minus witcher 2 and bfbc2) dont push the cpu very hard anyway. So lately I just leave turbo disabled. Thanks for this outstanding post. If /when I get time for a repaste I may give this a try.

Best Wishes,

Steven X

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Ixel, great post. The challenge that I have (can't speak for anyone else) is that the temps soar during gaming since both the gpu and cpu are on the same cooling source. I wish they would have separated them. Literally i just leave turbo disabled in my bios now for gaming. Most game (minus witcher 2 and bfbc2) dont push the cpu very hard anyway. So lately I just leave turbo disabled. Thanks for this outstanding post. If /when I get time for a repaste I may give this a try.

Best Wishes,

Steven X

I see. Well I've been looking around for alternatives to keeping the new TPL settings permanent, rather than me opening ThrottleStop every reboot and reapplying them. I've found Intel XTU, which seems to work, and plays with the BIOS values too. With Intel XTU I've also been able to exceed the BCLK limit of 103.09 in the BIOS, I'm testing at 105.60 currently (shows as 105.50 however). Also, instead of disabling HT or turbo I'm trying out 3 cores with HT and turbo enabled. I'm achieving around 3165MHz constantly at a peak temperature of 87C at the moment, no downclocks or throttles due to the previous TPL settings and restrictions. The system appears to be stable.

Sadly XTU doesn't appear to be able to save the BCLK permanently, unlike the TPL settings, though every reboot once it reloads the XTU software I get 'not all settings could be applied' and sometimes have to re-apply the TPL settings again.

UPDATE: It would seem the highest BCLK my laptop will run at is 105.80MHz, still better than 103.09MHz.

Edited by Ixel
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I see. Well I've been looking around for alternatives to keeping the new TPL settings permanent, rather than me opening ThrottleStop every reboot and reapplying them. I've found Intel XTU, which seems to work, and plays with the BIOS values too. With Intel XTU I've also been able to exceed the BCLK limit of 103.09 in the BIOS, I'm testing at 105.60 currently (shows as 105.50 however). Also, instead of disabling HT or turbo I'm trying out 3 cores with HT and turbo enabled. I'm achieving around 3165MHz constantly at a peak temperature of 87C at the moment, no downclocks or throttles due to the previous TPL settings and restrictions. The system appears to be stable.

Sadly XTU doesn't appear to be able to save the BCLK permanently, unlike the TPL settings, though every reboot once it reloads the XTU software I get 'not all settings could be applied' and sometimes have to re-apply the TPL settings again.

UPDATE: It would seem the highest BCLK my laptop will run at is 105.80MHz, still better than 103.09MHz.

Highest baseclock I have booted was 105.13 in bios to 105.06 and gives about 105 in windows... ram can make the baseclock unstable earlier sometimes then the usb ports and pci express bus being effected by the increase. Great work +1. XTU can permanently change the baseclock for you.. you must check force reboot... that's all it takes... its on the far right where the stats are of the adjustments you have made. Perhaps since on the M18x there is no baseclock limiter... you might be setting it over your limit in XTU and therefore it doesn't remain for you... so maybe if you set under 103.09 XTU can make permanent changes like the bios can. As before if you set force reboot to make changes you can make the tdp watt settings set permanently after reboot... but if you open the trl window of Throttle Stop it will automatically apply what you last had in the trl window of Throttle Stop. If you raise TDP over limits of bios with XTU and enter bios to advanced cpu control the value will reset to what is shown in the bios or the bios menus max value for the tdp. Also if 99watts is the highest you would want to set in either short limit or long limit then the bios successfully sets this in the power>advanced cpu control menu in the unlocked bios. You can reference anything from the M18x unlocked bios I have posted and or the M17x R3 unlocked bios material on the site for reference too as the way these things handle is the same between the M18x, M17x R3 and The M14x when it comes to the unlocked bios.

http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m18x/1125-m18x-a03-bios-modifying-via-da_gs-method-hex-registers-editing.html#post13085

http://forum.techinferno.com/throttlestop-discussion/1166-unlocking-tpl-all-cpus-m17x-r3-2920xm-overclocking-potential.html#post14185

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Highest baseclock I have booted was 105.13 in bios to 105.06 and gives about 105 in windows... ram can make the baseclock unstable earlier sometimes then the usb ports and pci express bus being effected by the increase. Great work +1. XTU can permanently change the baseclock for you.. you must check force reboot... that's all it takes... its on the far right where the stats are of the adjustments you have made. Perhaps since on the M18x there is no baseclock limiter... you might be setting it over your limit in XTU and therefore it doesn't remain for you... so maybe if you set under 103.09 XTU can make permanent changes like the bios can. As before if you set force reboot to make changes you can make the tdp watt settings set permanently after reboot... but if you open the trl window of Throttle Stop it will automatically apply what you last had in the trl window of Throttle Stop. If you raise TDP over limits of bios with XTU and enter bios to advanced cpu control the value will reset to what is shown in the bios or the bios menus max value for the tdp. Also if 99watts is the highest you would want to set in either short limit or long limit then the bios successfully sets this in the power>advanced cpu control menu in the unlocked bios. You can reference anything from the M18x unlocked bios I have posted and or the M17x R3 unlocked bios material on the site for reference too as the way these things handle is the same between the M18x, M17x R3 and The M14x when it comes to the unlocked bios.

http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m18x/1125-m18x-a03-bios-modifying-via-da_gs-method-hex-registers-editing.html#post13085

http://forum.techinferno.com/throttlestop-discussion/1166-unlocking-tpl-all-cpus-m17x-r3-2920xm-overclocking-potential.html#post14185

I see, interesting.

I was just wondering, like my ASUS P8Z68-V Pro system, whether the BIOS has a failsafe implementation. What I mean is, say I set the memory clock to something not supported and the system won't boot, will I be able to recover it (I have enabled some unlocked setting called 'watchdog' which was supposed to detect POST freezes and set default on next boot if so, not sure if it relates to that though) without taking the system apart and removing the CMOS battery for a moment?

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I see, interesting.

I was just wondering, like my ASUS P8Z68-V Pro system, whether the BIOS has a failsafe implementation. What I mean is, say I set the memory clock to something not supported and the system won't boot, will I be able to recover it (I have enabled some unlocked setting called 'watchdog' which was supposed to detect POST freezes and set default on next boot if so, not sure if it relates to that though) without taking the system apart and removing the CMOS battery for a moment?

Yes exactly.. the watchdog setting I wrote about and does work like you described i use it too and so should you... now it will help with that and also if you set wrong settings in bios and save and it cant boot... its not perfect though so if you change only a couple of settings in that bios that are bad to change then it still may require removing cmos battery to fix prob...but you can atleast sleep soundly knowing that's the most you will need to get system back to normal under worst case scenario.... so yes use Watchdog and no under worse case scenario cmos battery still needs to be removed to reset... but the watchdog setting does help so do use it. Example is in "advanced cpu control" menu under "cpu power" menu has option called Hardware Cpu ID limit and its disabled... do not enable that as it will require cmos battery to be removed to recover...

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Yes exactly.. the watchdog setting I wrote about and does work like you described i use it too and so should you... now it will help with that and also if you set wrong settings in bios and save and it cant boot... its not perfect though so if you change only a couple of settings in that bios that are bad to change then it still may require removing cmos battery to fix prob...but you can atleast sleep soundly knowing that's the most you will need to get system back to normal under worst case scenario.... so yes use Watchdog and no under worse case scenario cmos battery still needs to be removed to reset... but the watchdog setting does help so do use it. Example is in "advanced cpu control" menu under "cpu power" menu has option called Hardware Cpu ID limit and its disabled... do not enable that as it will require cmos battery to be removed to recover...

I see, thanks. I might try and tighten the memory timings and increase memory voltage slightly to accomodate this. I'm familiar with the Sandybridge overclocking limits with desktop overclocking (I have an i7 2600K clocked at 4.9GHz), some of that should apply to this as it's still Sandybridge (just not unlocked multipliers and CPU voltage). As long as I don't go beyond 1.60v on the memory all should be fine, the maximum option offered is 1.65v anyway, but 1.60v would be my limit.

Also I've tried playing around with getting my long TPL setting to be permanent but sadly no matter what I do it reverts back to 48w, I can however change this every reboot in XTU or TS manually, just a pity there's no software available to automatically load profiles or settings for this option.

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I see, thanks. I might try and tighten the memory timings and increase memory voltage slightly to accomodate this. I'm familiar with the Sandybridge overclocking limits with desktop overclocking (I have an i7 2600K clocked at 4.9GHz), some of that should apply to this as it's still Sandybridge (just not unlocked multipliers and CPU voltage). As long as I don't go beyond 1.60v on the memory all should be fine, the maximum option offered is 1.65v anyway, but 1.60v would be my limit.

Also I've tried playing around with getting my long TPL setting to be permanent but sadly no matter what I do it reverts back to 48w, I can however change this every reboot in XTU or TS manually, just a pity there's no software available to automatically load profiles or settings for this option.

Well the maker of Throttle Stop @unclewebb may be able to add a option for non-xm to load the tdp window and apply the last settings at start. He is a very busy proffesional so time is an issue. There may be more features added to Throttle Stop like what you mentioned in the future but it could be a little while as Unclewebb just doesn't have the time to do more developement right now. Not sure but I thought Widezu got his to stay at 99watts at boot somehow maybe I am wrong... let him answer here... @widezu69

If your were on XM anything set in bios will stay and if you set a value in the hex editing method (on non-xm and XM) and flash your bios you will be able to have it stay permanently since using the hex editor the watts can be set to anything. The method is in the link i posted above.

Edited by mw86
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Hey guys, to unlock your TDP, go into your bios and set both Long and Short limits to 99 and your time window to 56 (highest). When you boot into window, it will not read 99/99 in throttlestop but perhaps a bit higher. Now you must download Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. Install and when you open it up, in the Processor overclocking section, there will be options to raise the TDP. Do this, again, to 99. Then it will prompt a restart. After restart, your throttlestop TPL window should be unlocked. Enjoy. More infos can be found here:

http://forum.techinferno.com/throttlestop-discussion/1166-unlocking-tpl-all-cpus-m17x-r3-2920xm-overclocking-potential.html

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Hey guys, to unlock your TDP, go into your bios and set both Long and Short limits to 99 and your time window to 56 (highest). When you boot into window, it will not read 99/99 in throttlestop but perhaps a bit higher. Now you must download Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. Install and when you open it up, in the Processor overclocking section, there will be options to raise the TDP. Do this, again, to 99. Then it will prompt a restart. After restart, your throttlestop TPL window should be unlocked. Enjoy. More infos can be found here:

http://forum.techinferno.com/throttlestop-discussion/1166-unlocking-tpl-all-cpus-m17x-r3-2920xm-overclocking-potential.html

Thanks I thought you had it permanent... Guys on XM its even easier but on non-xm you must follow Widezu's method above

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It is permanent. Once you tweak it once, it stays unlocked. This is on whatever bios you are using. Doesn't have to be a modded one.
Right but referring to non Xm you need to follow your method or it wont change permanent and Xm users can just set it and forget it in bios or in a modified flash (to go over 99watts permanently)
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It is permanent. Once you tweak it once, it stays unlocked. This is on whatever bios you are using. Doesn't have to be a modded one.

Your method is useful for those who are either BIOS inexperienced (with the unlocked version) or to those who don't have an unlocked BIOS version. This method also disables the option 'Turbo PWR Limit MSR Lock' as mentioned in my first post, permanently (unless re-enabled manually in the BIOS). Unfortunately it doesn't solve the problem of the long TPL (wattage) having to be set everytime I reboot, despite the BIOS having the setting of 99. Understandably a limiation of the BIOS and non-XM. If I had the confidence of hex editing a BIOS I would try and do so, but for now I'll just stick to manually changing the long TPL value every reboot. Mind you, if I stay at 3 cores + HT + Turbo with a BCLK of 105.40MHz I shouldn't need to change the long TPL limit to more than 48W (which it sets it to every reboot) as the power consumed under full load is around 41W-42W.

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Your method is useful for those who are either BIOS inexperienced (with the unlocked version) or to those who don't have an unlocked BIOS version. This method also disables the option 'Turbo PWR Limit MSR Lock' as mentioned in my first post, permanently (unless re-enabled manually in the BIOS). Unfortunately it doesn't solve the problem of the long TPL (wattage) having to be set everytime I reboot, despite the BIOS having the setting of 99. Understandably a limiation of the BIOS and non-XM. If I had the confidence of hex editing a BIOS I would try and do so, but for now I'll just stick to manually changing the long TPL value every reboot. Mind you, if I stay at 3 cores + HT + Turbo with a BCLK of 105.40MHz I shouldn't need to change the long TPL limit to more than 48W (which it sets it to every reboot) as the power consumed under full load is around 41W-42W.

Exactly whatever is easiest and works for you go for. I have a cheezy fix if you want to try... i know of Autohotkey (there are other apps like it) which is a software that creates a exe based on a short cut and it programs whatever mouse clicks or movements and even the entering of values off of the keyboard all automatically and you can have it auto launch apps at the same time. I've used it to automate apps that have no automation to routines I use all the time... only problem is if you move the window of the app and it starts in that new spot the automated shortcut you made will still click in the old spot. You could set one of these to open Throttle Stop and set the watts and minimize after... and if you set that shortcut up as a basic task at login in the task scheduler you can have it opening and doing its thing at start up and it will override the UAC warning as long as you check use "Highest Privileges". Not sure if you would see that as a decent workaround but you wouldn't have to do it yourself anymore... Throttle Stop is more light weight for the job of starting everytime you start the computer.... XTU works but takes longer too load and much more resources. Plus the Autohotkey in action the clicks of the mouse and etc you set happens extremely quickly much faster than you could probably we could do as humans lol.

AutoHotkey Download

How to do anything and everything on autohotkey: AutoHotkey Documentation

Here creating a basic task in task scheduler is discussed:http://forum.techinferno.com/throttlestop-discussion/23-throttlestop-guide.html#post653

Here getting the task to stay working after sleep mode or other system events is mentioned :http://forum.techinferno.com/hwinfo32-64-discussion/65-alienware-fan-control-10.html#post14183

Edited by mw86
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