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I have a Dell XPS 15 with a Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6300HQ CPU @ 2.30GHz, 2304 MHz, 4 Cores, 4 Logical Processors.

I'm struggling with an issue where I'm running UserBenchmark tests and it's returning that my CPU is highly under performing. Furthermore, I ran a test whilst having my task manager graphs up and noticed that it won't run higher than about 35% in all cores. It just seems to flat line at that percentage.

I've tried all the recommended settings changes such as the power settings min/max. Could my CPU be damaged? Or are there any more obscure settings that I could try?

Screenshot of running one of the tests and the flat-line of the CPU at the percentage

this is the screenshot you asked for

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  • What PowerPlan do you have enabled?
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jul 1, 2018 at 15:33
  • in terms of the process power management settings i have the minimum and maximum on 100% with the system cooling policy active and the high performance option.
    – Patrick Jackson
    Commented Jul 1, 2018 at 15:38

2 Answers 2

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It's because your board is blocking more usage due to cooling issues. I had the same problem a year ago because my fan wasn't running.

This is a common issue, see this Microsoft forum post.

EDIT

Here is a list to check everything, your bios Screenshot indicates it's a problem with Windows. Try setting power state to 100% first.

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  • My fan is definitely running but i will try and cool it down and then if nothing changes i will open it up and check for dust. Thanks for you advice.
    – Patrick Jackson
    Commented Jul 1, 2018 at 15:29
  • this wasn't the problem
    – Patrick Jackson
    Commented Jul 1, 2018 at 20:56
  • What frequency are the cores running g at when under load?
    – davidgo
    Commented Jul 2, 2018 at 11:35
  • according to coretemp they are running at 797.85MHz (99.73x8.0)
    – Patrick Jackson
    Commented Jul 2, 2018 at 12:09
  • and when running a benchmark test its 0.78GHz on resource monitor
    – Patrick Jackson
    Commented Jul 2, 2018 at 12:14
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You can do more accurate heat troubleshooting by using a tool such as Speccy which can show motherboard and cpu thermometer readings. This will allow you to verify if it is a heating problem more confidently. Unfortunately the motherboard sensors are thermistors and they burn out and go unreliable sometimes. If the laptop is exposed to fine fibers (especially cat hair or cloth fibers) the solution is to clean your fan and heatsink. I've seen this on half a dozen laptops. A second possible cause is that your cpu has disconnected from its heatsink. This is where a screw of the heatsink pops off and so your cpu isn't seated correctly. It causes the exact same cpu throttling symptom. But I've only seen that on desktops.

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