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I'm currently having an issue with my notebook where sometimes CPU usage reaches 100% and CPU frequency keep in the low end (200Mhz) for a long period of time. It doesn't happen all the time, but it happens frequently enough and it stays like that longer than I would like.

I have tried a couple different governors already userspace, performance and ondemand. They all have this issue.

htop showing CPU at 100% of usage at 200Mhz:

Image of htop showing CPU at 100% of usage at 200Mhz

I decided to set the minimum frequency but it is not being respected. I have already disabled intel_pstate driver and have already run cpupower commands.

I will add a couple outputs from some commands that may help to debug this issue, but keep in mind that these were not taken when the above screenshot was taken.

cpupower frequency-info: You can see here that current policy shows 2.3Ghz as minimum. These were set after I ran a cpupower script I found in a thread.

$ sudo cpupower frequency-info
analyzing CPU 7:
  driver: intel_cpufreq
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 7
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 7
  maximum transition latency: 20.0 us
  hardware limits: 400 MHz - 4.70 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: conservative ondemand userspace powersave performance schedutil
  current policy: frequency should be within 2.30 GHz and 4.20 GHz.
                  The governor "userspace" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency: Unable to call hardware
  current CPU frequency: 3.88 GHz (asserted by call to kernel)
  boost state support:
    Supported: yes
    Active: yes

/etc/init.d/cpufrequtils: Here the minimum is 1.5Ghz

ENABLE="true"
GOVERNOR="performance"
MAX_SPEED="4000000"
MIN_SPEED="1500000"

I also added intel_pstate=passive cpufreq.default_governor=schedutil to /etc/default/grub too and I made sure to load it by running sudo update-grub.

I wonder if there is a way that I set the minimum frequency in CPU and that gets respected.

karel
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Vinicius
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  • Your screenshot shows your CPU at 100% at 224 MHz, yet also at 87 degrees C. It is likely that your system has limited the maximum CPU frequency due to overheating. Look in your log files for any thermal related entries. Try limiting your maximum CPU frequency to a much lower value, to reduce power use and heat generated. Check you laptops ability to cool, like fans etc. – Doug Smythies Oct 09 '24 at 23:19
  • @DougSmythies thanks for your answer. Yeah, I agree 87 Celsius is not normal, but my notebook boots on ~60 degrees and when I turn on all the dev stuff I have, then I start to see the described error more often. When that happens, temperature usually says at 80-90. I need performance though, I do not consider reducing max CPU frequency. I also verified this processor can get until 100 degrees without issues, so I think reaching 90 degrees should not cause this behavior of reducing frequency – Vinicius Oct 10 '24 at 13:46
  • At least try limiting the maximum CPU frequency as a test. Jumps to the limit temperature can happen so fast that you might not observe them. I never allow my processor to get anywhere near the limit temperature. – Doug Smythies Oct 10 '24 at 14:01
  • @DougSmythies yes, I will try that, but I also wonder why the temperature is so high in my notebook, even when idle, right after it turns on, it gets pretty high, I have tried a couple things without luck. I haven't cleaned the cooler but I also do not see dust there, so I do not think it is dust...could be by design or some bad configuration. Thanks again for your response. – Vinicius Oct 10 '24 at 21:09
  • Ok, this was very stupid from my part but I thought cooler wasn't being blocked when in fact it was. I made sure it is not blocked now and performance is great actually, though htop still shows the same range of temperature as previously. – Vinicius Oct 10 '24 at 22:18

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