NO MORE THROTTLE OR FANS surface pro 3/4

[PaddiWaddi]

Thanks for the tip. I used this and also the "m3/fanless" energy setting from the heat issue thread and my surface(i7) runs so much cooler and quieter now. Especially battery life is so much better!

 

[TheCudder]

I've been running my SP4 with these settings for the past week and the fan has only come on maybe twice. The device remains pleasantly cool. I went ahead and created a custom "Tablet Mode" power theme with these processor settings.

 

[Tom Campbell2]

I applied these setting to my Surface Pro 4 I7 16GB 256 and it cause a BSOD on start up. The only way I found to fix the issue was to reset my machine.

I though it might have been something else I did, but then when I applied it a second time I got the same BSOD.

I am running Windows Insider Build 11082, so it's very possible that might have something to do with it.

But I will not be attempting this again.

 

[Geo Hutchings]

Thank you for creating this thread, for now it gives good indications that it will help me save a lot of battery.

I just have one question about your settings: If you are setting the minimum processor state on 50% and 35%, doesn't that mean you are making your processor run more than it should? My confusion comes from the fact that by default the minimum percentage on both is 5%. It would make more sense to change only the maximum processor state.

I find 5% to slow, at times and I like to keeps things from jumping about to much, if you look at my cpu when rendering ect its flat not randomly spiking up and down, personal preference

Thanks for the tip. I used this and also the "m3/fanless" energy setting from the heat issue thread and my surface(i7) runs so much cooler and quieter now. Especially battery life is so much better!

Glad to hear

I've been running my SP4 with these settings for the past week and the fan has only come on maybe twice. The device remains pleasantly cool. I went ahead and created a custom "Tablet Mode" power theme with these processor settings.

View attachment 119937

Sweet man that's great do you hear the fan more so when plugged in.. as that's what I find, its why I drop mine a lot lower

Ps thought about doing the same XD but to lazy to custom make/rename one

I applied these setting to my Surface Pro 4 I7 16GB 256 and it cause a BSOD on start up. The only way I found to fix the issue was to reset my machine.

I though it might have been something else I did, but then when I applied it a second time I got the same BSOD.

I am running Windows Insider Build 11082, so it's very possible that might have something to do with it.

But I will not be attempting this again.

I recommend reformatting/refreshing... as it should not do that and don't update to Windows Insider Build 11082 on a machine like that, you can but I highly suggest you don't

That's definitely a good trick to get a silent, cold, powerful "tablet", that can be unleashed at any time...
In order to play 5+ years old games, fanless, I'm also using the following tricks :
- Custom resolutions (reg files)
- Frame per second limiter to 30 fps (I'm using dxtory)

For instance with a SP4 i7, I'm able to play "The Witcher", the first one, at 1728x1152 (roughly equivalent to 1080p), high quality settings in the game, limiting at 30 fps, with the fan stopped.

Using a soft like Dxtory just to limit the fps is a bit strange, if someone knows another way, I'm interested...

Fanless gaming all the way it annoys me that ms does not have power option right out of the box

 

[Valeri Nikolov]

Thank you for your reply.

Just one more question: do you notice your battery life dropping when you keep the processor at a minimum of 50%? I'd imagine it has a negative effect.

 

[Geo Hutchings]

Thank you for your reply.

Just one more question: do you notice your battery life dropping when you keep the processor at a minimum of 50%? I'd imagine it has a negative effect.

Not really.. nothing I can tell mind I only ever get 4-5 hours because I am always under heavy work load, but I am never really away from a power source no matter where I go

 

[Davidz]

This works. You can even change back the registry setting to get the sleep-state back, and still use power schemes created with reduced cpu settings.

What do you mean by "get the sleep-state back?" Do these setting changes eliminate the sleep-state somehow?

 

[ajay singh supahiya]

Thanks for the fix mate. I am using 'power saver plan' with max processor state set to 70% when on battery, on my i7 256 gb pro 4 and I don't hear fan that often now. My only confusion is I hope I am not damaging my CPU by not cooling it down more oftenly.

 

[snakebitten]

Thanks for the fix mate. I am using 'power saver plan' with max processor state set to 70% when on battery, on my i7 256 gb pro 4 and I don't hear fan that often now. My only confusion is I hope I am not damaging my CPU by not cooling it down more oftenly.

I wouldn't know if your concern is valid, but if it were, your Surface Pro would get noticeably warmer than a properly cooled one would. Right? Maybe even alarmingly warm. So fortunately, it wouldn't go unnoticed.

 

[onlysublime]

People are misunderstanding what is happening here. You are not preventing cooling.

Every CPU has a certain range of frequencies that they can run at. What separates an i5 from an i7 (only considering the CPU for this example) is an i7 can run at higher frequencies. Now, when you throttle the CPU, you are limiting how fast it can go. The higher the frequency, the faster it runs and the hotter it gets. If you limit how high the frequency can go, you limit how much heat can be produced and thus how much cooling you need.

So imagine a car with a gas pedal. You push the gas pedal to 900 MHz and you have the max M3 speed. Press the pedal down further to 3 GHz and you have the max i5 speed. Press the pedal further to 3.4 GHz and you have the i7 speed. But if you cap the pedal at 3 GHz on the i7, you produce the same amount of heat as the i5. Cap the i7 at 900 MHz and the i7 will produce the same amount of heat as the M3. The i7 can run at so many frequencies compared to the other CPUs.

CPUs don't automatically run at max frequency (unless of course you set your CPU to run that way). They are designed to scale according to need. But if a program wants more CPU speed and the CPU has the ability to give that extra speed, the CPU will certainly give it. And if it gives extra speed, it will generate more heat and thus the fan kicks in to keep it cool.

The intent of the throttle is to prevent the CPU from giving that extra speed unnecessarily. LIke why give max speed when playing a video?

An M3 is capped at 4.5W. No matter how hard you push it, you can only get 4.5 W and thus are limited to 900 MHz. An i5 or i7 goes up to 15 W. That's how you get speeds up to 3 GHz or 3.4 GHz. If you floor the gas, you'll get the speed but you'll also run out of battery sooner and generate more heat and more fan running. But if you baby the gas on the i7, you will get M3-like behavior.

 

[Steveborough]

I hate reading, limit your i7 to m3 speeds if you want it to run cool. Staying with your car analogy, supercars of old all needed special training and committed intense driving to go from point A to B. Supercars of today have been engineered to also be mild daily commuters with power on tap if you need it; automatically shutting down cylinders and adjusting the ride comfort for you when its not necessary. My SP4-i7 supercar, does none of this for you if its overheating on youtube. Skylake is supposed to be the most efficient processor Intel has produced, able to speedstep with ease and sip power when doing mundane tasks. Moreover, I have kodi running on a raspberry pi and is no less responsive than my instance on my SP4-i7, the only difference is my i7 is running full-bore to accomplish the same thing. Something is wrong!

 

[Geo Hutchings]

I hate reading, limit your i7 to m3 speeds if you want it to run cool. Staying with your car analogy, supercars of old all needed special training and committed intense driving to go from point A to B. Supercars of today have been engineered to also be mild daily commuters with power on tap if you need it; automatically shutting down cylinders and adjusting the ride comfort for you when its not necessary. My SP4-i7 supercar, does none of this for you if its overheating on youtube. Skylake is supposed to be the most efficient processor Intel has produced, able to speedstep with ease and sip power when doing mundane tasks. Moreover, I have kodi running on a raspberry pi and is no less responsive than my instance on my SP4-i7, the only difference is my i7 is running full-bore to accomplish the same thing. Something is wrong!

Its called bad coding, might be fixed later might not be.. but right now its not able to tell the processor to only use this much process% so we take matters in to our own hands and tell it to only go to 65% 70% 90% ect but never 100% unless we need it, see the thing is even if egde/chrome is only using 10% processing the process with give it all the 2.5ghz for that 10% which makes no sense.. so we have to tell it only to give 1.6ghz or 1.9ghz or 2.0ghz and something people are in hot rooms or summer time, the computer does not know when its a hot day, so this gives us a way to cool it down

 

[snakebitten]

Car analogies are my favorite! If used well, they make things so much clearer to me. And I think you have done an admiral job with this analogy. Thanks!

Having said that, for those that are disappointed that this is even necessary, it actually doesn't surprise me. The enormous amount of code that would be needed to make all these systems and subsystems to absolutely leverage each other perfectly takes more time to produce than the modern design-to-production cycle will allow. We could argue that "they" should slow things down, but we are the actual problem. (Even if we don't want to admit it) Consumer demand these days is really consumer DEMAND! And ironically, it results (naturally, in my opinion) in consumer complaints.

Regardless, the time that wasn't taken before the production cycle is now the time that IS available in the "support" cycle. Not making excuses for anybody. But the brand new 6th generation Skylake processor has not been leveraged yet. The potential advantages of this processor aren't actually tapped. Every time we have an OS update, driver update, or firmware update, we are getting those lines of code that weren't written pre-production.

This really nice thread and it's workaround is valid. Hopefully it is a temporary need, of course. To further your automobile analogy, we edited the registry and made some changes that result in converting things that are intended to be "automatic" into "standard". I don't mind driving a standard if it works better than the automatic. But maybe someday soon we can convert it back to automatic and have it all work perfectly fine.

 

[ajay singh supahiya]

Also doesn't Gpu need cooling as well? I am mostly using my surface 4 i7 for animation and graphic intensive work. Am I effecting/damaging Gpu in any ways, as now fans are not triggering that often?

 

[snakebitten]

Also doesn't Gpu need cooling as well? I am mostly using my surface 4 i7 for animation and graphic intensive work. Am I effecting/damaging Gpu in any ways, as now fans are not triggering that often?

I think you are skipping over some of this thread. It is being established that these changes are not turning off your fan. (car analogy....the thermostat is not being removed or tampered with)

If the fan needs to come on, it still should come on.

 

[dirtyvu]

Fans are a function of heat. They will kick in when too much heat. We can't control the temp sensor. We cam force the fans to turn on at a higher temp but this thread doesn't do that.

 

[ajay singh supahiya]

Thanks for clearing my doubt. Still with these settings I am getting 4-5 hours max. I hope next update will improve it to some level at least.

 

[snakebitten]

Well, I WILL sound like an apologist when I say this.............
When I hold a Surface Pro 4 in my hand and just examine it, not "using it", and flip it around and mull over what it actually is..........
I don't get it. I grew up with Black & White TV. (early on) So maybe I'm just easier to stun with these amazing devices that they keep inventing while I'm asleep. But to me, the fact that a Surface Pro 4 can actually even do what it does without a cord plugged into the wall? Where is that amazing screen and that billions-per-second-instructions processor getting its power? The thing is so THIN.

I can't believe the thing runs for 2 hours without an external power source. Again, we live in science fiction times.

 

[Steveborough]

My main concern is why is there heat when this is what I'm doing:
Ordering food on delivery.com, nothing else in the background, have modified host file, and the fan is on full!

 

[Onduril]

To keep using the car analogy, the issue we get is that WE are not controlling the accelerator. The applications are doing it, and as we are not the developpers, we need a way to get better control on the applications.
I think that to do that, we need a better OS. An OS that does not a priori trust the applications to access wisely to the power resource, notably the CPU/GPU.
Android and iOS are probably better on the subject, doing stuff automatically, but I think that as we bought an "hybrid", not an iPad, Microsoft should give us more control, not just try to imitates the others.

- I would like to be able to limit applications to not using more than x% of the cpu
- I would like to limit frames per seconds in graphic applications (like games)
- I would like to choose which application is still running in standby mode

And probably more, without running external applications, editing registry, or all these kind of hacks...

Microsoft, please, give US the POWER ! :devil: