$600 Inspiron 5402 14" - A wolf in a sheep suit

Alright, I have gotten more than I bargained for. I forgot to add... we'll here is a link to get the hidden features in power managment.

https://appuals.com/how-to-restore-missing-power-plan-options-on-windows-10/

Here is a the bookoo list of cpu adjustments, though I am missing NVME and PCI-E adjustments, which I feel are just as critical. Now you can see why I go through the trouble of looking deeper into the system, before throwing tools and what not at it. I will have to dig deeper, as it looks. Though just the CPU stuff is a bit mind boggling as it is. I will have to print out a list of MS features at a granular level to sort out all the configs proper. I have noted that there were some settings about power save policies within the performance mode. I think Dell power managment overrides a bit more than expected. Here is just 1/4 if not 1/5 of the CPU settings now available on my laptop.

 

Or you could just install throttle stop and change speed shift values, lol.

 

Like I said, I don't use tools for settings I can do on my own. In fact you can stop throttling, very easy by adding a registry value and key. Though it effects battery. Thus the reason to enable various options, for personal use as to your needs.

Do as you may, I am just pointing out, what can be done to change or fix what may have done in battery managment and power settings.

Just disabling throttling, is great for game systems, I have tried to point out this is not a game system. Without having to go all out to prove anything, I am stating more or less, that some underlying features or background adjustments need to be done, and it is pointing to dell managment. I thought I would need it to utilize the fast charge and thunderbolt capabilities better, than just letting them be enabled. I could just revert back by uninstalling the updates from the begining of the month, as a fix, but I like having the ability of tweaking a wee bit more to adjust for better performance than just be bandaiding, with a utility.

 

The bandaid you refer to is an easy way to set all aspects of your CPU. You don't have to use it, I was simply pointing out it's much better than digging around and probably more effective.

Having said that, you still have to do some registry stuff because of Dell's inability to let user's control their own system. It really is cancer drivers/firmware that hold these laptops back.

 

I have neither the time nor the inclination to spend hours (in your case days, apparently) making deep changes to my computer that can be just as easily done with a piece of software. Even better, said changes changes done with ThrottleStop can be completely undone by deleting a single file.

If you want to mess with registry edits and installing/uninstalling other things, that's your prerogative. Just don't expect others to follow you off the cliff when there's a much simpler and more user friendly way.

 

Like I said I am old school. Been dealing with Windows Registry since Windows NT 4.0. Put it this way, some Linux peeps prefer a non gui interface to tweak and manage from, the windows registry is a more direct way, than to rely on apps. As for regedit, it is simple and can be easily reverted if so inclined. Just save a copy of the key you edit and you have a perfect backup for safety.

It is not that much time to mess with a registry with a lot of changes. You can make a copy of your backup, and edit it, using a search and replace, save as the tweaked version, and there you go.

The only time consumming issue is adjusting for my taste in perforance in battery mode, and tweaking for heat generation and fan use under AC power. Using full blown desktop mode is not an option for a thin laptop with limited cooling.

I don't know why my option cannot be as accepted equally as i am with your own. Never said anything negative, or too deeply compare with. Just explained why I prefer to do how I do things. I am just showing there is a lot already baked in windows.

My thread was done, just adding stuff I found late, and may or may not be any concern to others. I do believe there is more to power schema, than just disabling throttling. But it seems no body is interested in finding out but me.

It was out of my kindness to bring it up, so to speak. I am fairly sure I found the issue, and I will work at getting it resolved, just making a point that you can adjust deeper if wanting to. Its not a big concern anyway, as the laptop does go into performance mode. After all I never liked the limited power schema of 10, and now I am liking it even more than 7. Just had to dig a wee further into enabling some features.

 

I finally have a complete revert back to bios firmware 1.1.5, which performs the best under Windows 10. I am able to have consistent 6720 to 6800 read speeds now.

Here are the steps to keep bios updates in check and remove the blasted Intel management system from playing with power management.

1) In device manager remove all firmware devices (3 in total). Be sure to remove driver when prompted. This firmware driver has been a problem long before my new Dell.

2) Install the older dell bios 1.1.5.

3) Once rebooted, verify in device managerk the presence of the recreated firmware devices. If the system firmware shows a revision number, perform steps 1 and 2 again, in order.

4) If no revision is shown in the firmware devices, disable all 3 firmware devices.

5) Verify bios is 1.1.5 by runing the older 1.1.5 bios utility. If any of the firmware revisions show a difference between updated and installed, allow the utility to perform the update again during reboot. All should be good from now on, once a complete revert back to 1.1.5 system bios is done.

 

hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone can help. I've got exactly this unit (5402) with i7 processor but i don't seem to find anywhere if usb-c is also a Thunderbolt. I know that Tiger lake has Thunderbolt 4 capability, however this is a budget laptop and i was wondering if dell disabled it somehow or if works "out of the box"? Thanks!

 

The first post of this thread clarifies that it is thunderbolt 4.

 

Thank you very much.