(Solved): CPU Won't Throttle Up--Help!

[Slam]

Hello hwinfo!

I am having serious problems with my new build. My cpu (Ryzen 7 3800X) always, ALWAYS runs at or below .55 ghz, no matter what I do. The whole computer is sluggish, and I've never been able to use it to do anything! This has been going on for months!

Current build:
- CPU: Ryzen 7 3800X
- MOBO: MSI Tomahawk Max
- RAM: G. Skill TridentZ Neo for AMD 2x16gb
- GPU: Dell AMD Radeon R7 250
- SSD: WD Black NVMe SSD 500gb
- CPU Cooler: Wraith Prism stock cooler
- PSU: Aresgames 500w
- Fans : 4 case fans
- Thermal compound

All my temps on Hwinfo are less than 40 degrees celsius, even when running Cinebench tests. But I noticed that the "HTC thermal throttling" and "prochot ext" flags are lit at all times. That's why I came here to see if anybody knew how to help.

Here's a short list of the troubleshooting I have since last June.

- New MOBO (3x): My original board, an Asrock B450, never worked properly, although I think it may have been due to the fact that I had G. Skill's TridentZ ram sticks that weren't made specifically for AMD. My current board has always had the Neo, AMD specific. I got W10 and all that set up on this board, with my current problem. I had it into a shop, who tried my cpu on another system and claimed it worked there. They replaced the Tomahawk with some sort of Aorus board, and apparently couldn't get it to post. (I don't think much of this shop, btw) So they said the cpu was the culprit. I took it back to replace the cpu without their shop charge, but no difference. I bought a new tomahawk this week, put it in, and I couldn't get the new one to start. The easy debug light for cpu stayed on, the fans spun up, and no picture ever appeared on the screen. My original tomahawk still turns on (and no debug light stays lit).

- Rebuilt computer several times (and the shop did, too).

- Replaced original 400w EVGA psu with the current 500w. (Both seem to work fine)

- Bought new CPU and cooler (same model) trusting the word of that crummy shop I went to. I put it on my original tomahawk. It acted exactly the same as my current one, and the hwinfo flags were the same, so I returned it.

- Flashed BIOS to latest

- Set power plan to AMD High Performance

- Swapped out GPU with an NVidia Geforce 1050ti, didn't fully download the drivers, but could already tell that my cpu was running at the same speed, and the Hwinfo flags sere still on.

- Replaced my drive since the trouble began. I originally had just a Seagate Barracuda HDD, but that failed. So my WD Black has been added since the problems.

- Run my computer outside of case, same issue, so the case wasn't shorting the mobo.

- Reapplied thermal paste

Notes: I'm running W10 Pro. I have downloaded and installed the mobo's software package. I'm not a gamer, all I wanted was an ultra powerful computer for audio production and a friend of mine suggested to build one myself (he can't figure out the problem either). As this is my first build, some terminology goes over my head, but I'll try to keep up! If anybody can help, I'll be eternally grateful!

I'm adding a few screenshots so you can see what I'm talking about. Also, I haven't returned that new board yet, just in case someone has an idea that will make it work.

 

[Martin]

The PROCHOT EXT signal is driven by an external component that can be anything else on the mainboard and it can be asserted regardless of the CPU temperature.
So based on the above screenshots my assumption would be a faulty mainboard. But as you have already replaced it, I'm not sure what to recommend. Do you know if the other mainboard was showing the same PROCHOT EXT asserted?

 

[Dalai]

Maybe it's caused by the RAM somehow. It seems to be the only component that's not been replaced so far. But I wouldn't leave software out entirely. Maybe some background program or driver is acting up. Try Windows Safe Mode to see if it's any better; not sure if HWiNFO is able to install and start its driver there, but if not, I guess you can see if the system is more responsive.

Regards
Dalai

 

[Martin]

HWiNFO will probably not run in Safe Mode by default due to a restriction on driver load and it might require adding the following registry key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Minimal\HWiNFO_nnn]
@="Service"

HWiNFO_nnn will need to be replaced with the driver version used. The current latest driver version is 170, so for the current version it will need to be:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Minimal\HWiNFO_170]
@="Service"

 

[Slam]

The PROCHOT EXT signal is driven by an external component that can be anything else on the mainboard and it can be asserted regardless of the CPU temperature.
So based on the above screenshots my assumption would be a faulty mainboard. But as you have already replaced it, I'm not sure what to recommend. Do you know if the other mainboard was showing the same PROCHOT EXT asserted?

I thought it was a faulty mainboard as well, hence why I tried to replace it. However, I never actually accessed Windows with the new board, as it got caught in some sort of boot loop. So I don't know if the new board shows the same thing! All these screenshots are of the first tomahawk.

 

[Slam]

Maybe it's caused by the RAM somehow. It seems to be the only component that's not been replaced so far. But I wouldn't leave software out entirely. Maybe some background program or driver is acting up. Try Windows Safe Mode to see if it's any better; not sure if HWiNFO is able to install and start its driver there, but if not, I guess you can see if the system is more responsive.

Regards
Dalai

There is a guy on the MSI forum who is questioning the same thing, he says the Infinity Fabric Clock and Memory Controller Clock numbers in my screenshot are off? I'm wondering if I'm going to have to find a guaranteed compatible RAM somewhere to check it off the list... Also, I just noticed that the Power Reporting Deviation above seems off?
I'll try Windows Safe Mode when I get a chance and let you know how it runs.

 

[Slam]

Maybe it's caused by the RAM somehow. It seems to be the only component that's not been replaced so far. But I wouldn't leave software out entirely. Maybe some background program or driver is acting up. Try Windows Safe Mode to see if it's any better; not sure if HWiNFO is able to install and start its driver there, but if not, I guess you can see if the system is more responsive.

Regards
Dalai

Interesting! I just booted up in safe mode, and Task Manager says my cpu is running at 3.90 - the supposed base speed for this cpu. Click response seems quite a bit better What does this mean? I tried to follow Martin's steps for opening hwinfo, but it didn't appear in the list under minimal. I downloaded hwinfo last year - do I need a newer version?

Sorry the picture turned out huge. Also, I tried opening the AMD Radeon software and was told that no AMD graphics driver was installed or is not functioning properly. ?

 

[Martin]

You need to use the latest HWiNFO64 Beta version 7.21 to match the registry entry I provided above.

 

[Dalai]

Well, starting HWiNFO in Safe Mode is just for verification purposes now. The main thing is to find out what is causing this. Check your Windows power profile. Temporarily disable as many background programs as possible. It could be caused by a driver that was installed along with any software... I guess it won't be easy to find the culprit.

Regards
Dalai

 

[Martin]

PROCHOT EXT can also be asserted by Voltage Regulator (VR) overheating, which is also quite unlikely in your case.
You might try to do a clean Windows install to check if the issue persists (in case it was caused by some software).

 

[Slam]

PROCHOT EXT can also be asserted by Voltage Regulator (VR) overheating, which is also quite unlikely in your case.
You might try to do a clean Windows install to check if the issue persists (in case it was caused by some software).

Thanks! I've heard from several sources that I might have to do a fresh Windows install, so I will probably do it here soon. As far as hardware goes, I have some new guaranteed-to-work-with-this-board ram sticks coming just to rule out the last piece of hardware I haven't tried replacing. I'm also going to update HWiNFO because I'm curious to see if the thermal throttle flags are still lit while the cpu appears to run correctly in Windows safe mode.

 

[Slam]

Hello Everyone!

Just an update for where I'm at. After wading through everyone's helpful answers on the multiple forums I posted my story to, it seems there are two theories to trace, hardware and software.

Hardware: For starts, I have ordered G. Skill's RipJaw ram sticks to be in this Friday, just to rule the ram sticks out. With some of the ram numbers off in hwinfo, as well as the A-XMP button in bios saying "not supported" I think it's worth a shot.

I am also willing to keep testing the cpu, mainboard and other components in the meantime. I still kinda doubt the cpu is at fault being I tried a new one, but I understand that's no guarantee.

Software: several guys have suggested doing a fresh install of W10, the mainboard drivers and the Radeon software, which I hope to do before the new ram arrives. The theory here is that I when I booted it up in safe mode, Task Manager showed the cpu clocking at 3.90 ghz, which is its supposed base speed. In safe mode I was unable to open hwinfo to verify that, but click responses seemed much improved. I've also already rolled back my bios 1 version.

So the thought is that maybe some driver or Windows is causing it to slow down.

So those are the next steps I'm going to try...

Thanks, everybody!

 

[Dalai]

The thing is: If and when you reinstall Windows, you'll never find out what caused this. That is, unless it appears again at some point. To be clear, I'm not saying you shouldn't reinstall Windows eventually. But it would be very interesting to know how and why this occurred - for you and everyone else who might have a similar issue in the future (and maybe even some software vendor if it's caused by buggy software).

Anyway, that's my take on it.

Regards
Dalai

 

[TomWoB]

To check if of one RAM-module "is the problem", run computer only with one of your two 16 GB RAM-modules. Do that with both modules, is there any difference?

 

[Slam]

Hey, there! Ok, so here's what has happened so far. My new ram sticks came (btw TomWoB, I did try my previous sticks one at a time, no difference) and installed 1 stick, enabled A-XMP profile 1, but no difference with the cpu speed. Ugh!

Also, to start ruling out the Windows question, I finally figured out how to boot Linux off a stick to completely remove Windows as it is completely from the picture. Here's a screenshot of the cpu speed in Linux:



I'm not sure exactly how to decipher these numbers, but I think that as the minimum is listed as 2200.0000 and the cpu is running at the same thing, it must not have helped. I guess a can still proceed W10 updates and driver reinstalls, but now I'm not so certain they will help. Boy, I don't really know what to do.

 

[Dalai]

Boy, I don't really know what to do.

As I already said: Check your Windows power profile, maybe reset it to its defaults. Disable as many background programs as possible, maybe even uninstall some of them (especially if you don't need them).

Regards
Dalai

 

[Slam]

Hello! I'm not sure anyone is still watching this thread, but my computer is fixed! I bought a new cpu and mainboard and installed them at the same time, and it works perfectly! So I definitely had a hardware issue. The HTC thermal throttling and PROCHOT Ext flags are gone. My theory is that the cpu I originally got was buggy, and it kept messing up my mainboards until I replaced them together. Expensive repair, but glad it's over! Thanks everyone for your help!

 

[Dalai]

Glad the issue is resolved. Let's hope it doesn't come back.