Performance issues after F.30 BIOS update

[Oldboy49]

Shame it didn't work.  Keep looking a solution may be out there .  

[Fwood]

Oldboy, it worked well enough that HP should give CherylG a very, very nice gift for suggesting the KB. My computer may or may not be as good as it was prior to the BIOS update, but the improvements indicate that the KB (or the GRC InSpectre tool, manual regedit, or equivalent) is absolutely the best solution. I had previously disabled the Spectre mitigation, but afterward I clearly didn't test the computer long enough to see that it works.

My temperature situation (86C today) could have existed prior to the BIOS update; I only installed Core Temp a few days ago so I don't have a pre-BIOS update baseline to draw from. Perhaps task manager has always opened slowly and I didn't really notice it until the BIOS update-related problems occurred.

The computer ran well with Windows Spectre mitigation enabled and the previous BIOS. Now it runs well enough with the updated BIOS and Windows Spectre mitigation disabled. It's up to MS or HP to make Spectre mitiagtion and the new BIOS work together.

[b3rt13]

Hi again,
I tried to download an run the KB but it seemingly did nothing. After googling a bit, I found a program called InSpectre (https://www.grc.com/inspectre.htm) that told me that my Spectre portection is disabled (that's what should've happend, shouldn't it?), yet the cpu didn't change in the slightest. Checked the HP Support Assistant again and updated the newly found HP PC Hardware Diagnostics UEFI (6.7.2.0) which seemed to have helped a little since the cpu now isn't at high level all the time but makes bigger jumps. It often ranks between 4 to 11% then jumps to 47+ then falls again. When I rebooted my notebook and directly checked the task manager it was at 100%. Starting the browser also brings it up to 90 to 100% the it falls again.
I think it got better yet still isn't perfect...

[Fwood]

b3rt13: I presume the KB and the "disable" function of InSpectre modify the registry the same way – but I don't know and I've only run InSpectre, not the KB. The first time I ran it (needs administrative privilege) I felt there was very little improvement and therefore re-enabled Spectre mitigation. The second time I ran it there was a marked improvement in speed and the AMD processor (15-bw0xx) settled down faster after startup. The CPU runs at 100% during startup but settles down to 5%-10% (with task manager open) within 15 minutes of boot.

Prior to running Inspectre I made various modifications in an attempt to fix whatever had happened to the software environment after the BIOS update, including downloading drivers through Device Manager and directly from AMD that were not available by running Windows Update or HP Assistant. I think the updated drivers are now causing unusual display issues, but at this point I really don't know. I've rolled back the Radeon 5 driver and video has returned to normal, although windows now "wipe" or "dissolve" when closed, rather than simply disappearing when reduced to the task bar.

Other than that, it seems that disabling Spectre mitigation solved all of the BIOS-related problems.

Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than I can help you get your computer back up to snuff. I've worked with (not on) computers since the 1980s and have repaired printed circuits in other electronics equipment . . . from TVs to submarines. But I'm not an engineer nor a software whiz. I assume if your CPU is bouncing between 4% - 11%, periodically climbing higher, it's normal behavior.

[Bletsos]

Temporary but efficient solution. Just add 2 lines in registry .

To disable Spectre Variant 2 mitigations:

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" /v FeatureSettingsOverride /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f  
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" /v FeatureSettingsOverrideMask /t REG_DWORD /d 3 /f

https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/ADV180002 

[b3rt13]

@Fwood: you might be right with the normal behaviour. Sadly, I didn't check the cpu behaviour when I newly got this notebook and only when I sensed something wrong. But since I don't have any issues while typing or watching hd videos anymore, I guess it's back to normal 🙂

So thanks at everyone in this thread for reviving it and finding a solution!