Ryzen 7 7840HS is not running at full speed

[inthemirror]

Notebookcheck has recently reviewed a laptop from the same lineup and it's also affected:

notebookcheck . net/HP-EliteBook-845-G10-review-The-almost-perfect-business-laptop-with-AMD-Zen4.741264.0.html

The reviewer however didn't even notice the single threaded performance issue which says everything about their technical expertise or lack of.

Three days ago I contacted the reviewer personally and left feedback on the website and I've not heard back. Tech media has become as distant from customers as possible. I remember in the late 90s tech journalists published their emails, tech media offered several emails to actually communicate with them, nowadays it's all gone.

DM for Notebookcheck Twitter English and German accounts is disabled.

Who needs loyal customers when you have Google Ads.

[TzortzisG]

 Yes, I also noticed the review and posted an appropriate comment. Unfortunately the reviewers there have stopped paying attention to the Comments section for quite some time. Have been a notebookcheck.net fan for many years, but it is apparent that things have been going downhill with the Austrian site for many years now. That's why I always double-check their reviews by reading the laptopmedia reviews of the same products. These guys are ruthless (Bulgaria). They do extensive testing, and if the BIOS is broken, they issue a "DO NOT BUY" advisory. This 470G9 (laptopmedia) review illustrates my point: "HP must have done something terribly wrong with the BIOS settings of its laptops this year. We could never recommend getting this device. Full of disappointments, the HP 470 G9 wouldn’t be a welcome guest in every home." They often repeat the fact that they buy the products from the stores with their own money, which is exactly the opposite of Notebookcheck. I was thinking of emailing them and putting a request for a review of the 845G10 (or the 865G10/Firefly14G10 that share the same BIOS). It might be an even better idea if you contact them instead.

 Recently, I also discovered a certain Vietnamese gaming site that does excellent reviews. They noticed the multiplier throttle on the 845G10, but think that it's trivial. However, they do advise to NOT update the BIOS on these machines and stick to version 01.01.08, due to various bugs they have found on the more recent versions.

[inthemirror]

I've just sent a message to LaptopMedia:

Hello guys,

It would be great if you reviewed HP EliteBook 845 14" G10 and exposed HP for what they are.

Here's the problem. AMD has screwed up with BIOSes for multiple AMD Phoenix APUs and they never reach advertised CPU clock speeds after a BIOS update. I've now filed at least 10 support requests with HP and they simply don't give a **bleep**. Maybe they will notice your review and do something.

Sources:

...

It's not strictly necessary to review this exact model. The Reddit thread contains many more affected models.

Best regards,
Artem

[inthemirror]

Some people on Reddit claim HP has finally released a BIOS update for some but not all affected models.

Hooray! Took them just 1.5 months and it's still pending for my laptop. 🙂

[TzortzisG]

 Usually ZBook users make a difference, because their systems are full-fledged workstations, and they are quite unforgiving when it comes to issues like this one. Unfortunately these are still brand new systems. Not many have purchased them, and even fewer have fully tested. They will.......

 I generally try to do things more discreetly. I said that these guys are from Bulgaria, I never said they're Ancient VIking warlords from Norse sagas. Have you never heard of the phrase with the flies and the honey? 😄

[inthemirror · Accepted solution]

I should have called the dedicated business unit support from the get go. I've now talked to a wonderful guy and he told me everything I needed to know.

The issue is being worked on, a firmware fix will be released in "a few weeks". It's not the only issue, so it's taking a little bit more time than usual. Hopefully other laptops will receive updates as well.

Thanks everyone!

[Neurrone]

@inthemirror how did you contact business support?

I have this laptop too and am trying to report a bios bug that's causing the 7940HS (and probably other phoenix processors) to draw 4w at idle, which is an insane amount which destroys battery life.

If you run `powercfg /energy` on yours, do you get an error about Active state link power management (ASPM) being disabled? I'm getting this error. ASPM is being disabled for some of the PCIe links, which contributes to this issue. Its a sign of bad bios.

[inthemirror]

You may have no issues with firmware when there's no firmware 🙂

HP has removed BIOS downloads for this laptop and the issue hasn't been addressed yet.

[inthemirror]

Call HP hotline and they'll give you the number.

As for the idle power consumption, I have this issue fixed under Linux thanks a tiny utility (but you're right, it should be fixed in BIOS)  but in Windows I've no idea if it works. I don't use Windows 🙂

I'll run the command later and update the post.

[Neurrone]

Yeah, I noticed the removal of the bios from the drivers page for this notebook. It only happened yesterday.

Are you affected by the insane idle power draw issue as well?