Dell Vostro 1520: cpu throttle not working

[Yuri Dario]

CPU throttle fails with acpi 3.18 in /SMP /PIC mode. Power Manager reports

D:\bin\powerman>POWERMAN.EXE
Power Manager 1.00
copyright 2011 by Blonde Guy, LLC
Waiting for client to connect
CPU 0 power 100 width 0
CPU 1 power 100 width 0
CPU 2 power 100 width 0
CPU 3 power 100 width 0
CPU current state=0 CPU Throttling steps=8
AcpiSetThrottling 88% for cpu 0
AcpiSetThrottling failed (65283) for cpu 0
AcpiSetThrottling 88% for cpu 1
AcpiSetThrottling failed (65283) for cpu 1
AcpiSetThrottling 88% for cpu 2
AcpiSetThrottling failed (65283) for cpu 2
AcpiSetThrottling 88% for cpu 3
AcpiSetThrottling failed (65283) for cpu 3
AcpiSetThrottling failed. Switching to set state
CPU throttling failed. Exiting.

With acpi 3.19 the daemon does not start at all.

I remember to have got the throttle acpi utility do work in the past with some acpi release (maybe .14 or .16); if I get time, I'll try older acpi releases.

[Yuri Dario]

System configuration data.

[Yuri Dario]

Full system log from ACPI collector

[pasha]

Please download experimental ACPI build from Mensys site:

• Experimental build for you:

AcpiFixVW2-2011-04-20.zip

• Read instructions: ​http://ecomstation.ru/projects/acpitools/?action=testcase

[Yuri Dario]

Sorry for late reply, just discovered I don't get email updates about tickets.

With version 20-04-11, no changes in powerman behaviour. even setgetthrl.exe reports same errors.

[pasha]

wait message from autor of powerman or mensys

[Yuri Dario]

This is not a powerman issue, since acpi utility setgetthrl.exe shows same error.

[pasha]

Seem your setgetthrl.exe is old. Try attached file.

[Yuri Dario]

I tried it and I got the same errors.

I also updated to Acpi319APICFIX2-20110611.zip, and in PIC mode I still get same output:

D:\tmp\acpi>SetGetThrtl.exe

Searching processors
------------------------------------
Processor [CPU0]  id:0 Possible for throttle setting
------------------------------------
Processor [CPU1]  id:1 Possible for throttle setting
------------------------------------
Processor [CPU2]  id:2 Possible for throttle setting
------------------------------------
Processor [CPU3]  id:3 Possible for throttle setting
------------------------------------
 CPU  number 0
 ProcId:     0x0
 P_BLK:      0x410
 P_BLK len:  0x6
CPU0 Error get throttling rc=65283
 CPU  number 1
 ProcId:     0x1
 P_BLK:      0x410
 P_BLK len:  0x6
CPU1 Error get throttling rc=65283
 CPU  number 2
 ProcId:     0x2
 P_BLK:      0x410
 P_BLK len:  0x6
CPU2 Error get throttling rc=65283
 CPU  number 3
 ProcId:     0x3
 P_BLK:      0x410
 P_BLK len:  0x6
CPU3 Error get throttling rc=65283

[pasha]

from your log:

* Throttl Width 0 Offset 0

This is mean - your computer has't throttling

[ecsnl]

Yuri I know to little about ACPI. But one thing I do know is that your CPU runs to warm. Pasha what is interesting is that how this CPU is cooled under Linux.

I have BTW seen more machines (no logs uploaded) that don't support throttling, yet it is a duo core Intel CPU. So it might be a defect in ACPI or we don't support something properly to throttle this machine. Or we have a defect in the ACPI tables. I currently don't have time to look into this.

But I think its one of the least most truthful statements to say that Yuri his computer does not have throttle support.

[pasha]

Linux use HLT or Cx in idle cycle. We have ExtraKernelHlt=yes in AcpiD.cfg. But this statement do slow pipe.

[ecsnl]

Oke the Cx state switch in ACPI.PSD it mentions:

; What is the CPU idle stage in use ; HLT - usially for OS/2 w/o ACPI ; C2 - better idle that HLT ; C3 - deep idle ; default - C2 if possible, else HLT

Is the C3 then not supported on Yuri his laptop. It must have a form of throttle support. As I said I have seen more systems that have this problem that ACPI gives the return code when setgetthrl.exe is ran. So it seems we miss a type of support. How can Yuri find out what type of throttle his system supports ?

Thanks,

Roderick

[Yuri Dario]

This notebook has an Intel P8600 core2 duo processor. It seems quite strange to me that it does not support throttle.

I have also ubuntu running here, I can check what it does, but I need some instructions regarding what to check and how to check.

[Yuri Dario]

I got some data using PowerTop tool.

PowerTOP 1.12   (C) 2007, 2008 Intel Corporation 


CPU support C-state: C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 
BIOS report C-state: C1 C2 C6 

Cn                permanenza media    P-state (freq)
C0 (cpu busy)      (32,1%)        Turbo Mode     2,1%
polling           0,1 ms ( 0,0%)        2,40 Ghz     0,0%
C1 mwait          0,0 ms ( 0,0%)        1,60 Ghz     1,2%
C2 mwait          0,5 ms (29,8%)         800 Mhz    96,7%
C6 mwait          1,2 ms (38,1%)

[Yuri Dario]

Ubuntu dmesg output

[Yuri Dario]

Log taken before starting acpidaemon

[Yuri Dario]

Log taken after starting acpidaemon

[David Azarewicz]

A lot has changed since version 3.19.8, including updates to the Intel ACPICA code. You might try the current version.

However, since the power manager in the Daemon uses ACPI, if throttling is not supported in ACPI then throttling by the Deamon power manager will not work. Many vendors do not include throttling support in their ACPI anymore. None of my Dell equipment has throttling support in their ACPI. In fact only 2 out of my 15 systems has throttling support in the ACPI. My T60 and my Compaq Presario.

The Daemon power manager is also capable of changing the CPU power states, but it also uses ACPI to do that, and if that is not supported in ACPI, or if a custom address space handler for ACPI is required, then that won't work either. The Daemon log file will indicate if any CPUs are controllable or not.

None of this is a defect in the PSD or the Daemon, but rather a limitation in the ACPI supplied by the computer vendor. Since the PSD is an ACPI driven driver and the Daemon is an ACPI driven application they can only do what is supported in the vendor supplied ACPI.

[David Azarewicz]

Please try the current version. Running acpistat will tell you if throttling is supported on your system. With the idle time HLT implementation in the current version, you probably will not want throttling anyway.

[David Azarewicz]

No response. Throttling is assumed not supported on this machine.