CPU clocks drop during System Stability Test

[agraham]

When I do a System Stability Test on this Thinkpad W541 with i7-4710MQ, it runs for a couple minutes with throttling between 0% and 20% averaging about 10%, and then all the clocks drop down to 798Mhz for a minute - then they go full speed again for a couple minutes before dropping once more.

Sometimes when I'm playing a game it will suddenly turn into a slideshow, so I guess this is what's happening.

I presume this is some kind of overheat protection beyond simple throttling.

Is this to be expected with this system?

 

[Fiery]

2 hours ago, agraham said:

When I do a System Stability Test on this Thinkpad W541 with i7-4710MQ, it runs for a couple minutes with throttling between 0% and 20% averaging about 10%, and then all the clocks drop down to 798Mhz for a minute - then they go full speed again for a couple minutes before dropping once more.

Sometimes when I'm playing a game it will suddenly turn into a slideshow, so I guess this is what's happening.

I presume this is some kind of overheat protection beyond simple throttling.

Is this to be expected with this system?

Overheating protection has multiple layers, and one of those is to lower the clocks when throttling is not enough to protect the CPU from overheating.

[agraham]

I repasted this laptop with Arctic Silver 5 and the problem went away. It never clocks down now no matter how long I run system stability test for.

Thanks for your help Fiery.

[Fiery]

On 1/7/2020 at 8:15 AM, agraham said:

I repasted this laptop with Arctic Silver 5 and the problem went away. It never clocks down now no matter how long I run system stability test for.

Thanks for your help Fiery.

I'm glad you've managed to solve it.  Especially since most of the Haswell CPU based laptops will throttle no matter what you do about the heat conductor paste...