I can’t seem to unlock the power limit on my M6600, Turbo Power Limit MSR Lock is set to 0x0 but ThrottleStop and HWiNFO both say the power limit is locked.
Wat do?
You have to extract setup module from bios and search for more kind of locks.
The locks are sometimes strange named and for example in my setup module there are about 3 kind of power limit locks. I don’t even bother with it because my TPL window stays unlocked.
Are you interested to unlock Long power limit 1,2 or current limit?
Anything that allows me to unlock the power limit in ThrottleStop.
Did you already tried delete TS ini file and reset bios to optimal default?
If it is not working and Power limit is still locked, pls do send here pic of your TPL window and your bios dump or let me know your bios version.
Some of i7 2*** QM can run +400 MHz on top of turbo. But it is limited by chipset version. Are you able overclock your CPU this way?
I’m on BIOS A16 as its the latest one without that stupid smeltdown patches.
Will post TPL window later.
I read somewhere it could be big pain to get Bios.bin file from Dell exe, which is supposed to flash their bios.
So basically if you can extract your bios dump from your PC and if it is AMI bios type than it is go straight forward.
But it might need some sort of your collaboration.
1
https://pastebin.com/024GdPLP
You have 2 choice. First is to make bootable USB with grub and try change variable. Second is disassemble bios and change path where bios code is setting bit [63] of MSR 0x610. First you must do by your self. Did you tried it already? Probably yes. For example my E540 has protected variable so booting to grub is no go. So send your bios dump so I will try modify 610, 602 and 194 and please confirm before, that you can reflash bios by intel fpt without errors, so your bios lock (0xDC) is off and you hasn’t any kind of digital signature or whatever this shit is called. No need to mention you might need programmer for wrong case. If you aren’t feeling so brave reflash your bios, do download RWEverything where you can find state of bios lock and many more. You can also update bios to latest and just change ucode patch to pre meltdown patch. You can also probably swap cpu to i7 3***qm
Just for now I am not able to localize 610. Even though UefiTool can find it at PowerManagementdxe, further when dissasemle this module, IDA Pro cant find entry B9 10 06 00 00 which stay for mov ecx 610h. I am beginner in hunting code. Maybe the part of problem is HDR format. Try to get bin file. But look at screenshot. Turbo Power limitr lock is disabled, but Long term power is 0 and Long term override is disabled. So you just have power limit 1 enabled. Maybe it is bit crippled by Dell, actually it is. Rweverything should able change value for Long term if Lock is disabled. But TS should aswell. So it is strange behavior.
Weird, guess i’ll have to live with a 55 watt TDP limit then.
It just depends on how hard you are digging. AMIBCP let you modify Long term from disable to enable, you can even enter some values for Long term, than save and flash the image. But you have to flash bin file (which will be significantly smaller) instead od 9MB. But better way is modify register straight forward in RWe, no flashing involved. The only way I can thinking about is that access to 610 is obfuscated on bios code level and 610 is locked - no matter what AMIBCP is showing. If you can confirm via Rwe that bit [63] is set than I would recommend to flash different Bios version. I as noob unlocked 610 and more in the past on my machine and on my girl laptop as well - it is not so hard - just nobody been writing how, or Intel or OEM’s are deleting similar topic. So if I were you I would take it as challenge.