Power Plan automatically changing at game launch

monitorless · 12 Apr 2017

I had noticed my PC wasn't going to sleep as expected. What I found was the power plan had switched from my custom Balanced plan to the High Performance plan.

I've been able to reproduce this by launching a game with the control panel power options window up in my other monitor. The radio button changes from balanced to high performance when the game is launched.

I attempted to create a custom profile and made that my preferred profile. When launching a game, it switches my preferred profile to high performance.

It never switches back either unless I manually change it.

What are possible causes of this? I've looked around the AMD gaming software settings (GPU is RX 480 on a custom built desktop) to see if there's something in there that's responsible but didn't identify a setting that looks to be responsible. (And even if there was, wouldn't it change the profile back when I exit out of the game? It never does.)

Doing some initial searching on the internet didn't turn up anyone else with the same problem. Any thoughts?

monitorless · 14 Apr 2017

I think I may have found the culprit in my case: Avast Antivirus.

I'm assuming this is a change to their "Game Mode". I went to Performance>Game Mode>Settings. Then under Performance there is a "Trigger high performance" which says "switches power plan when you play to prefer performance at the cost of battery".

Archie123 · 15 Apr 2017

monitorless said:

I think I may have found the culprit in my case: Avast Antivirus.

I'm assuming this is a change to their "Game Mode". I went to Performance>Game Mode>Settings. Then under Performance there is a "Trigger high performance" which says "switches power plan when you play to prefer performance at the cost of battery".

Avast changes your power plan!!?? I wouldnt be happy with that , I use ESET and it has a game mode but it just shuts down all its own notifications and scanners when it detects a game. Its bad enough it does it but then not switching it back after you quit the game? rubbish :P

swarfega · 15 Apr 2017

I recently ditched Avast because it was becoming too intrusive in terms of network and other small things like this. You can disable the game mode option.

monitorless · 17 Apr 2017

Each individual setting within Avast's game mode can be turned on/off. The only real issue here is that they added the feature, turned it on by default and left myself (and other users) at our wit's end trying to figure out what the culprit was. It has some good features such as "Pause Windows Updates" and "Disable Windows notifications". Whether or not they will work, I don't know. But I am sick of Windows minimizing my game to tell me to download an update. (Game developers, why can't you always support Linux so I can end this hell?)

On the other hand, Windows Defender has improved over the years. I've thought about just switching to that. About 90% of internet security is just knowing what not to click.

l3izz · 18 Apr 2017

Thank you for pointing this it fixxed my 7700k idle problem!

2ndvenus · 13 May 2017

My AMD FX 8150 (8x 3.6ghz) was overheating like crazy when it normally stays cool under my H80i Corsair Liquid Cooler, it heated up like i had never seen before after Avast starting hijacking our system's Power options without our expressed permission, which is a DANGEROUS thing to do and is putting lots of peoples computers at risk especially if they arent tech-savvy or keep an eye on their temperatures.

Thanks to this change from Avast made evident over the last 4 weeks, my H80i cooling block became infused to the processor and now i have to replace BOTH. This has cost me over $300 in total in damages.

To Avast:
Change your software immidiately to A: Notify people of the change to Game Mode, or B: Change it so it does not tamper with the systems Power Plan. THIS IS DANGEROUS CHANGES TO PEOPLES SYSTEMS!

I expect to be compensated for this damage. Im in a right mess now thanks to this update, to which i had no notification that my power options were being tweaked with in such a dangerous way.

High Performance mode changes peoples minimum process rate to 100% which is a good way to make your laptop or desktop BLOW a processor. No thanks Avast, REVERT the changes to Game Mode, and NEVER, EVER tamper with Power Mode options without any consent of the owner of the computer.

We download Avast because we want an Anti-Virus, you should NEVER mess around with peoples GPU or CPU when you cannot possibly understand each user's individual setup, CPU limitations and how good of a cooler they have.

Avast right now, is a hazard to your computer in Game Mode, whilst Game Mode is tampering with Power-Plan settings, and by Default is enabled on your System without you knowing about it.

monitorless said:

The only real issue here is that they added the feature, turned it on by default and left myself (and other users) at our wit's end trying to figure out what the culprit was.

I found out the hard way, and confirmed i wasnt the only one with this issue once i found this topic.
May need to move this topic, as the problem is not limited to Windows 10, im using W7. The cause is Avast Antivirus.

monitorless · 13 May 2017

2ndvenus,

That's interesting (in a concerning way). I posted a thread to Avast's forums. See here. I encourage you to add your frustration there.

2ndvenus · 13 May 2017

Im putting in a ticket with Avast, geeze that forum is full of scum. I dont know why i wasted my time talking to a complete troll base. You couldnt get idiots like that to agree to a clone copy of themselves.

Radboy16 · 15 May 2017

2ndvenus I'm sorry but i'm positive you won't be recieving compensation. If your CPU gets too hot on Performance mode, then you should have had better cooling to begin with.

Also, there is no way the two are permanently "Fused" together. That would take extreme heat, and temperatures that high would have melted more components. Does your computer still work? Chances are your processor was already "fused" before hand trhough normal use. Hot temperatures won't do that (in fact they make it easier to separate the two).

Try running your computer for about five or ten minutes, and then shut it off before trying to remove your processor. This will warm up the thermal compound, allowing the heatsink to be separated from CPU more easily. Thermal compound is prone to cement the two components together through normal use. It would be impossible for your components to have melted together, the heat required would be impossible to reach unless there was a manufacturer defect.

Seriously though, if you didn't have adequate cooling on your processor, that is your own fault. If Power Mode was so dangerous, it wouldn't be so easily accessible. Also, "max performance" power mode just sets your processor to be used how it was intended. Normal cycle. It doesn't force processes to use maximum load, that would be impossible. Clearly you have no idea how computers work, and are unable to accept the fact that the hardware failure was your fault to begin with.

Really, I can't stress the fact that if you aren't aware that thermal compound naturally cements components together, then you know nothing. You're over reacting to a simple issue, which is alleviated through the steps I described above.

No reimbursement for you. But you do get a gold sticker for trying too hard.