My processor speed drops to 800 Mhz when my Lenovo Thinkpad W541 is plugged into the OEM cable

Solution 1:

I had this problem with the W541 more than a year ago, and it came down to the machine perceiving that it was getting insufficient power, and throttling down the CPU as a result. In my case, when the OEM adapter was plugged in, the power-settings switched to "Airplane" mode, which is a severely reduced power plan. Check what power plan you're running under when you're in this 800Mhz reduced performance state. While the subject line is a different issue, this thread fundamentally describes the problem and the solution.

(If you check "Control Panel -> All -> Power Options -> Airplane -> Change plan settings -> Change advanced power settings -> Processor power management - Minimum processor state", you'll see that for Minimum processor state, both "on battery" and "plugged in" are set to 5%, which was the source of my problem.)

If that doesn't resolve the issue, others have found the following to resolve the throttled-CPU issue:

  1. Shutdown windows
  2. Disconnect Power plug.
  3. Take out battery
  4. Press Power button couple of times (laptop wont start as no battery or power but this would drain any remain charge inside mobo)
  5. Put battery back in and plug back power (Issue should be solved Now)