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December 2nd, 2025 00:57
Tower Plus EBT2250, severe power throttling defect, no support from Dell HW Support
Dell Tower Plus EBT2250, Core Ultra 7 265 (20-core), 48GB RAM, purchased Aug 2025
Issue: System throttles CPU to 30-50W despite attempting 133-142W draw. HWiNFO64 shows all 12 E-cores at 100% Power Limit Exceeded. Only 3-4 of 20 cores handle workload. System unusable with 20 Chrome tabs + Zoom.
Evidence:
- Task Manager CPU utilization: 10-20% (massive unused capacity)
- Temps: 48-93°C (well within limits)
- 460W PSU has plenty of capacity (~240W total system load)
- Online reviews show same CPU successfully pulling 230-250W in this chassis
Dell Support claims "software issue," asking $$ for software support .
Question: Has anyone else experienced power throttling on EBT2250 non-K CPUs? Is this a known BIOS bug? Or is there something else going on that I don't know? I am not system admin, so I have limited knowledge.
If the support ran some diagnostics then they can pinpoint and say this is the issue HW/BIOS/SW. In absence of that, its guessing game at the moment since they don't believe HWInfo (3rd party SW).
How do I escalate past support reps trying to upsell?
System purchased for professional use, currently unable to perform basic productivity tasks.
ispalten
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December 2nd, 2025 21:15
I moved the post here, the correct place for it, Dell Pro Desktops.
I have the SAME PC, but with 32GB's of RAM.
CPU in Task Manager:
HDInfo:
Power Load (1000VA UPS):
MSINFO32:
It could very well be an OS or S/W problem?
Test in SAFE MODE (doesn't load all drivers) and see if it still happens?
Disable STARTUP programs, first all, test, OK, start loading them back to start, a few at a time. Hit a problem, remove all you just added, and then add one at a time and test, OK, the next one, test, etc...
ndkba
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December 3rd, 2025 00:12
Thank you for the additional insights. I ran the the SAFE mode - not even networking, and everything started great, but devolved from there.
Under load (- just few Paint instances + one notepad ) system buckled, I couldn't even get to File Explorer.
I am assuming this rules out software? Safe Mode shouldn't load any third-party software, drivers, and non-essential Windows services if I know enough.
ispalten
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December 3rd, 2025 00:38
@ndkba
I'd open the EVENT VIEWER and see if there are any Errors? Especially Critical ones.
Also Warnings as well.
There can be a LOT of these, but you have to look at each one to see what it is.
Did you add any h/w? If so, take it out and retest.
Open the RESOURCE MONITOR, it can tell you a LOT. Better view than Task Manager, and sorting on column can sometimes catch what is using a lot of resources:
Check the CPU as will, you can see all cores and even find out who is using it:
ispalten
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December 5th, 2025 14:22
@ndkba
Try Quick CPU (https://coderbag.com/product/quickcpu) as it might point to some other areas to look at?
ispalten
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December 5th, 2025 21:47
I was finally able to get Quick CPU on my wife's EBT2250.
A lot of data to look at. Manual is here ==> https://coderbag.com/product/quickcpu/docs
The PC wasn't under heavy load, essentially just opened a browser her and ran the program... on the lower right a lot of CPU display choices as well.
Can even run a Stress Test with it ---> https://coderbag.com/product/quickcpu/docs/system-stress-test#start-test but I've not tried it.
ndkba
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December 5th, 2025 22:04
Thanks! FYI: I retested after taking added RAM out (my husband had added it - wasn't aware of it), but I still had the same issues, and worse, because of less RAM now.
I really appreciate your help! I will try quick CPU now to see if I can see something.
On a side note, we bought two desktops at the same time, one is working fine, other one is not. The base processor is the same for both.
ispalten
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December 5th, 2025 22:47
@ndkba
Not the first time this appeared in a POST when one PC fails and the other does not. In the XPS8940 Lock-Up/Freeze issue for PC's with Nvidia Cards in it, one user bought 2 with ONE difference. The amount of RAM. The one with 32GB's had the problem. Swapped RAM and the problem remained the failing PC... so it wasn't the RAM.
I assume the only difference was the RAM size? Of course the S/W on the PC's are probably different though, but I'd suspect a h/w problem.
OK, I assume your system had 16GB's, and his 32GB's. When I bought my wife's system I did get 32GB's, but rather than a single 32GB stick I chose the 2x16GB option. Reason being twofold. One is that RAM should die and I had only one stick, I'd not be able to use the PC until I got another one. Also, one RAM Stick can not run in Dual Channel mode, not a significant speed gain though but it is faster.
Now adding a 16GB stick to make the RAM be 32GB's does 'cause' some issues? Matched Pair is desired though, and will run in Dual Mode.
It appears that using mixed sticks was not the problem though. Some time one could experience slow downs and even Blue Screens.
For what it is worth, my XPS8940 had only 16GB's and I bought another 16GB stick some time ago, Never had a problem and it IS running in DUAL mode OK.
Quick CPU has a LOT of things, from Power Plan to number of cores to use. Run it on both PC's in its DEFAULT settings. Compare the screens and see what is different. Especially the POWER PLANS...
Next I'd get Autorun Organizer (https://www.chemtable.com/autorun-organizer.htm) and compare the items starting up. You might find something starting that is no on the other, and you can get details on it to possibly see why?
Also, run MSINFO32 and CHECK both PC's... especially the BIOS and motherboard, they should be the same on both PC's. Worthwhile expanding everything on the left side and looking and comparing each one... However, I'm not sure you'd find anything meaningful, but worth doing.