Performance issues SF314-56

My problem turned out to be a hardware problem after all, they replaced the motherboard and everything is working fine now. So I'd figure your problem might also be hardware related @Roberto89

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Hi,
Could you please post the model of the SSD, in the meantime, run sfc /scannow command in cmd as Admin, use this command at least 3 times.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/929833/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system

@bram64573 does your model have SSD only, SSD + HDD, HDD + Optane, or HDD only?

My laptop only has only one SSD: Kingston RBUSNS8154P3256GJ1 (256 GB).

I ran the sfc /scannow command 3 times, it returned 'Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations' all three times.

OK, what kind of memory usage are you seeing when the trouble occurs? You can use Task Manager to view that. Also fire up Resource Monitor and verify the disk activity is at 100% when the problem is seen. If you are low on memory it uses swap space on the drive to switch in and out active tasks and that can really slow things down. When you have some applications running in the background (virus scanners are notorious for this) they can also suck up a lot of disk. Either of those will manifest as a slow system. Let us know what you find, we can always dig deeper if neither of those is the culprit.

@billsey I've held taskmanager and resource monitor open while I was working on the laptop and it was being slow. disk activity only peaked to 15% when I was installing a program, the rest of the time it barely exceeded 1%. RAM usage was between 50-70%, processor activity was most of the time between 5 and 15%. It looked a bit as if the processor activity was capped at 22% though, whenever I was doing somewhat more intensive stuff (like opening or installing a program),it stayed at 22% and never exceeded it.

I took another look in resource manager at the maximum frequency of my CPU, its only 22%... I would intuitively say that this should be 100%, right? That would explain a lot...

Hi @bram64573
Your benchmark score looks fine, do you have any third party AV program installed, perhaps a trial version of Norton, McAfee etc?
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Laptop-harddisks-HDD-SSD-benchmarks.22089.0.html?

@brummyfan2 No, I uninstalled those earlier, without any change in performance.

I checked my processor again in task manager, it seems like its locked at .40 GHz. If I google this I find that this is a power related issue in most of the cases. I have resetted my battery, and also tried to start up with the battery unplugged from the motherboard, both without any results. Also, when I look into the advanced power settings, I don't see any setting that is related to capping the processor speed. Any thoughts?

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/kw/b7260txhdxk4.jpg

Hi,
Could you please try a battery reset, after the completion leave the laptop to rest for a while(15-20 Mins), then fully charge the battery before start using it, also try the suggestions in this thread:https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/552809/cpu-stuck-at-0-79-ghz
https://us.answers.acer.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/34843/~/acer-internal-battery-reset

Go into the advanced options for the power plan you are using to see if it has the Intel Dynamic Platform configuration. Check there to see if it's throttling too much when on battery.

brummyfan2 said:

Hi,
Could you please try a battery reset, after the completion leave the laptop to rest for a while(15-20 Mins), then fully charge the battery before start using it, also try the suggestions in this thread:https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/552809/cpu-stuck-at-0-79-ghz
https://us.answers.acer.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/34843/~/acer-internal-battery-reset

I tried the battery reset. Now when the laptop boots, the maximum frequency is 150-200% and the laptop is really fast. After a minute or so, the maximum frequency slows down to 21-22%. I also discovered that if I boot the laptop into safe mode, the maximum frequency of the CPU is fixed at 100%

billsey said:

Go into the advanced options for the power plan you are using to see if it has the Intel Dynamic Platform configuration. Check there to see if it's throttling too much when on battery.

I don't have settings related to Intel Dynamic Platform configuration there. I did check the maximum processor state, it is 100% which should be fine I think.

Hi,
You could try this, it might work or not but worth a try, go to Power options and create a new Power plan.

And just to be sure I was talking about here:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/mc/nbjqg5esd8ol.png

@brummyfan2 That did not change anything, unfortunately.

@billsey Yeah I looked there as well, I don't have those settings. I do have some processor related settings (see screenshot), tried to change them a bit by e.g. setting minimum processor state to 99 and 100%, but without result...

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/9h/o07tu8vc9jpv.png

Donz81

@bram64573 Hi Bram, I had the same problem and I solved it.

the issue is the combination of the firmware version of your laptop and the intelppm.sys, also windows10 and the exe for the firmware update seemly doesn't like each other. Here are the step I've done, but firstly I think is the second part the core of the problem.

hold shift while you reboot your system by start menù

the system will reboot in "solving" mode

choose troubleshooting

choose prompt command

type this command: cd drivers

and then type this command: ren intelppm.sys intel.sys.bak

this will rename the intel power management driver and backup it.

reboot your pc

hold windows key+r to open a run window a type regedit

go to the path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Intelppm

inthe right part of the windows search the key: Start and change the dword32 value in 4

reboot your pc

this will prevent to load the driver and the clock of your cpu will start to stay at the right speed

this will also degrade the respond time of the pc and introduce a lag from what you click and when the windows respond

now we have identified the problem and we solve it with further step

go to control pannel

go to system

go to device manager

check the "firmware" tab and check if it is the latest provided by acer, because if you do the update with the exe provided, it show in the bios the right version, but windows does'nt recognize the update itself and want you to do just another step. I had the 1.14 version installed, but windows, also after e clean installation of windows10 with media creation tool, was showing me the old 1.04 version who come in the laptop previously.

open the firmware tab, right click on the version of the firmware and update the driver.

when windows ask you where he must find the right driver, click on the "inside the pc" button.

now it will show you the right version of the firmware.

open the regedit and reverse the dword value to 3 to reactivate the driver for the cpu.

reboot your machine.

buy me a coffee ^_^

@Donz81 I changed the dword value for the cpu driver to 4, updated my firmware driver to 1.14 (it said I had some old microsoft driver from 2006...), and changed the dword value back to 3, like you said, but the problem is still there

However, If I keep the dword value at 4, the maximum frequency stays at 100%, so that kinda solves my problem... But I don't know if it's a good idea to have that driver disabled...

Donz81

@bram64573 hi, the problem is the same.

i forgot to tell you to rename the intelppm.sys.bak in intelppm.sys at the end of the process, otherwise the system doesn't charge it.

Also do you have driver booster pro from iobit or some software for the driver update? download it and update the driver.

after the firmware update, did you done, the driver update in "device manager"?

it is very important to do it.

Don't you worry, the problem is the same and I solve it with this step.

Roberto89

Hi,
I have an Acer laptop SF314-56 with 12GB memory, 512GB ssd and Intel Core i7-8565U CPU. I'm running into the same problems described by @bram64573. When I turn on my computer, after a few seconds the cpu speed fall down to 0.39GHz (checking in the task manager) and windows become really slow. I tried the procedure suggested by @Donz81 , updated the bios to v1.14 and related firmware drivers (update in "device manager"). I updated all the other drivers (downloading from Acer official list) too but the problem is not fixed yet. Additional info: I have the drivers for "Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework" installed but there is no related setting in my Power Options menu.

Is there anything else I could try before sending the laptop back to Acer?
Help me please! This is driving me crazy.