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My Windows 10 event log continually states. In fact, I think my system is slowing down due to this fact.

The speed of processor 0 in group 0 is being limited by system firmware. The processor has been in this reduced performance state for 61 seconds since the last report.

The details are:

Source: Kernel-Processor-Power (Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Processor-Power)
Event ID: 37
Level: Warning 
User: System
Task Category: 7

The system is a VAIO SVS13K9EB notebook with a fresh Windows 10 install and all drivers up to date.

Any idea what causes this and how to solve it?

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9 Answers 9

8

It's a Windows bug caused by Intel DPTF or Intel CPPC in new machines. It's caused by throttling of the CPU by the Intel software.

You can try putting the power-plan to performance and also try setting min and max processor states to 100%.

9

Just adding this here, because I had this problem, and after trying all possible solutions, including BIOS settings and setting the min and max processor states to 100%, it turned out I had something really silly.

My Samsung Laptop (NP900X4C), an old Series 9 laptop with Intel i5, but still going strong, suddenly started to throttle itself to 47% at 0.80Ghz. I was also getting the strange behaviour that upon boot up it first goes to 100% until all the services are started and then it throttles itself with that "The speed of processor 0 in group 0 is being limited by system firmware." event.

After trying all solutions I found online and nothing works, it turned out that my laptop has this 'silent mode' which I could enable by Fn + F11, which slows down the fan speed but also throttles the CPU. I had never used this mode, and I must have hit it by mistake. Silly problem, but if you don't know about it will make you go round in circles.

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4

Kernel-Processor-Power Event ID 37 is not an error, it is a warning. It informs you that your system runs on low battery and therefore has reduced the speed.

3

It was the charger. It was faulty and turning on and off at random intervals, and for some reason the computer decided to limit the CPU. Buying a new charger (from the manufacturer) fixed it completely.


I just partially solved this on my computer, a Lenovo which was constantly stuck at 0.39GHz, based on this answer on the HP forums:

So, I think I've found a solution to this and it doesn't really make any sense.

In Windows 10, go to Device Manager, find the section titled Firmware, expand it and right click "System Firmware" then click "Update Drivers" select "Search Automatically Online" and let Windows do it's thing, it will take a couple of minutes, it should update the firmware of the machine.

In my case it was called something like "Lenovo System Firmware 1.17", I updated it, restarted the computer, and then kept receiving a warning to restart to finish installing the new driver. I followed this answer on the Miscrosoft forums, which fixed the issue:

As this error message indicates a failure in the hardware, we suggest that you run the hardware troubleshooter. To do this, kindly follow these steps:

  1. Press Windows and type "troubleshoot".
  2. Select Troubleshooting and click Hardware and Devices.
  3. Follow the on-screen instructions to run the troubleshooter.
  4. Restart your computer and see if it will now work.

Let us know the result of the troubleshooter.

After restarting, my computer is back to its old speeds for the most part. Every so often it goes back to 0.39GHz, but unplugging and plugging back in solves the issue temporarily. I'm still looking for a long-term fix.

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  • The "system firmware" here is likely referring to what previously used to be called the "system BIOS", nowaday perhaps "UEFI". Name-brand machines (Lenovo, HP, anyone else?) may provide BIOS updates to Microsoft to include in the Windows Update "repository". Thus, you may be able to obtain a "BIOS update" via Windows Update - for select few brands and models of PC hardware.
    – frr
    Dec 29, 2021 at 9:43
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I just had a customer with this problem with an HP-15 machine with Windows 10 installed. The processor speed was actually throttled back to 25% of rated capacity. No SpeedStep available in the BIOS.

After several hours of fiddling around, I deleted "Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework" from "System Devices" and that fixed the problem. (Note, you cannot delete it from the main "Device Manager" menu...at least I couldn't, but deleting it from the System submenu worked).

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0

Answer: Processor not running at max speed?

This error means that your battery is low and the CPU has reduced its speed to help save battery.

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0

The error appears to state that firmware is the contributor to the issue. Since Firmware is only adjustable through the BIOS interface or special manufacturer controlled updates or management software, I disabled (Intel) Speed Step in BIOS as it was the only option that would resolve the sluggishness. My current DELL is an i5 with 16GB RAM, 1.5 TB SSD from 2015. There was no option to adjust fan speeds for my Inspiron 17. I purchased a new DELL adapter. It had no effect. Other references to devices were not available on my system. I have no Intel management software on my system. So I tried disabling the Speed Step from BIOS. Message gone. Kind of defeats the purpose of this tech, useful for power conservation for notebooks. You want the "AI" to conserve power when not in use, but I was finding the notebook did not seem to re enable all cores. Multitasking tech (of CPU streams) appears not to be affected! I mostly found the issue in a graphics program, but it would spread to the other few programs I regularly use. The memory/processor speed step interaction failure may be a function of age as the notebook is over 6 years old.

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  • As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please edit to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.
    – Community Bot
    Jan 7, 2022 at 19:45
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    – Community Bot
    Jan 8, 2022 at 0:53
0

for anyone still comes across this post, it could be caused by the throttling software on your system that you may or may not be aware. Examples

  • Intel Extreme Tunning Utility
  • Lenovo Vantage
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  • Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please edit to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.
    – Community Bot
    Dec 5, 2022 at 17:01
-1

This was caused by overheating the processor. Most of our laptops got this error. Cheap, consumer-grade laptops will face this issue due to cheap design. The corporate-grade laptops hardly get this kind of issue. (e.g. Dell Latitude series)

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  • 2
    Things much more complicated here. My cpu is cold, battery is full and yet I have such a problem.
    – zhekaus
    Nov 4, 2020 at 6:18
  • As someone experiencing this issue intermittently from a "corporate-grade" Dell Latitude laptop, this isn't the full picture.
    – zcoop98
    Aug 28 at 16:24

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