How to solve limited power options in Windows 10?
I was prompted to check for the CPU throttle of my windows laptop after running a benchmark (userbenchmark.com). It told me that my CPU could work faster if I allowed it to run at 100%, it was throttled to 90%. It also told me where to change that setting:
CPU throttled at 90% by Windows. Ensure maximum processor state is set to 100% via Settings > System > Power & sleep > Additional power settings > Change plan settings > Change advanced power settings > Processor power management > Maximum processor state.
As I tried to change that setting, I encountered a power options screen which was quite limited.
I had seed the missing power options in Windows 10 home before but never really bothered to change this limitation. But throttling a CPU isn’t usually what I like to do, even on a laptop that has very poor cooling… it somehow feels wrong.
So I searched and found a potential solution.
Use Regedit and change the below:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power
Change the value of the key CsEnabled from 1 to 0 and reboot.1 means connected standby enabled and 0 disabled.
Credits for this hint go to techidiots.net.
Before I went for it, I looked up what connected standby actually does. It seems to be a useful function for smartphones, which will keep checking for mail when the screen is off. Well, I’m running a laptop and I don’t need it to be awake while sleeping. Sleep didn’t actually work anyway and I set it to hibernate when the lid would close, see different article on sleep problems and hibernation in windows 10 here.
I tried it, and hooray, it worked straight away!
This looks way better.
However there was a teeny tiny drawback. Whenever I used sleep mode now, upon waking up windows would crash. Every time. The display showed some flickering vertical lines and I would have to hard reboot.
Therefore, as of now, I can’t recommend this option for anybody actually wanting to use sleep mode.
I have disabled sleep in all of the options for my laptop and continue using hibernation instead. Using the PCIe SSD (NMV M.2), entering and waking up from hibernation works crazy fast and saves battery more effectively than sleep. I don’t see any benefit in sleep mode really.