AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Cool 'n' Quiet Not Working Correctly

Cube623 · Jan 30, 2006, 10:45 AM

Again appologies if this is in the wrong forum.

i have had various problems with specific programs such as Macromedia Flash Player 8, Office 2003 (especially Excel), a game called Grand Prix 4 and the visualisations on Windows Media Player have been all running at a crawl.

Today it hit me that all of these programs are all very processor dependant. So I decided to check on my Processor and according to the General tab in system properties it was running at 803mhz!!! This should be very different so i had a look and someone else seemed to have the same question in this forum http://forums.amd.com/lofiversion/in...p/f7-4200.html and it mentioned something about cool 'n' quiet which made sense.

I then decided to download AMD's PowerNow Dashboard to reasure me and when i loaded it up it told me that my cpu speed was running at 36% and the cpu voltage at 1.1 volts and battery savings at max.

But when i put my pc under pressure the cpu speed doesn't change it stays the same throughout. It was almost like it was stuck in Cool 'n' Quiet mode. I went back to the link above and the last post said that you should download and install the lastest processor drivers of their site.

I did that and when my PC restarted my pc seemed loads quicker loading and when I loaded the program back up it now says my CPU speed is at 100% and CPU voltage is at 1.5 and battery saving at min.

All those problems above have now gone but now it seems like my CPU won't go back into Cool 'n' Quiet mode, it is constantly at 100% and my cpu temp has now gone up by 15°c. This hasn't made it too hot or too loud but it would be nice to know that cool 'n' quiet is working.

Another thing to know is that on the general tab in system properties my cpu speed is still dispayed as 803mhz. Is this to worry about?

How do i get Cool 'n' quiet working or is it a case of "if it isn't broke don't fix it"?

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jan 30, 2006, 11:45 AM

Its displayed as 803 Mhz because thats the lowest multiple and just how Windoze displays things.

I'd say its a case of "if it ain't broke don't fix it", the way I understood Cool n Quiet was that if it was enabled it'd work like a laptop and just fire up when it had to... having that driver should have done it.

I also read something about the power settings (in the screensavers area) have an effect on it, i.e. Always on is just 100% power, Home Office/Desktop is throttle up when you need to, max battery is always on min. etc

g35x · Jan 30, 2006, 12:45 PM

1.)turn cool n quit off
2.)turn power save off
ull get great visuals in windows media player =D (the 5 mins your battery lasts XD)

**Grace** · Jan 30, 2006, 01:18 PM

Just disable Cool & Quiet. Your motherboard is not AMD approved, so it is quite logical that it might not be working correctly. But anyway, it is a not-so-useful feature for powerful desktop systems.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jan 30, 2006, 01:22 PM

It saves money, how is it not useful? I'd love to save money on my power bill. Wouldn't you?

Necrosis · Jan 30, 2006, 01:54 PM

Checking for new bios updates might not be a bad idea either.

Cube623 · Jan 30, 2006, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grace

Just disable Cool & Quiet. Your motherboard is not AMD approved, so it is quite logical that it might not be working correctly. But anyway, it is a not-so-useful feature for powerful desktop systems.

well i've disabled it for now and my pc is an asoulute beast!
One thing if this uses more power it won't make that much of a difference will it surely?

H3X4D3C1M4L · Jan 30, 2006, 03:04 PM

Well it depends how much you pay for power and leave it on. Leaving my machine folding all night overclocked consuming 400 watts from the wall and leaving my monitor on power save mode etc. uses between 4 - 5 kW/H, which nets to something less than $3 bucks a month extra vs. leaving folding off etc.

Small price to pay for me, especially since my PC keeps my basement warm and the furnace goes off. Look at it that way, it'll save you roughly the same on heating

Rasta Monsta · Jan 30, 2006, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cube623

well i've disabled it for now

How do you disable it?

**Grace** · Jan 30, 2006, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H3X4D3C1M4L

It saves money, how is it not useful? I'd love to save money on my power bill. Wouldn't you?

No, my power bill cannot get any lower anyway.

Seriously, this feature is mainly for HTPC systems and internet/file servers or other systems which are working 24/7, when they are actually using an AMD approved motherboard that is!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rasta Monsta

How do you disable it?

There is an option inside the BIOS.

g35x · Jan 30, 2006, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rasta Monsta

How do you disable it?

bios,and yes cool n quit is not for use with overclocking,and for me my 2 old crappy CRTs generate more heat and use more electricity than my computer

Cube623 · Jan 31, 2006, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rasta Monsta

How do you disable it?

in the BIOS
to do it
press DEL, F1 or whatever to bring up the BIOS menu
go to power management options (or something like that, depends what BIOS you have)
there should be an option called "AMD K8 Cool 'n' Quiet mode" go down to that option
you should have 2 options auto and disabled, press disabled to disable.
save and restart your pc