The Definitive Guide to Acer Aspire Gemstone Blue Throttling Issues

[TehSuigi]

The Definitive Guide to Acer Aspire Gemstone Blue Throttling Issues v2.0
Credit Due to DarkSilver, ATG, Sgogeta4, and Unclewebb


This thread is specifically designed to put an end to the multitude of threads about people asking why their Aspire 6920G, 6930G, 6935G, 8920G, or 8930G is experiencing lackluster performance in gaming.

What Causes It

We’re not 100% certain, but through a process of elimination, we believe there are two possible causes:
• That a sensor on the motherboard is going haywire, reading internal temperatures entirely wrong. As a result, the system’s BIOS believes the CPU’s temperature is reaching dangerous levels when it’s really well within operating limits, and causes a thermal throttle to be activated. This halves the CPU’s performance until the temperatures are returned to what the system perceives as safe levels.
• It could also be potentially linked to a ridiculously low setting in the BIOS and not the fault of a motherboard sensor – this was refuted by my travel to Acer’s Canadian headquarters, where a stock 6920G was shown to operate just fine, with no throttling whatsoever. That being said, given the large number of users affected, it's still a possibility.

All we know for certain is that the chipset has reason to force the CPU to throttle, running it at a lower clock speed and thus ruining your performance.

“But TehSuigi!” I hear you say. “Why does my GPU downclock as well? Isn’t that the reason why my system slows down?” You’ve got the order of events mixed up if you think the GPU downclocking is the problem. Because the CPU can’t process the physics of the games as fast or send frames to the GPU as often, the GPU requires less power to render what frames manage to get to it. As a result, it drops into a lower power state using Nvidia’s PowerMizer or ATi’s PowerPlay technology. Even if you disable these power saving measures, game performance will still suffer because the CPU will still be throttling.

How to Diagnose It

Thankfully, diagnosing the problem is relatively easy to do. First off, download and run ThrottleStop. Unzip it and open it up, clicking OK on the rather frightening warning window (feel free to read it, but it's more concerned with Dells and Alienwares whose throttling issues are related to power supplies - Acers are unaffected). You'll be presented with the window below (minus the red box - I added that).

The next step is to try and trigger that throttling through normal use. Open up your favourite game (windowed, if possible) and begin playing. When the game performance drops, check the ThrottleStop window – if the numbers in the red boxes show less than 100, your system is throttling. If not, your performance issue lies elsewhere. If you want to see if your system throttles in a hurry, just run ORTHOS for a while – mine usually throttles in under 5 minutes.

How to Live With It FIX IT FOR GOOD

Thankfully, since the first edition of this post, an enterprising user named unclewebb has developed software to end this blight upon our systems. It's called ThrottleStop - if you didn't download it during the diagnosis step, do so now.
To not only stop your system from throttling, but prevent it from occurring again, simply tick the box I've marked in green in the screenshot below (and change the % number beside it to 100% if it's anything else).

And that's it! You should no longer be throttling, and your system can now be used to the fullest of its potential. This is the one-size-fits all solution we've been waiting for, until proven otherwise.
Some helpful options are detailed below:
• Minimize on Close means that it'll be sent to your notification area when you click Close on the window. It can then be restored or exited from there.
• Log File will write your CPU speed, load, and temperature to a file to be examined later.
• More Data will increase the frequency of data refreshing. This means that your monitoring data will be more accurate, but change rapidly.
• You can set up a Task through Windows Task Scheduler to automatically start ThrottleStop whenever you log in, or whenever a certain program/game opens up. Use Google for a guide, because it can be a little confusing.

For more discussion of ThrottleStop, check out its thread here on the Acer forum.

The Alternative - Undervolting
It still works to solve throttling issues, but by different means - dropping your CPU's temperature below the trigger point, instead of disabling the throttle altogether. There are better guides for undervolting elsewhere on NBR, so I won't duplicate their content here. Advanced users might want to give this a spin, especially since it will also result in a cooler-running CPU and longer battery life.
I personally use RMClock to undervolt (64-bit users will need the signed drivers from here).

There's one last thing I recommend - call Acer and tell them that you're experiencing this problem! The only way we can get them to release a patched BIOS (if that's the problem) or repair your motherboard's thermal sensors (if that's the problem) is by informing them in large numbers.
I know that I've got a commitment from Acer to diagnose and repair my system's thermal issue whenever I please, but then again, I'm still covered under warranty. Please call them before yours expires!

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to post here.

[DarkSilver]

Tehsuigi, STICKY is needed.
If not, I think multiple-similar threads would appear again.
By the way, my REGISTRY tweaks has been change to HARMLESS(which won't screw up the system).
All extreme tweaks has been taken out. Check it on here again, Acer Aspire 6920G - Throttle FIX!

EDIT: Thanks for crediting me and included my FIX on this thread. As well as buying your time on reading my FIX again.

[TehSuigi]

By the way, I've changed my mind. I won't be sending my laptop in to Acer's repair centre, if only because I've managed to get everything else on my laptop just so, and I'd rather not have it mucked up by some brainless techie.
That, and I don't want to swap my CPU back to the T5550 unless I absolutely have to.

The throttling issue is a nuisance, yes, but I'm willing to live with it for the time being. As well, I'll be trying to get in touch with someone at Acer Canada who can help me out without having my laptop on hand.
Stay tuned to this space for updates.

sneaky bump is sneaky

[DarkSilver]

By the way, I've changed my mind. I won't be sending my laptop in to Acer's repair centre, if only because I've managed to get everything else on my laptop just so, and I'd rather not have it mucked up by some brainless techie.
That, and I don't want to swap my CPU back to the T5550 unless I absolutely have to.

The throttling issue is a nuisance, yes, but I'm willing to live with it for the time being. As well, I'll be trying to get in touch with someone at Acer Canada who can help me out without having my laptop on hand.
Stay tuned to this space for updates.

sneaky bump is sneaky

Even I really they release a BIOS(not 100% confirm is BIOS problem but might be) to fix this lame problem. However, I would still undervolt my laptop.
This is because I want lower the temperature of CPU and so GPU temperature could be lowered too.

[TehSuigi]

UPDATE:

Another development in this ongoing story. I was bored tonight and figured I was due to clean out the mesh screen on my laptop's fan intake. So after removing the bottom access panel and cleaning it, I had an idea. I know that the system can run without the bottom plate - why not get an idea of how well it does?

Imagine my surprise when I was able to run ORTHOS for 5 minutes on my regular undervolt without a downclock!
And on top of that, the fan sped up around 59 degrees Celsius when testing on stock voltages (2:15, then downclock).
The times with the bottom plate back on were 2 minutes-then-downclock and 45 seconds-then-downclock, respectively.

I noticed that not having the bottom plate on allowed the fan to move a lot more air over the exhaust grille. Not sure how that ties into the ability of the fan to speed up when the CPU gets stressed (which rarely happened in my previous tests), but the speed-up point of 59 degrees explains why most throttling instances were just below then.

So this means that we can entertain the possibility that this whole problem is caused by that stupid mesh screen in front of the fan (as well as BIOS/fan/motherboard issues).

[weinter]

UPDATE:

Another development in this ongoing story. I was bored tonight and figured I was due to clean out the mesh screen on my laptop's fan intake. So after removing the bottom access panel and cleaning it, I had an idea. I know that the system can run without the bottom plate - why not get an idea of how well it does?

Imagine my surprise when I was able to run ORTHOS for 5 minutes on my regular undervolt without a downclock!
And on top of that, the fan sped up around 59 degrees Celsius when testing on stock voltages (2:15, then downclock).
The times with the bottom plate back on were 2 minutes-then-downclock and 45 seconds-then-downclock, respectively.

I noticed that not having the bottom plate on allowed the fan to move a lot more air over the exhaust grille. Not sure how that ties into the ability of the fan to speed up when the CPU gets stressed (which rarely happened in my previous tests), but the speed-up point of 59 degrees explains why most throttling instances were just below then.

So this means that we can entertain the possibility that this whole problem is caused by that stupid mesh screen in front of the fan (as well as BIOS/fan/motherboard issues).

It is the same for my Aspire 4530 except I removed it before you did.
I notice I can feel Air moving across the intake so I figured I remove the stupid useless mesh.

Other more hardcore mods like cutting out bigger vents holes also help.
Originally I had 16 vent bars I cut away 8 so it looks proportional and helps airflow.

[DarkSilver]

Yep! Take out the bottom part of the laptop casing of course would lowered the temperature.
Just like open your windows and let the air come into your house.

Still the problem lies on BIOS/Motherboard/Fan.
I hope it is the BIOS problem instead of Motherboard or Fan.
So, with easy flashing of BIOS, we can fix this THROTTLING problem easily and fast.

Tehsuigi, try put your laptop on a portable air-conditional. I mean where the part cold air blow out. It won't throttle even without undervolt. XD.

About the mesh screen, I love them. Because it helps me to block a lot of dust for me. I can see the mesh screen filled with dust after 1 month. It is effective for me.

[weinter]

Have you all considered overloading DSDT tables?
It is the Thermal Control table BIOS passes to Vista on Boot and stores it in the registry
Just install RW Everything and export the DSDT Table.
Modify the asl file (text)
Then install Microsoft ASL Compiler recompile the ASL to AML files and overload the table into BIOS.
Or you need me to provide a Guide for this?

[DarkSilver]

Have you all considered overloading DSDT tables?
It is the Thermal Control table BIOS passes to Vista on Boot and stores it in the registry
Just install RW Everything and export the DSDT Table.
Modify the asl file (text)
Then install Microsoft ASL Compiler recompile the ASL to AML files and overload the table into BIOS.
Or you need me to provide a Guide for this?

Sounds complicated but INTERESTING.
Dear Weinter, please provide the guide. Thanks.
Tehsuigi, your bored night, this is your task. XD. I would follow if tehsuigi sucess with this.(sorry tehsuigi, this is not an order from me, I just hope if you can experiment on it since you have superior computer skill than me)

[TehSuigi]

Wish I could spend the time on it, but I'm still studying for finals here.
Weinter, sounds interesting, but way too time-consuming. I don't know enough to mess around with DSDT tables and not muck something up.
DarkSilver, I was thinking of getting a laptop cooler sooner or later - the number of vents on the bottom will certainly promote good airflow.