Slow Down?

December 7, 2008 11:15 AM

Is there any way to slow down the CPU in my Dell Latitude D830 running Windows XP Pro?

My last laptop, a Toshiba, had a utility for controlling the CPU speed. I liked to slow it down to avoid heat and fan noise at times. Is there a way to do that on my Dell? I've looked through the utilities that came with the machine, and googled, but I can't find anything.

posted by king walnut to computers & internet (11 comments total)

The term you're looking for is underclocking. It looks like SpeedswitchXP might do what you need.
posted by nitsuj at 11:31 AM on December 7, 2008

Thanks, nitsuj. I took a look at Speedswitch XP. It's CPU speed options are

• max performance
• max battery
• battery optimized
• dynamic switching

None of the these seem to allow me the option of specifying the cpu speed always stay low.
posted by king walnut at 11:47 AM on December 7, 2008

The power management utilities will probably have this feature.
posted by caddis at 11:49 AM on December 7, 2008

Other suggestions to avoid fan noise. . . the thermal paste that manufacturers use between the hot CPUs and the factory heatsink/fan combos is usually very low grade. I saw an article once about a guy who put really high quality arctic silver 5 between the two, and it made the fan run much less. Also, keeping the computer dust-free inside will minimize the fan's having to spin up as much.
posted by No New Diamonds Please at 11:49 AM on December 7, 2008

> The power management utilities will probably have this feature.

Thanks. I've looked through all the utilities that came with the machine, and also the Windows XP Power Options control panel applet. If it's there, I can't see it.
posted by king walnut at 11:55 AM on December 7, 2008

RMClock should be able to do this for you. There is a bit of a learning curve but essentially you first turn off XP-controlled stepping and then you set RMClock to have a maximum and minimum speed which you specify. If you're ambitious you can also use it to undervolt and save some heat and electricity without reducing clock speed. I also tried Notebook Hardware Control and liked it, although I think it has a bigger footprint than RMClock, and their site seems to be down at the moment.

Although I've done it, I wouldn't recommend replacing your CPU thermal paste because it is very difficult (and I've been scolded here for recommending overly-difficult laptop repairs, but this one I think is really too hard unless you're into that kind of thing) and it's a crapshoot as to whether it will make any difference. It made a huge difference with my machine, but I had a laptop which was famous for having mis-applied thermal paste and I still heard of a lot of people who did it with the exact same model and had less than two degrees of difference as a result, which isn't enough of a gain versus the danger of hosing everything.

Do peek in your fan vents and make sure they are actually clear before you go to any great lengths.
posted by Your Time Machine Sucks at 12:10 PM on December 7, 2008

Your Dell is already using speedstep which is Intel's implemetation of slowing down the processor for you. In other words: its already being done. Monkeying with it manually will give you worse results not better. Your old toshiba probably didnt have speedstep, thus the manual config.

>liked to slow it down to avoid heat and fan noise at times.

Youve got a machine in your hands that has two cores and a modern GPU. I seriously doubt you'll find a config that will stop the fan without destroying the laptop with overheat. Let the fans do their job.
posted by damn dirty ape at 5:43 PM on December 7, 2008

BTW, you can disable one core via boot.ini or in the MSCONFIG utility. More info in this thread. I doubt you'll see much improvment as the one core will just work twice as hard, but you can play with it if you like.
posted by damn dirty ape at 5:48 PM on December 7, 2008

Thanks damn dirty ape, but I realize the Dell is already dynamically altering the cpu speed. The range seems to be from 1.6 GHz to 2.2 GHz. However, the machine runs MUCH cooler at 1.6 than at 2.2, and there seems to be several levels of fan: at 1.6, it's barely audible; at 2.2 it's disturbingly noisy.

So, I'd like to set the cpu speed to 1.6 and let the fans respond as they would normally, and cut way down on the heat.

The Toshiba (R-100) also dynamically changed cpu speeds, but you could set it at low speed if you wanted.
posted by king walnut at 6:13 PM on December 7, 2008

I am typing this on my own D830, coincidentally. I am running Vista, and it has an option inside the advanced power settings that allows you to set the minimum and maximum cpu speeds, both on AC power and on battery.

(for your edification, it seems faster with Vista (and Aero Glass) than it did with the XP that same with it. But I did get the upgraded video card.)

I didn't find anything on a quick google search about that kind of granularity in the XP power settings.

Also, I never hear the fan. Perhaps you have processes running that don't need to be running that are taking up all your cpu time?
posted by gjc at 6:31 PM on December 7, 2008

I jnust looked in the BIOS, and there's a setting under performance called (something like) "enhanced speedstep". Two options- on and off. It says that in off mode, it reverts to the lowest performance mode of the processor. That might be it.
posted by gjc at 6:50 PM on December 7, 2008