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I was reading about https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/22630/is-google-chrome-killing-my-laptop-battery and stumbled across the ClockRes App

If I run this code:

@echo off
:AGAIN
call clockres
timeout /t 1
goto again

I always get

Maximum timer interval: 15.600 ms 
Minimum timer interval: 0.500 ms
Current timer interval: 0.500 ms

Could this be the reason why my computer is slow?

I closed Chrome, but the timer remains the same. The only applications I am running in the background are "Avast antivirus", "MEGASync", "uTorrent", "Pidgin" and "VirtualBox"

edit: apparently it's VirtualBox. After I closed it current timer went to 15.600 ms. If I open Chrome it goes to 1.000 ms so Google didn't fix that issue either. Is there any way to set VirtualBox to not use this much CPU?

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  • Which VirtualBox version are you currently using? Are you able to replicate the same behavior if you perform a clean boot?
    – and31415
    Aug 2, 2014 at 18:00
  • Version 4.3.12.r93733. Yes. Actually the timer changes as I start/quit virtualbox. I was wondering why do I have higher electricity bills since I installed it :|
    – windozsux
    Aug 2, 2014 at 20:06
  • What are your technical specifications? Is Windows 32-bit or 64-bit? Do you also get the same issue using the latest version, which is 4.3.14.95030?
    – and31415
    Aug 2, 2014 at 20:47

1 Answer 1

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Input

You can run the following command in a Administrative CMD Prompt:

c:\temp> powercfg -energy duration 5

This will create an a report called: C:\temp\energy-report.html

This report will show you which processes have changed the Clock Latency/Resolution on your computer. Normally these are RTC (Real-Time Communication) applications, but as you have noticed can be Chrome and other applications.

Output

An (albeit German) example of the output looks like this. Sorry I don't have access to an English client at the moment.

First Statement in Report: Something has changed

Plattform-Zeitgeberauflösung:Plattform-Zeitgeberauflösung

Die standardmäßige Plattform-Zeitgeberauflösung beträgt 15,6 ms (15625000 ns) und sollte immer dann verwendet werden, wenn sich das System im Leerlauf befindet. Wenn die Zeitgeberauflösung erhöht wird, sind die Technologien zur Prozessorenergieverwaltung möglicherweise nicht wirksam. Die erhöhte Zeitgeberauflösung kann auf eine Multimediawiedergabe oder Grafikanimationen zurückzuführen sein.

Aktuelle Zeitgeberauflösung (100-ns-Einheiten) 10000 <<=== CURRENT SETTING
Maximale Zeitgeberperiode (100-ns-Einheiten) 156250 <<== DEFAULT SETTING

Second Statement in Report: The Culprit

Plattform-Zeitgeberauflösung:Ausstehende Zeitgeberanforderung

Von einem Programm oder Dienst wurde eine Zeitgeberauflösung angefordert, die kleiner als die maximale Zeitgeberauflösung der Plattform ist.

Angeforderter Zeitraum 10000 <<== Requested Clock Latency
ID des anfordernden Prozesses 12592 <<== Process ID of application requesting different Clock Latency
Pfad des anfordernden Prozesses \Device\HarddiskVolume4\Program Files (x86)\C4B\XPhone Connect Client\C4B.XPhone.Commander.exe <<== The culprit

The information can be separated from each other and can contain different modules in between the individual blocks, but you should be able to find the culprit armed with the information provided above.

Different Resolutions

The applications that set a different resolution do this because they have different requirements. Real-Time Communications and Real-Time Computing can be one of these requirements. Because VirtualBox relies on fast response from the Guest OS, it changes this setting to ensure that the OS'es inside the VirtualBox respond in a timely fashion.

It also has to do with Windows OS Quantum and Preemptive Threading, but explaining that is another story.

Changing the Clock Resolutions would result in sluggish response from OS'es inside the VirtualBox.

Answering Your Question

Seeing as this is part of the VirtualBox.exe running, I don't think you will be able to change the clock latency/resolution.

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