Precision 5381 had CPU stuck at 0.39 GHz

Question

All right, I couldn't find a solution to my problem here, so i'll write it down and append the solution to it.

Here are the symptoms:
- PC suddenly became very slugguish and laggy, even though it's almost brand new, and I recently made no modifications
- I have a dual-boot of Win10 and Ubuntu. Both were laggy, so this ruled out any OS-related issue.
- tweaking the CPU performance parameters in each OS didn't change anything

After some digging, I figured out that the processors were all stuck at 0.39GHz. What's the minimum clock freq of my CPU (I9-13900H) you'll ask? it's 0.4GHz... something was indeed fishy. I kept on trying to fiddle with the BIOS's performance stuff (e.g. Intel SpeedCheck and TurboBoost, and all kinds of very fancily named options), but to no avail. I then tried to do the RCT reset procedure. This didn't fix anything. I downgraded the bios from 1.9.0 to 1.8.1, which didn't help either.

At some point, I did what needed to be done and took apart my PC to unplug the battery and the CMOS button battery [0]. BINGO, CPU was back at some variable frequency, and everything was snappy again.

This issue seems to be related to this one: https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000145125/processor-speed-limited-to-0-79ghz-800mhz (and all "my cpu is stuck at x GHz" issue on dell PCs)

[0]: https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/precision-15-3581-laptop/precision-3581-owners-manual/clearing-cmos-settings?guid=guid-eb725925-3725-4188-a65d-4151c9e1a451&lang=en-us

StarfirePrime · Answer

Did you happen to plug the Precision into an adapter that was third party, or even another Dell OEM of the same or more wattage? I have had this happen with Dell OEM adapters (just happened to my 5310). Something in the adapter doesn't report the proper available power the way the laptop or micro desktop expects and the speedstep is frozen to the lowest level (0.39 GHz for my 5310, but I've seen 0.79 GHz on Optiplexes).

Total BS if you ask me. Where I work, people are frequently using whatever adapter is plugged in on the table. You can't even rely on the "newer" is probably better concept as my recent issue came from a newer model Dell 90W adapter.

At the very least, Dell needs to publish a list of combinations to avoid.

elvislizardo · Answer

@StarfirePrime​ That may be the case. I remember I had my computer report some power delivery issue before this happened, but i don't know if it was on the same day or not. I also don't think it was with another power adapter than the one that came with the computer (but again, I may have not noticed that I mixed it up with another USB-C adapter present at my desk at that time). In any case, good call.

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Precision 5381 had CPU stuck at 0.39 GHz

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