Windows 7: Odd Speedstep issue. RC 7100

Hi folks new here ready to share.

Perhaps you can help me.

MY HP laptop came with Vista Home Premium. Works ok I guess for two years now.

I've been running Windows 7 (64bit) since the 7000 beta. Currently using RC 7100 edition. I dual boot with Vista. And plan to buy 7 RTM soon.

I have noticed that Vista would idle the cpu down to x6 multiplier- as it should.
Whether in power saver, balanced etc. She would slow down when required.
ALA NORMAL.

But RC generally wants to run at x8, at no load, cpu usage ~1-2%.
Only very occasionally dropping to x6. It does, but rarely.

Both Vista and 7 will happily go to the highest multi (x13 in this case- or even x14 in turbo). Its just that RC likes to generally idle at x8.

Wasting my battery.

Thoughts?

Sean

As far as I know, the retail version with its balanced plan throttles the cpu if you don't need it, and unleashes it if you do. I still use the High Performance by force of habit.

Yes, Most edition of Windows throttle the cpu. And I completely understand Speedstep.

My question is why RC isn't going to the lowest multiplier. A bug?

x6 is the minimum, not x8. But it sits on x8 all the time while idle.
Varies up during load (x8,x10,x13,x14) - but settles on x8 again.
Only very brief periods will I see x6.

Even the bloated Vista will pull down to x6 once its finished licking itself.
And stay there until bidden.

Must be a chipset driver issue. High Performance mode seems to just go directly to the highest multiplier until the job is finished, balanced selects any multi available as required, Power Saver only lets it run upto x8. But all modes nearly always ignore x6.

Sean

RC was still buggy and had a ton of monitoring software.

Recommend you clean install to RTM all versions> your choice asap, install key when u can buy it.