Problem with Speed Stepping in WinXP

I have been a long time lurker on these forums and have come across an issue that I haven't quite seen solved anywhere else, unfortunately...

I've managed to get a lot done to make my Linpus install much easier to deal with thanks to the tips on these forums, so thank you all for the help even though you weren't responding to my requests for it. What you have posted helped a lot.

Because the netbook isn't my primary system, I've been having fun imaging (using PING: PartImage Is Not Ghost) my configured Linpus setup so I can try other operating systems without having to redo all of the work I put into Linpus. My fav so far is certainly Haiku, despite its incomplete support for the netbook... I'm hoping once it hits Alpha or Beta that it will support netbooks better.

I've tried to use WinXp as it runs more of the apps I need from time to time, but I end up going back to Linpus so often because it's quicker and everything works better.

The issue I had in WinXP that caused me to not be able to keep it is the lack of CPU Speed Stepping support. Most systems require a driver for WinXP before the CPU will also scale the speeds according to demand. When I installed WinXP and loaded up all the drivers, I noticed that the CPU clock always remains at 1.6Ghz regardless of what setting I have in NoteBook Hardware Control or Speedswitch XP.. Whether it's dynamic switching or max battery.

I've been looking around for a while hoping to find an Intel Driver for the CPU itself, but no luck.

Has anyone, who did not get an Aspire One with WinXP preinstalled, been able to get dynamic CPU speed stepping to work? I'm using WinXP professional here, though version really shouldn't make a difference as my main system is still able to scale the CPU speeds and it's running Home.

Much appreciated, as I'd like to get the maximum amount of battery life out of the new 9cell I got for when I'm out and need to use WinXP for a job.

 

SpeedStep should be working fine after you install the Chipset drivers provided for your AAO.
Check also the power options in the windows XP control panel. it needs to be set to laptop to take advantage of SpeedStep.
If you have installed other software (speedswitch, NHC etc..) I suggest you uninstall them until SpeedStep is working. Once its ok, then if you really feel the need for it, install them again..

 

The power options done within XP Control Panel or with a third party utility that allows you to specifically set the type of CPU behaviour are with the same result. The unit was set to Laptop within XP Control Panel and the third party app (Notebook Hardware Control) had to been set to Dynamic Switching. Toggling the settings and returning them to speed stepping triggered options (Laptop in Control Panel) made no difference.

Intel Chipset Drivers do not contain CPU drivers as the CPU is not part of the chipset. The chipset is responsible for IDE/SATA, PCI, PCIe, and USB support. There are no drivers within the Intel Chipset Drivers package that has anything to do with the CPU itself.

Notebook Hardware Control and Speedswitch were both removed. I set the power profile to Laptop within Control Panel. Using CPU-id/CPUZ, I was able to see that the CPU speed remained fixed at 1.6ghz.

The problem, quite frankly, is the lack of an actual CPU driver. I have a specific driver for my Asus laptop here where, until that driver is installed, CPU speedstepping for the Core2Duo CPU is not supported. It remains a fixed speed until it is installed.

The same was true for my previous laptop, a Compaq with an Athlon64 CPU inside of it. Both laptops (the one I had before and the one I have now) used WinXP Professional or Home.

My roommate's desktop which I built for him, an AMD64 x2 setup, also required a driver to be installed before Cool 'n Quiet (AMD's version of Speed Step) was active.

and before that... AMD Athlon XP 2600+ box. Also needed a CPU driver to get WinXP to dynamically step the CPU according to load.

Doing a google search, I was able to find a press release stating that Microsoft's Windows Embedded Standard 2009 will incorporate Intel's Atom CPU drivers into its release build. Windows Embedded is currently based on Windows XP.

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2 ... om-cpu.ars

The problem seems to me is the lack of an actual downloadable driver package for the Intel Atom CPU to be provided to anyone who did not buy WindowsXP with a unit that has an Atom CPU in it.

 

Sorry, based on my own experiences with 3 different AA1s, I disagree.

Using the "Portable/Laptop" power management profile I can see that demand driven CPU frequency scaling is working fine. 800MHz at idle and 1.6GHz when the CPU is fully loaded. I am also pretty certain that some of the intermediate frequencies are being used when the CPU is partially loaded.

I am using a Windows XP Home SP2 installation image with SP3 slipstreamed in. I then downloaded and installed the Intel Chipset drivers from the Acer Europe support site.

 

What program are you using to view your current CPU speed as it switches between the various throttle steps?

 

Coretemp 0.99.

 

And I disagree as well.
If what you stated was true none of the AAO would actually dynamically change their frequency, which is obviously not the case. The chipset drivers contain drivers for the chipset itself, including the power management features that turn on/off speedstep. 3rd party apps can interfere with speedstep default behavior, which is why I suggested to uninstall them.
But sure, if you can find an Atom driver anywhere, please let us know.

 

Try settling the power option to maximum battery mode when you're on battery power. When AAO is on AC power, the CPU will automatically go back to 1.6ghz.

 

I didn't say none of the AAO's do it. Two of my friends ended up getting WinXP based AAO's and they speedstep, they used Notebook Hardware Control to see what the speeds were at and it does step up and down. I'm just not having this same result. This is why it's been so frustrating for myself.

I didn't buy an AAO with WinXP installed, hence my wondering if the lack of a CPU driver package may be the cause.

I'll give CoreTemp a try and run some other tests after doing another fresh install of WinXP and the (updated) drivers and report with what I've got.

 

Me neither. All my AA1s have been upgraded from Linpus using retail XP Home with SP2.
Checked coretemp again last night. The frequency was definitely switching between 800MHz and 1.6GHz and the VID switched between 0.9V and 1.185V, even on AC power.

 

mine came with Linpus too.