Virtual PC vs. Power Management

re: Virtual PC vs. Power Management

James McNellis — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 07:46:03 GMT

Question:

Would it help to create a custom power scheme using the powercfg command (XP SP2 or 2003 only)?

This command lets you set the processor-throttle-ac and -dc to none.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=324347

Any thoughts on this?

re: Virtual PC vs. Power Management

Mark Wilson — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 14:51:35 GMT

I was excited when I saw this post as I have been tormented by what I call the "CPU Blitz" since I first started using VP on my Dell Latitude D600. I downloaded and installed every driver I could find on dell.com. I installed Windows XP SP2. In installed a patch I got from Microsoft support. I installed SpeedswitchXP. Nothing helped.

After reading your post today, I installed seti@home and set it to work. Then I started three VMs planning to run a build in each VM, something that usually triggers the blitz. I never got that far as my CPU stepped down to 600 MHz before the third VM finished booting.

This is driving me crazy! Do you have any suggestions?

Mark

re: Virtual PC vs. Power Management

Mark Wilson — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 14:55:15 GMT

Sorry. I should have asked if you have any more suggestions. I think that I have tried everything you suggested in your original post.

Thank you,

Mark

re: Virtual PC vs. Power Management

Mark Wilson — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 22:15:02 GMT

An update:

I suspended seti@home because since I installed it, my CPU steps down from 1.7GHz to 600MHz within 30 minutes after I boot. IOW, it has the opposite effect on my system that intended.

When I can carve a day or two out of my schedule I plan to do a theraputic reinstall of Windows. I don't know what else to do.

Mark

re: Virtual PC vs. Power Management

sj — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 03:47:53 GMT

Did you check for BIOS updates? IIRC, that solved some issues that were reported in the vpc newsgroup.

re: Virtual PC vs. Power Management

DosFreak — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 07:21:15 GMT

You can try RMClock: http://cpu.rightmark.org/products/rmclock.shtml

[quote]Dynamic on-demand clock modulation adjustment is supported on:
Intel Pentium M/Celeron M, Intel Pentium 4/Celeron (all cores), Intel Xeon (all cores), Intel Pentium D/Pentium Extreme Edition featuring On-Demand Clock Modulation (ODCM).[/quote]

re: Virtual PC vs. Power Management

Mark Wilson — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 14:30:47 GMT

Yes, I installed the latest BIOS update.

re: Virtual PC vs. Power Management

Mark Wilson — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 14:31:53 GMT

I visited the RMClock site. I don't understand how it could be configured to prevent the CPU slowing down. Can you explain?

Thanks,

Mark

re: Virtual PC vs. Power Management

Mark Wilson — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 14:54:42 GMT

I installed RMClock. I confess that I don't have a clue about what most of the settings mean. It sounds like I need to read the Pentium M documentation in order to understand what to do and I think it would be way over my head.

What I want is for my Pentium M CPU to *not* slow down randomly. I want to do that without damaging the CPU. I am definitely concerned that I could screw something up and damage my CPU.

Can anyone advise me? I feel the same way about the settings in SpeedswitchXP.

Thank you,

Mark

re: Virtual PC vs. Power Management

Luther Miller — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 02:57:06 GMT

This is interesting - I perceived the problem to be the VPC processing too fast - for example, when I held down ALT-TAB, it flipped through applications at light speed. However, I am also experiencing the problem on a Dell D600 laptop intermittmently when the laptop is plugged into AC power and when running on batteries, so I will try changing some power management options - although I believe it already has the latest firmware as well as Dell PM drivers etc.