Problem: CPU will not run at proper frequency, ever. It runs at 600Mhz when laptop has a 1.6Ghz Pentium M.

Hardware: Dell D600 Latitude, 1.6Ghz Pentium M, 1GB RAM

Linux version: OpenSuse 10.0 (with upgraded KDE to 3.5.2)

I put the the powersave mode into performance to see if I could force an increase, but it doesn't have any affect. Also, I ran alot of processor intensive apps and it didn't bump up the speed at all. Here is some output from files.

linux:/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq # cat scaling_governor
performance
cat scaling_max_freq
600000
cat scaling_min_freq
600000
cat scaling_cur_freq
600000
cat cpuinfo_max_freq
1600000
cat cpuinfo_min_freq
600000
cat scaling_available_frequencies
1600000 1600000 1600000 1400000 1200000 1000000 800000 600000
cat scaling_available_governors
ondemand powersave userspace performance

cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 0.3: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004
Report errors and bugs to linux@brodo.de, please.
analyzing CPU 0:
driver: centrino
CPUs which need to switch frequency at the same time: 0
hardware limits: 600 MHz - 1.60 GHz
available frequency steps: 1.60 GHz, 1.60 GHz, 1.60 GHz, 1.40 GHz, 1.20 GHz, 1000 MHz, 800 MHz, 600 MHz
available cpufreq governors: ondemand, powersave, userspace, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 600 MHz and 600 MHz.
The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 600 MHz (asserted by call to hardware).


cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 9
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1600MHz
stepping : 5
cpu MHz : 600.000
cache size : 1024 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 2
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 tm pbe est tm2
bogomips : 1197.62


I have looked around, and haven't been able to find any info regarding fixing this, so I imagine it is something obvious that I am missing. I am not sure if there is some way to adjust the max scaling for the cpu or what. I tried a cpufreq-set -f 1600000, but that didn't return any error, nor did it change the proccessor speed. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

they are both to same and thats why it won't increase your clock speed.

try echo 1600000 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq

First of all thanks for responding, I appreciate the help.

I thought I tried that, but I just ran it to make sure and it doesn't fix the problem. When I ran the command you said, it doesn't give back any errors, but it also doesn't change the cpu freq in that file. Just an FYI, here is the directory listing where that file is. It says root has rw, but it doesn't change the file.

linux:/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq # ll
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Apr 6 15:23 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 0 Apr 6 15:23 ..
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Apr 6 15:23 affected_cpus
-r-------- 1 root root 4096 Apr 6 15:23 cpuinfo_cur_freq
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Apr 6 15:23 cpuinfo_max_freq
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Apr 6 15:23 cpuinfo_min_freq
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Apr 6 15:23 scaling_available_frequencies
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Apr 6 15:23 scaling_available_governors
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Apr 6 15:23 scaling_cur_freq
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Apr 6 15:23 scaling_driver
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 6 15:23 scaling_governor
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 6 15:29 scaling_max_freq
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Apr 6 15:23 scaling_min_freq
linux:/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq # cat scaling_max_freq
600000

Any other thoughts?

from what i've been reading so far about frequency scaling, that command should have fixed it, but i read somewhere else about it not working if you have symmetric multi processing support enabled.

Well, I did recompile my kernel (before starting this thread) and I am pretty sure I didn't set any SMP modules to compile, but I did an lsmod, and got this. Which doesn't look like there is any SMP anything running.

linux:/home/mike/Desktop/linux-2.6.16 # lsmod
Module Size Used by
cpufreq_ondemand 5788 0
cpufreq_powersave 1920 0
cpufreq_userspace 3988 0
speedstep_centrino 6968 1
freq_table 4484 1 speedstep_centrino
snd_pcm_oss 50976 0
snd_mixer_oss 16512 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq 47820 0
button 6544 0
snd_seq_device 8588 1 snd_seq
battery 9348 0
ac 4868 0
radeon 96160 1
drm 61332 2 radeon
sg 30748 0
sd_mod 16528 0
af_packet 19592 2
edd 8800 0
pcmcia 34748 0
firmware_class 9728 1 pcmcia
usb_storage 62272 0
scsi_mod 121804 3 sg,sd_mod,usb_storage
usbhid 39648 0
yenta_socket 23820 4
rsrc_nonstatic 12288 1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core 37264 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
snd_intel8x0 30108 1
snd_ac97_codec 84384 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_ac97_bus 2304 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm 81416 3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer 21892 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd 50816 10 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 8800 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 10376 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
tg3 89092 0
i8xx_tco 7060 0
generic 4484 0 [permanent]
uhci_hcd 27280 0
shpchp 39360 0
pci_hotplug 24244 1 shpchp
intel_agp 21148 1
ehci_hcd 27016 0
usbcore 108960 5 usb_storage,usbhid,uhci_hcd,ehci_hcd
agpgart 29404 2 drm,intel_agp
parport_pc 35312 1
lp 10688 0
parport 32200 2 parport_pc,lp
dm_mod 47540 0
reiserfs 214000 2
fan 4740 0
thermal 13064 0
ide_cd 35616 0
cdrom 32304 1 ide_cd
processor 21568 2 speedstep_centrino,thermal
piix 9220 0 [permanent]
ide_disk 14848 4
ide_core 112944 5 usb_storage,generic,ide_cd,piix,ide_disk


There are the cpufreq modules seem to be running, but I was curious why it has a centrino speedstep module running, considering I have a Pentium M. This is probably normal, but I figured I'd bring it up.
Also here is some info from the kernel I compiled:

linux:/home/mike/Desktop/linux-2.6.16 # cat .config | grep CPU
CONFIG_X86_CPUID=m
CONFIG_SPLIT_PTLOCK_CPUS=4
# CONFIG_APM_CPU_IDLE is not set
# CPU Frequency scaling
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ=y
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_TABLE=m
# CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_STAT=m
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_STAT_DETAILS=y
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_PERFORMANCE=y
# CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_USERSPACE is not set
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_PERFORMANCE=y
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_POWERSAVE=m
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_USERSPACE=m
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_ONDEMAND=m
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_CONSERVATIVE=m
# CPUFreq processor drivers
CONFIG_X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ=m
# CONFIG_X86_CPUFREQ_NFORCE2 is not set
# CONFIG_X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ_PROC_INTF is not set
# CONFIG_NET_SCH_CLK_CPU is not set
CONFIG_CPU5_WDT=m

Thanks again.

Another thought I had... I keep seeing things online about a cpu freq kernel patch related to "suspend" and stuff like that. Non of those posts reference scaling not working properly, but I figured it may have something to do with it. But in that case, I am not sure which patch I am supposed to use. Hopefully this sparks a thought for someone out there. Thanks.

Of all the things on my Latitude D610, this is the only one that still eludes me. I've tried a dozen kernel recompiles with this module flagged, that module not. I resolved to finally simply build the CPU throttling into my kernel, but when I need performance from my laptop, I disable ACPI at the LILO prompt. I lose my battery status in the process, but at least I can run at a full 2 Ghz as advertised.

after 2 years of owning the inspiron 600m and having this problem, i was so excited to see this thread. I have gone through MANY kernel versions and compilations over the past yeat, currently i am using:
Linux sputnik 2.6.15-gentoo-r1 #4 PREEMPT Sun Jan 29 22:51:32 PST 2006 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 2.00GHz GNU/Linux

The problem seems to come and go, and I am pretty convinced now it has to do with heat. I have noticed after running the temperature applet, it seems to switch to this mode when the temperature of my notebook reaches over 70 degrees (which i believe is still normal operating tempreature). I have noticed that this happens much more when my notebook is docked (with screen closed), which also makes sense since it runs hotter.

I don't spend much time in the XP partition, but i feel that it has never happened there - which makes this confusing. Also what is also confusing is the output of cpufreq-info. Why does it say that both the hardware limits and available frequencies go up to 2 GHz , but the policy is 'current policy: frequency should be within 600 MHz and 600 MHz.'. WHich makes it seem more of a module issue... running cpufreq-set with varying options does not usually change the policy, but does change the governor.

Eventually when the teperature falls to 40 degrees, after a few times of running cpufreq-set, i can normally set the policy back to 2GHz after that.

This seems to also happen is spurts, sometimes there is a week when it just happens every hour, and other time it doesn't show up for months... with the same kernel. Lately its been driving me up the wall again (I am doing a lot of compilations, so the machine does get a workout - and hot).

Other than this issue, my machine works well, and if i could gett this resolved I would continue using it for another 2 years, but as it is I should probably buy the new mac book pro, and stop my life of spending late nights fussing with the kernel, acpi settings, and now DBUS fun - and concentrate on my paying work instead.

i feel much better now having vented to a community of people sufferring from the same problem.

-romych

if you disable frequency scaling, you will loose battery life and your fan will be on more often, but it will make the problem go away.

So I recompiled my kernel with speedstep-centrino as a module. Even if I do not insert the module the computer eventually drops to 600MHz. The interesting thing is that now /proc/cpuinfo says 2GHz, but it runs considerably slower. When loading the speedstep-centrino module I can run cpufreq-info and see there that it is indeed 600MHz....

When I recompiled my kernel last time, I disabled the entire section on CPU scaling, and it did not seem to change anything (as far as speed goes) Obviously I couldn't get all the cpu scaling info then, but cpufreq-info still said I was at 600MHz.

Right now I am running a kernel with cpu freq scaling and the speedstep centrino as a module (which loads automatically) but I still cannot find any flippin way to get any change in cpu frequency whatsoever.

hi guys, i just ran kill -sugusr1 against the cpuspeed deamon process and that puts the cpu upto max speed

I tried that command
kill -sugusr1
but I get
-bash: kill: sugusr1: invalid signal specification

I looked for a cpuspeed process "ps aux | grep cpu" but nothing apears to be there. I am thinking I am doing something really dumb, so anyone please prove me right if you have the answer.

Mike sorry about that, a slight typo, it should be siguser1 I would check that you have the cpuspeed utils mentioned earlier in the thread installed.

regards Graham

Try also "powersaved" which gives me good results for frequency scaling and suspend to RAM on a Inspiron 510m...