[AMILO La1703] stuck at 800MHz on battery

[tommygun]

I have a Fujitsu-Siemens Laptop Amilo La1703 with a Turion 64 MK-38 cpu (2.2GHz) on a via chipset.
The Bios does not have any CnQ options etc. It has very limited options there.
But that doesn't seem to be the problem.

It came with Vista Home.

When I plug it in, CnQ runs as expected. 800MHz when idle, goes to 2200MHz when I run sth.
But when I unplug it and run on battery, it is stuck at 800MHz, and nothing can make it go any faster.

I upgraded the BIOS from 7.0 to 8.2 but nothing.

I installed winXP SP2 Pro to test it, but it is the same.
I used AMD XP driver 1.3.2.0 and 1.3.2.0053 , nothing.
I have changed all power schemes in both OS but it is always the same.

I use SuperPi as a cpu intensive task and cpu-z to monitor the cpu speed.

I plug & unplug the power cord during SuperPi calculation and it goes like this all the time.
800MHz on battery, jumps to 2200 when I plug it, drops to 800 when I unplug it.
(and if SuperPi is finished while plugged in, it goes back to 800MHz, so CnQ works when pluged in)


The notebook is 5 months old, it was rarely used during this time, and I didn't notice this earlier, maybe because I didn't have to do a cpu intensive task on battery, or maybe the problem wasn't there before, I can't say for sure.


Any ideas?

[ahuramazda]

Try to change windows power scheme. Normally it is adjusted to portable/laptop power scheme and this reduces the cpu frequency when using battery, so if you change it with home/office desk, the cpu frequency does not change even if you use your laptop with battery or AC-Line, but this decreases the battery life dramatically!

[tommygun]

sorry , maybe you didn't notice it, I did that

I have changed all power schemes in both OS but it is always the same.

Actually, I even installed a utility "Notebook hardware control"
but still it cannot make the cpu do what it is supposed to do while on battery.

only when I plug in the power cord, it "awakes" and goes to 2200

[Trudl]

Hello,

do you have an option called "Long Battery Life Mode" in the

BIOS/Power Screen? Switch ist to disabled.

If not, it is a limitation to save battery power.

Cheers

[tommygun]

no there is no such option in BIOS

Another member sent me a PM, that his 1703 goes from 800-1600MHz when on battery, so it is not a general limitation for the 1703 model.
Who would have bought it anyway, if it was designed to be that way?

I guess I have to take it back and claim a replacement.

[rikmos]

I have the same problem with the same model. Don't know how to tell what it's running at, but it's a hell of a lot slower on battery!

[ChrisChris]

Hi,
Same issue on a Pa1538 (AMD Turion64X2) running XP.
No way to configure it using the "power schemes", this is a limitation (either in the ACPI driver or in the BIOS). You can confirm this using SiSoft Sandra which will report that the frequency range is "50%-50%" under battery where it is "50%-100%" on AC.
Maybe this is something tweakable (registry ?), but I never found the solution.
Cheap design, many problems ... poor customer support. Never again !
Good luck !

[tommygun]

I managed to alter cpu frequency when using battery, with this software

http://cpu.rightmark.org/download.shtml

I might try reinstalling the OS to see if it happens again

For now I am content that there is a software fix (if I happen to need the extra MHz) and not a hardware limitation.