Solved Cool'and'Quiet, How can I tell if it is working?

[dustywoodworker]

I have Cool'and'Quiet installed but I no longer have the monitor tools on my desk top.

I think that Cool'and'Quiet is working because I see the rpms and temperature changing in the bios.

Windows 7 boots fine and operates with no apparent problems UNLESS I enable Cool'and'Quiet in the bios.

When I do that, Windows starts up but freezes on the Windows Flag page.

Once that happens, I have to power down and upon start up go into the bios to disable Cool'and'Quiet.

Two questions then:

Why no Cool'and'Quiet tools on the desktop? and

Why does Enabling Cool'and'Quiet freeze Windows 7x32 Startup.

 

[Mashed1316]

Hello there, dww!

Well, you could check on the BIOS and you'll find if it's enabled or disabled, another way to check that out is to use CPU-Z on a idle state (don't do anything besides having the CPU-Z window open) and under Clocks, see if the core clock matches your actual processor speed.

IE: if your processor is an Athlon II X4 640, your core clock should be 3.0GHz, but with cool 'n' quiet enabled, in an idle state, the processor underclocks itself to save power.

This means that if you have CnC enabled, the processor's core clock could (could)! be 800MHz.

 

[SledgeDG]

I don't know about special gadgets for that (never bothered to look because I don't need that)
But my Cool and Quiet (you mean the option for AMD-chips, right?) is enabled since day 1 and never caused a problem.
To check if it really works you could use Core Temp Core Temp (and see the temperature change in the tray..I recall there were desktop gadgets that show those temps too...a kind of indirect way of checking if C&Q works

And with SIV SIV - System Information Viewer you can see if the CPU Frequency changes with different loads (when idle the CPU gets tacted down to keep it cool(er))

Now that punkster mentions it...CPU-Z http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html is an excellent tool for that too !
-DG

 

[stormy13]

What is installed? You shouldn't need to install anything for it to work in Windows 7, as 7 supports CnQ natively, just need to enable it in the bios.

As for seeing if it is working you can use this,

CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

to see if the CPU speed is going up and down as it should.

 

[dustywoodworker]

What is installed? You shouldn't need to install anything for it to work in Windows 7, as 7 supports CnQ natively, just need to enable it in the bios.

As for seeing if it is working you can use this,

CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

to see if the CPU speed is going up and down as it should.

Then, if CnQ is native to Windows 7, I may have a problem worse than I thought. If I have Cool'and'Quiet enabled (in the bios), my computer freezes at the
Starting Windows (Windows Flag) page. To recover, I must restart and disable Cool'and'Quite in the bios.

Are there any other settings within the bios can can jointly effect the operation of CnQ.

Recall, I changed from XP (where CnQ was visible on the desktop) to Windows 7 and while doing so I reset the bios (without taking note of the settings). Now I have the stated problem.

 

[dustywoodworker]

Using CPU-Z, I can see that my Core Speed is 2.780GHz (varies slightly). Someone said it should be 300GHz so it appears that it has been throttled down.

Is that because of the temperature?

PS: Just noticed in CPU-Z that the multiplier is x12. When idle, is that high?

Sorry for the dump questions but I am not well schooled on this high tech stuff. Please bare with me.

A sidebar question here: Are CPU-Z and CPUID one in the same or am I missing something?

 

[GEWB]

A sidebar question here: Are CPU-Z and CPUID one in the same or am I missing something?

CPU-Z is the application based on the CPUID Software Development Kit.

Regards,
GEWB

 

[dustywoodworker]

A sidebar question here: Are CPU-Z and CPUID one in the same or am I missing something?

CPU-Z is the application based on the CPUID Software Development Kit.

Regards,
GEWB

Thanks. Appreciate the quick response.

 

[GEWB]

Using CPU-Z, I can see that my Core Speed is 2.780GHz (varies slightly). Someone said it should be 300GHz so it appears that it has been throttled down.

Which Athlon 64FX do you have (there was more than one)?

CPU-Z gives core speed in MHz so it sounds like yours is 2780MHz which is 2.78GHz. That would be slightly "up" for the 2.6GHz version or slightly "down" for the 3.0GHz version.

Can you post a screen shot of the CPU tab in CPU-Z?

Regards,
GEWB

 

[GEWB]

Ah ha - do you have the Athlon 64 FX-57? If so, it is running at 2.8GHz so 2.78GHz would be correct.

Regards,
GEWB

 

[dustywoodworker]

Ah ha - do you have the Athlon 64 FX-57? If so, it is running at 2.8GHz so 2.78GHz would be correct.

Regards,
GEWB

I have the Athlon 64 FX-62. Googling that I gather that it too operates at 2.8Ghz.

I think so:



Should have cropped it huh?

 

[GEWB]

Those numbers look fine for that chip. You could also try multiplier of 14 and bus of 200 (or see if the 232 bus will work with x14).

The speed will fluctuate a bit up/down which is normal.

Side bar: looks like you are in the Mountain time zone - what state/province?

Regards,
GEWB

 

[dustywoodworker]

Those numbers look fine for that chip. You could also try multiplier of 14 and bus of 200 (or see if the 232 bus will work with x14).

The speed will fluctuate a bit up/down which is normal.

Side bar: looks like you are in the Mountain time zone - what state/province?

Regards,
GEWB

Okay, now I gotta take a guess. The multiplier must be a variable that I can select in the bios. Furthermore, since I am not a power user, maybe I don't really need some of the capabilities of this machine and therefore may now even need Cool'and'Quiet to be enabled.

Please warn me if I am wrong. Especially if I am wrong.

As for my location - Tucson, AZ.

 

[GEWB]

Okay, now I gotta take a guess. The multiplier must be a variable that I can select in the bios. Furthermore, since I am not a power user, maybe I don't really need some of the capabilities of this machine and therefore may now even need Cool'and'Quiet to be enabled.

Please warn me if I am wrong. Especially if I am wrong.

As for my location - Tucson, AZ.

Your guess is correct - it's called overclocking. Your chip can overclock a bit but not much. Not being a power user, you can leave the settings as-is.

However, I don't know what speed RAM you have. If it is DDR2-800 (PC2 6400), setting the multiplier to x14 and bus to 200 will optimize the RAM timing. This is done in the BIOS.

Cool and Quiet is used to throttle down the processor during light load thus reducing electrical demand and lowering temps. On demand the speed ramps up to max.

Regards,
GEWB

 

[dustywoodworker]

A little research and I think I answered my own question here. But I still have a question. Since heat is a potential problem, rather than speed up the processor, can I slow it down and as a result lower the CPU temperatures?

 

[stormy13]

You could also try multiplier of 14 and bus of 200

Which are also the default values for the FX-62,

techPowerUp! :: CPU Database : AMD Athlon 64 FX-62

Wouldn't happen to have any of the auto overclocking features in the bios (of which there are a few) enabled would you? Also what bios version are you running on the board? The Mainboard tab in CPUz should show it. Reason for asking is Asus has a beta bios listed for that board that has a fix for Cool and Quiet,

M2N32-SLI Deluxe BIOS 2209
Fix the CPU multiplier cannot be changed when Cool&Quiet is enabled.
File Size 762,33 (KBytes) 2009.09.21 update

 

[dustywoodworker]

Okay, now I gotta take a guess. The multiplier must be a variable that I can select in the bios. Furthermore, since I am not a power user, maybe I don't really need some of the capabilities of this machine and therefore may now even need Cool'and'Quiet to be enabled.

Please warn me if I am wrong. Especially if I am wrong.

As for my location - Tucson, AZ.

Your guess is correct - it's called overclocking. Your chip can overclock a bit but not much. Not being a power user, you can leave the settings as-is.

However, I don't know what speed RAM you have. If it is DDR-800 (PC2 6400), setting the multiplier to x14 and bus to 200 will optimize the RAM timing. This is done in the BIOS.

Cool and Quiet is used to throttle down the processor during light load thus reducing electrical demand and lowering temps. On demand the speed ramps up to max.

Regards,
GEWB

My ram is currently 3G of Corsair CM2X1024-8500C5. I had a memory failure and lost one stick. Frankly, I don't notice any difference in performance at all.

 

[GEWB]

A little research and I think I answered my own question here. But I still have a question. Since heat is a potential problem, rather than speed up the processor, can I slow it down and as a result lower the CPU temperatures?

Sure, but why bother? See Stormy's reply regarding the BIOS version. Let C'n'C do the controlling.

(Nice RAM, DDR2-1066, can run at 266.)

Regards,
GEWB

 

[dustywoodworker]

You could also try multiplier of 14 and bus of 200

Which are also the default values for the FX-62,

techPowerUp! :: CPU Database : AMD Athlon 64 FX-62

Wouldn't happen to have any of the auto overclocking features in the bios (of which there are a few) enabled would you? Also what bios version are you running on the board? The Mainboard tab in CPUz should show it. Reason for asking is Asus has a beta bios listed for that board that has a fix for Cool and Quiet,

M2N32-SLI Deluxe BIOS 2209
Fix the CPU multiplier cannot be changed when Cool&Quiet is enabled.
File Size 762,33 (KBytes) 2009.09.21 update

I am getting more information here than I can absorb let alone fully understand.

I'll have to look at the bios to answer your question about overclocking features but this may shed some light.


.

 

[GEWB]

OK, that's the last BIOS update. Check in your BIOS to be sure C-n-C is enabled.

Regards,
GEWB