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I'm having serious issues with Lenovo P51 notebook performance on battery in Windows 10. I'm not sure when this happened. Maybe it was caused by some driver update, maybe Windows update, maybe BIOS update, or maybe Lenovo Power Manager / Lenovo Vantage application update.

CPU is i7-7820HQ (3.9GHz turbo on single core)

Here is HWMonitor screenshot taken on AC on loaded CPU, normal behavior. CPU package power is 30-40W. Work is done in 5 seconds.

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And another one on battery, same load conditions, abnormal behavior. CPU frequency is low (around 800MHz, sometimes it jumps higher for a moment). CPU package power is around 10W, sometimes jumps to ~20W. Work is done in 30+ seconds.

enter image description here

It acts very weird. After Windows startup I see 3.5GHz frequency in Task Manager. When I start some heavy java application (IntelliJ) that needs maybe 5 seconds to load on AC - CPU frequency suddenly drops to 800MHz and loading takes forever. After application is loaded - frequency goes back to 3.5GHz. It looks like it was up-side down. It is slowing down when I need performance and speeds up when it is idle.

My Windows power plan is set to maximum performance. I'm sure that in "old control panel" (powercfg.cpl), in advanced plan settings CPU power management is set to 100%.

There are no hardware problems with cooling. On AC adapter I can fully load this notebook with video encoding for 30 minutes (with both Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU loaded), average CPU power is something like 30-35W with peaks up to ~40W.

Battery condition is good (can hold 81Wh of 90Wh factory capacity).

What is going on?

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  • Download and run Lenovo System Update. Update all Drivers and BIOS and restart. . No issue here with two X1 machines - one 1 year old and one 6 years old with a new battery half way through. Also contact Lenovo Support
    – anon
    Commented Feb 1, 2023 at 1:42
  • I have got all new drivers and BIOS.
    – Kamil
    Commented Feb 1, 2023 at 2:05
  • Talk to Lenovo Support. I have been using ThinkPads for several decades and they do not slow down on a good battery.
    – anon
    Commented Feb 1, 2023 at 2:09
  • Is the battery original and recognized as original?
    – gronostaj
    Commented Feb 1, 2023 at 5:58
  • @gronostaj yes, it is original battery, pretty old (2018) but still holds 90% because I take very good care of this battery. For most of the time I'm charging to 75% when I don't need full capacity, I do not expose it to low and high temperatures etc.
    – Kamil
    Commented Feb 1, 2023 at 14:34

2 Answers 2

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2

This is not a solution, but I have discovered something that helps a lot.

After spending almost whole night yesterday I discovered something:

  • when I set Power options -> Advanced settings -> Processor power management -> Maximum processor state -> On Battery to 100% performance is awful, it throttles down and reduces frequency to 798MHz like crazy, HWMonitor shows CPU power around 5-10W
  • when it is set to 99% everything seems to work not that bad. CPU is not using Turbo, HWInfo shows CPU power around 20-25W and sometimes jumps higher

I'm still wondering if this is Windows 10, ThinkPad BIOS, driver or maybe some software. This is very weird...

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You state, "My Windows power plan is set to maximum performance." Have you changed the advanced power options, as below? Examine everything under Processor power management, and be sure to check those items for other power plans -- each is independent of the others.

Power Options - Advanced settings

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  • Note that Microsoft's powercfg.cpl is notorious for completely ignoring configurations set from the frontend userspace! I'm not sure what causes this behavior to occur, but I've confirmed aside from my own experience this is a known issue. You may need to apply power management tweaks either through gpedit.msc or cmd for the changes to actually be effected.
    – Arctiic
    Commented Feb 1, 2023 at 13:20
  • Yes, this is where I'm trying to control it. I couldnt describe it better because I'm using diffrent language and I was not able to "deregionalize" it.
    – Kamil
    Commented Feb 1, 2023 at 14:25
  • 1
    @Arctiic Well, after long battle yesterday I discovered that when I set maximum processor state on battery to 100% it throttles down and reduces frequency to 798MHz like crazy, but when it is set to 99% it works at 2.9GHz for a long time. That's very weird. Another good old Windows feature broken :/ Mr. Bill Gates please come back!!!
    – Kamil
    Commented Feb 1, 2023 at 14:27
  • @Kamil, thanks for discovering that quirk -- it may help others.
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    Commented Feb 2, 2023 at 0:50
  • I think I should put that information in answer, for better visibility.
    – Kamil
    Commented Feb 2, 2023 at 1:34

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