Realtemp reports 100% CPU usage all the time??

lettuce

lettuce

lettuce

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I have had this problem for a while now where my OC (system in sig) wouldnt minimize cpu frequency and would stay at the full 4GHz, even though C1 C3/C6 and EIST etc are enabled in the BIOS, i then notice realtemp was reports 100% CPU usage all the time so this would explain the CPU clock never lowering the frequency, despite this the processes tab in task manager doesnt report and programs using the CPU at all. I have AVG Free installed and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware program installed and none of the have detected a virus.

Originally thought the problem was hardware related or BIOS but have done a complete format and fresh install of windows 7 on the OS drive and the problem went away and the CPU operated as it should do. But have got to a point where i have started to install my programs etc and trying to keep an eye on the CPU load via realtemp when i thought everything was fine i check realtemp and the cpu usage is at 100% again. Im not sure why on earth this is happen i have uninstalled all program that were installed between the period of the CPU working correctly and when i noticed that is was being throttled all the time but this doesnt seem to fix the problem. Is there another porgram other than processes in task manager that can tell me what is using the CPU?
 
A bit more progress on this, i have noticed that if i change the power plan from 'Balanced' to either 'High Performance' or 'Power Saving' then the CPU usage drops to normal levels. Any ideas what setting in the 'Balanced' profile is causing 100% CPU usage?
 
What does task manager say that the CPU usage is?

In the advanced power options, there are settings for the processor power management, which allow you to limit the minimum and maximum speeds that the CPU will run at. It's possible that your 'balanced' plan has the minimum speed set to 100%?
 
Tasks manager reports the CPU usage is around 3%. Have looked in the balance options and the min CPU usage is 5% and max is 100%
 
did you look here in balanced/custom or advanced settings and make sure its set to this

293wn12.jpg
 
Yeah, the minimum processor state is 5 and the maximum processor is 100%, this is the same on the performance and power saving plans, but on either of these 2 then the CPU isnt at 100% usage all the time.

I have tried to look through all 3 power plans and cant see anything different between them that effect the CPU usage. Is there any info about that states what the actual different settings are between these 3 plans?. It must be one of the windows updates that courses this, as on a fresh install then the CPU isnt at 100% usage its only when the windows updates start to download and install that the problem starts

I know its not Realtemp giving false reading as the 4 core temps are at approx 60c, and both CPU-Z and easytune6 report 4ghz for the clock speed
 
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With Task Manager open and with RealTemp open at the same time, does RealTemp report 100% while Task Manager is reporting a very low number? Post some screen shots of the Task Manager and of RealTemp when the CPU is supposedly idle. Make sure you check off, show processes from all users.

The load meter in RealTemp reports the percent of time that the CPU is in the C0 state. If this is reporting 100% while the Task Manager is not showing anything loading your CPU then that means that your CPU is not using any of the sleep states like C1. There is a registry hack that can be used to force your CPU to spend 100% of its time in the C0 state so it never goes to sleep. This was a useful tweak on a mobile CPU when going for maximum benchmark numbers but beyond that, this Windows tweak should be avoided. If your CPU is always in C0, the cores will run hotter. If Task Manager shows a low number then it will still perform just fine but will be sucking a lot of extra power when it really doesn't need to.

I would avoid the Windows Balanced plan. If you want to save power, use High Performance and the C3/C6 sleep states. This combo is far better than using Balanced.
 
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Ok here a pic of, Realtemp, easytune6, CPU-Z, task manager processes tab, and the balance plan.....

iyj8X6dS95gGQ.jpg


Notice how EasyTune is recording a slightly lower CPU clock??

In the BIOS i have, C1 state, C3/C6/C7 state, and EIST all enabled.
 
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are you using auto/fixed or dvid for cpu voltage?

it will always run at full speed if your using a fixed voltage no matter what power saving you use
 
What do the, C1, C3/C6/C7, and EIST states actually do different from each other then??, and why do some people suggest to have the C3/C6/C7 state enabled and other say not to.

Well i dont think its a hardware or BIOS error, as why would it change when selecting different plans within Windows 7?, i cant actually see what Performance or Power Saver actually does different from Balanced as i have set all the options the same, so it must be doing something different that we cant see or alter??
 
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When Show processes from all users is checked; if the Task Manager shows a low number for CPU Usage while RealTemp is showing 100%, that means your CPU is spending 100% of its time in the C0 state.

All of the sleep states from C1 to C7 allow the CPU to turn more of itself off when it is idle. This will reduce power consumption and it also reduces heat output and your core temperature when idle. Keep in mind that CPU cores can be entering and exiting various sleep states hundreds or even thousands of times a second

When the bios and Windows are working correctly, almost all computers will use C0 and C1. A CPU is in the C0 state when it is working on something and when it has nothing to do, it usually goes into the C1 sleep state to reduce power consumption but it is immediately ready to get back to work when it needs to. The deeper sleep states like C6 will reduce power consumption further but it will take a little longer for the CPU to get back into the C0 active state.

I have found that the new Ivy CPUs transition very rapidly from C6 back to C0 with no noticeable lag. These deeper sleep states got a bad reputation during the previous Core 2 era so most enthusiasts disable C3/C6/C7.

My guess is that either your bios is not correctly setting up your CPU so it uses the C1 sleep state or Windows is screwed up. The Balanced Plan should definitely not be leaving your CPU in the C0 state 24/7. The C0 state doesn't save power, it consumes extra power. For maximum benchmarking performance, having a CPU core in the C0 state would be a good thing.

In the RealTemp Settings window, you can enable the C1E state. If this works on your board, I think it will immediately drop the RealTemp load percentage. C1E is just another sleep state, deeper than C1 and it also lowers the core voltage when idle for increased power savings. The RealTemp core temperatures helps confirm how idle your CPU really is. The Task Manager is deceiving in cases like this.

Anyway, here is the latest version of RealTemp. It has a new C States window that shows what sleep states the individual Core i CPU cores and the CPU package are using in real time. That might be handy when trouble shooting a situation like you have.

RealTemp T|I Edition
http://www.overclock.net/t/1330144/realtemp-t-i-edition

Run regedit and check this registry key:

Code: 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Intelppm

In this key is a value called Start. When the Start value is set to 3, that should allow your CPU to use the C1 sleep state. If this is set to 4, it will block your CPU from using C1. You will have to reboot for any changes to take effect.

There is another key called:

Code: 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Processor

It also has a Start value that can be set to 3 or 4. If Windows or some software on your computer has screwed up, it might be set to something completely different. Worth looking at if the first Start value doesn't solve your problem.

Edit: The Core i7-920 also has access to a 22 Turbo Boost multiplier but this multiplier is only available when a single core is active and the other 3 cores are allowed to enter the C3 sleep state or a deeper sleep state like C6. When overclocking the BCLK the way you are, a sudden change to a 22 multiplier would likely cause your CPU to crash. That's another reason why people got in the habit of disabling C3/C6. When these sleep states are disabled, that prevents your CPU from using the 22 multiplier. For this reason, it is common for the motherboard bios to completely ignore your requests for what C States you wish to enable. When a motherboard sees that you are overclocking, it can immediately turn off C3/C6 to prevent any instability problems from the 22 multiplier. It will do this in the background when you boot up so you have no idea what C States your CPU is really using.

BTW, EasyTune 6 is not doing a great job at accurately calculating your BCLK or total MHz.
 
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Are you using the most recent bios version for your motherboard?

RealTemp confirms exactly what I suspected but I can not tell you why this is happening.

As I mentioned, when overclocking the Core i7-920, most motherboards automatically disable all of the deep C States like C3/C6/C7 to prevent the CPU from using its 22 Turbo Multiplier. I seem to recall that Intel was one of the few X58 motherboard manufacturers that allowed these C states to be used even when overclocking. The RealTemp C States window that shows a bunch of boxes with 0.0 confirms that the 4 individual cores and the entire CPU package is spending 0.0 percent of its time in any of these deeper sleep states.

The Windows Balanced profile on your computer has a bug. When using this power profile, the C1 sleep state is being disabled which leaves your CPU spending 100% of its idle time in the C0 state. Using this broken profile will increase power consumption significantly and will cause your core temperatures to increase. That is definitely not the purpose of a Balanced profile and your video confirms this.

When you switch to the High Performance profile, the CPU is allowed to use either C1 or the C1E sleep state when idle. Have a look in the RealTemp Options window to see if C1E is checked. If you uncheck C1E, your CPU will probably be allowed to use the C1 state when either the High Performance or Power Saver profiles are being used.

The Power Saver profile also appears to be working correctly. It drops your multiplier and uses C1 or C1E. Based on my testing using a Kill-a-Watt meter, this profile might not save you any power on a Core i CPU. There is little to no difference in core temperature between this profile and the High Performance profile. If you idle temps are the same then power consumption is also the same. Idle temps shoot up when using the broken Balanced profile which is an easy way to confirm that power consumption is also way up. That increase is normal when C1 is diabled. You can do some more testing when not creating a video for a more accurate comparison of idle temps between High Performance and Power Saver.

All you really need to do is just avoid using the Balanced profile. A properly working Balanced profile will not give you any significant power savings compared to the High Performance profile so why bother using it? If the Power Saver profile does not save you any power then the Balanced profile definitely isn't going to save you anything either so avoid using it and problem solved.

About the only way to find out why this happened is to make sure you have the most recent bios and to re-install Windows from step 1 and keep track of when this problem first happens. It might be after SP1 or after some other Windows update that this problem happened. It might be caused be a poorly written bios. It could be a difficult problem to isolate unless you install hundreds of Windows updates 1 by 1. Your Core i7-920 is running great so why bother. Go enjoy your computer.

Try running some wPrime or Super Pi mod benchmarks in each profile if you want to see the effect on performance.

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/366/Super_PI_Mod_v1.5.html

http://www.wprime.net/Download/

Here's the science behind why running a low multiplier to save power should be avoided.

Power Optimization – a Reality Check
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~krioukov/realityCheck.pdf
 
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If I recall correctly you are the guy that has a similar setup to myself.
The fact that it was fine but now it's not suggests software you are installing is to blame.

Perhaps Easytune? Some other form of monitoring app? Is everything OK just after you've booted up?

If you open CPU-Z and change 'minimum processor state' in the Windows Power Profile (use values of 60-90) while your machine is idling you should see the values for Core Speed and Multiplier change. ie When you click apply the values in CPU-Z should change immediately.

Now, if Balanced is your active profile when you try this and it doesn't work but setting the profile to High Performance does, something is tweaking your 'power savings' in the background.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980869
http://www.overclock.net/t/1058894/intel-acpi-guide-c-g-s-p-states-and-ocs

On a gaming rig you should use the High Performance Profile. If you are overclocking simply adjust the min processor state to something a lower than 100%. No need to run at your max overclock while browsing forums.
 
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Yeah I am ruining the latest bios, I think windows must have probably installed roughly 300 odd updates since the fresh install so I'm not willing to install each one individually to find the problem update. Now I might have had this problem for ages but hadn't notice as after I got a stable OC after about a week I stopped monitoring temps and clock speeds and chances are when I did this OC 2 or 3 years ago that windows update that's causing me problems now wasn't even out then. Any ideas on what sort of update would cause a bug in the balanced profile though? So the only difference in settings you can alter between the performance and balanced plans is the min CPU clock speed option?

I'll try your suggestion vashiro, but I think Unclewebb is correct in that one of these windows updated must have effected the balance power plan, I have CE and C1 enabled whilst c6/c7/c8 is disabled in the bios so I don't think there's any error there.
 
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