Dell G3 Speedstep not working?

The core clock frequencies and voltage on my Dell G3 are locked at full speed and max voltage. Speed Step/C-States are enabled in the BIOS, I'm using the balanced power plan in Windows (min CPU 5%, max CPU 100%) and there is no abnormally high CPU load. I'm confused...

Edit: The power cord plugged in was keeping the clocks at full speed. There must be some Dell specific power settings I'm missing.

fireberd said:

The differences between on AC power and battery are intentional. In fact that is a common complaint about gaming laptops that the FPS drops significantly on battery. I just finished field testing a new G7 for Dell and it too had a significant drop on battery.


The Dell manual does not detail any over/under clocking options for this model. There may be some but the manual doesn't contain any info on that.

Specific questions would probably be better posted on the Dell community as there are those there familiar with the capabilities.
Dell Inspiron Forum

Hi Fireberd,

People are under/overclocking these Dell laptops with Intel XTU software, have you tried that? I've had some good results with the small testing I've done.

Even with AC power constant max clocks and voltage is unusual. Usually the Windows Performance Power Plan will force max clocks/voltage but it seems Dell have something hidden away doing the same thing, overriding the Windows Power Plan...

Grom0X said:

Do you have installed latest BIOS?
Please look at this: Access Denied

Thanks I will check it out.

Grom0X said:

Do you have installed latest BIOS?
Please look at this: Access Denied

That's helpful because I have the same Smartbyte/Rivet Networks process sometimes causing very high CPU usage.

Thanks @Helmut. I suspected a hidden Dell power plan up to something, just wasn't sure where to find it. I will check that out and then hopefully mark the thread solved.

Helmut said:

Go to battery Icon, bottom right click on that. Power mode(plugged in).
The CPU will run at constant frequency with that at " Best performance ", the other 2 settings " Better performance " and " Best battery life " the speedstep should operate.

At least that is the case for mine, the manufacturers Power Plan additions were uninstalled, they appeared as extra category in there. Those settings also override some of what you see in the Balanced [active] Power Plan. In there max/min processor state is 100%/5% that seems to be standard the processor in mine won't go to 5% due to the speedstep range it has.

When on Power mode(Battery) changes to 4 choices in Power Mode slider " Best performance " in this case has speed stepping." Best battery life " the CPU is at the lowest speed step virtually all the time.

Different CPUs and manufacturers may configure things differently. Confusing as always with Windows.

Thanks Helmut,

I found the Power mode settings by left clicking on the battery icon in the task bar. Setting it back from Best Performance to Better Performance got Speedstep active and working. Now to figure out how to get manual control over the fans on this thing.