Ryzen 5 1400 CPU cold boots to 0.54GHz, restarting restores the 3.2GHz speed

[TomC_]

Hello,

Whenever my computer is booted from a cold powered off start, the performance is terrible. If I reboot once (performance returns to expected levels. 

I discovered via Task Manager, and later via Ryzen Master that the CPU is only running at 0.54GHz, aka 540MHz when this happens. The system also runs really slowly when launching anything demanding, and the CPU never speeds up. Games and such run at most at 10FPS when this happens.

After a reboot, I'll see it at the expected changing CPU speed in task manager, usually peaking at the expected 3.2GHz. Performance is fine after the reboot, games hitting 60FPS, etc.

I've inspected the CPU fan, and the inner case. It's spinning fine, and revs up to higher speeds when running something intensive after the reboot.  During a cold boot though, the fan never spins up beyond it's base speed of around 1000RPM, so it doesn't appear to be a real thermal throttling issue.

I've patched Windows 10 up to the newest 1903 release and associated patches released so far.  Drivers are all up to date according to the HP Support Assistant.  

I've checked Windows Power Settings and forced it to High Performance.

I also updated the UEFI, though was surprised HP Support Assistant didn't detect it was out of date.  sp92484 was the download for my particular model.

I've also gone into UEFI setup (F10 at boot) and reset to defaults.

With all of this, the issue persists.  Cold Boot = slow performance and a CPU locked at 540 MHZ.  Reboot once, everything runs fine.

Any ideas on what to try next?

[Grzwacz]

Greetings,

Welcome to the forum.

I am not a HP employee.

I have never seen anything like this.

It sounds like a possible BIOS issue.

The only thing I can think of would be to remove the CR2032 motherboard (MB) battery to reset CMOS. Let the PC sit for about 15 minutes.

Install a new MB battery.

Regards

[TomC_]

Thanks for the response Grzwacz.  I'l check out the battery this weekend, though my suspicions are turning towards Windows.

Steps I've tried since the initial post:

1. Downloaded new chipset drivers direct from AMD, as HP hasn't updated the chipset drivers since the desktop was released. (I wish PC vendors stayed on top of this for their customers, still odd to me that these drivers and UEFI updates aren't coming through Windows Update as it should, nor do they come through the OEM specific update tools.)

2. Disabled fast start in power options, forcing a full boot every time instead of the hibernate resume Win10 defaults too. Longer startup time from cold boot, same issue persists.

3. Applied the August update, same issue persists.

There's a number of Surface owners seeing their CPUs lock to 400MHz after recent updates. (https://www.techrepublic.com/article/microsoft-surface-pro-6-and-surface-book-2-devices-are-throttle...). I'm thinking it's either something in the overall 1903 OS update not properly interacting with system firmware in some setups. I'm just lucky a quick reboot after a cold boot fixes it.

Another task for me this weekend is to try a clean install of the base system image, to help narrow it down to an actual hardware or UEFI issue, or an OS or driver issue.

[Grzwacz]

Hi,

Oh, this started after updating to 1903?

That could be the problem. New chipset drivers may help. 

Thanks for the Tech Republic link.

Regards

[TomC_]

I realize earlier I didn't mention updating UEFI, that was done with the latest version from the HP site.

Further steps tried, problem remains

1. Reset this PC - Keep my files.

2. Clean install of Windows 1903 (possibly with recent updates, used MS's media creation tool for this)

3. Clean restore using the factory HP Windows image, which reverted Windows 10 back to 1709.

With all of the above failing to resolve the issue, it's clear it's not the Windows 1903 or subsequent updates that have caused this, the timing was just coincidental.

Someone elsewhere mentioned to me it's likely an AGESA issue (AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture).  With the system still having the issue after the firmware update done before, I'm going to double check the versions to make sure it did successfully apply.

[Grzwacz]

Hi TomC_,

I am not familiar with AGESA.

I thought you may have a BIOS problem.

What monitoring tool are you using to check CPU speed, Task Manager or a third party tool?

Regards

[niceYear]

Hi TomC_,

I am not familiar with AGESA.

I thought you may have a BIOS problem.

What monitoring tool are you using to check CPU speed, Task Manager or a third party tool?

Regards

With all of the above failing to resolve the issue, it's clear it's not the Windows 1903 or subsequent updates that have caused this, the timing was just coincidental.

[TomC_]

Been using Task Manager, and also it's easy to spot as the Windows 10 UI login animations are really janky when the CPU is stuck at 400MHz.

Haven't really tried much with the machine in the past month, beyond double booting every time to use it. Debating if it's worth throwing money at HP support to fix it or not at this point.