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High CPU at Idle rMBP 13" 2013

ssn637

ssn637

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 12, 2009
452
48
Switzerland
Retina MacBook Pro 13" i7 2.8 GHz CPU 16 GB RAM 1 TB SSD Intel 5100 Graphics

Clean installation of Windows 7 x64 (and Technical Preview Enterprise Edition) in Boot Camp both result in a high CPU load, even in idle, that drains the battery excessively. The Task Manager lists two culprits: "System" and "System Interrupt", for an average total of 30% CPU load divided more or less evenly between the two. I tried disabling the Broadcom wireless and bluetooth adapters to no effect. All drivers seem to have been installed properly.

I've found a work around to this issue but would like to find a permanent solution: Whenever I close the lid, allow the system to sleep for a few seconds and then resume again both tasks drop to almost 0% immediately.

Has anyone else experienced this issue and found the root cause?
 
ssn637

ssn637

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 12, 2009
452
48
Switzerland
I've finally been able to isolate the cause of the high system interrupt frequency by performing a clean installation of Windows 7 x64 and adding the drivers sequentially while checking the Task Manager. The source of the problem turned out to be the Intel HD 5100 Graphics Drivers.

I've tried several versions of the drivers and installed them both manually and with the executable file to no effect. In every case the system idle load jumps to 30%, even without the Intel Audio driver included, and the only solution seems to be resuming the computer from sleep mode. If anyone has a better solution or a driver version that doesn't have this issue please help!
 
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d.oldham

macrumors newbie
Oct 21, 2014
2
0
I don't have a solution but just to let you know that I am having the exact same problem as you. I have a mid 2014 13" MacBook Pro with retina display (2.6 GHz i5, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, Intel Iris Graphics).

I have only ever tried to install Windows 8.1, which seems to have graphics drivers built in since with a clean install it shows up at 2560 x 1600 with 200% scaling (without installing the Apple boot camp drivers). So on clean installs I am getting 30% idle CPU usage.

I would like to thank you for the work around. It means I can boot into Windows now and again to use Office 2013 without getting only 3 hours battery life!

Surely we can't be the only people experiencing this problem? Has anybody else encountered this or know how to fit it permanently?
 
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linh1987

macrumors newbie
Jul 20, 2011
5
0
Was about to post a separate thread but I will make it here instead.
I believe it's because of Yosemite upgrade because it happens right after I installed Yosemite.

The reason is with Yosemite, a lot of Macbooks has their SMC and EFI firmwares upgraded, which is probably to support Handoffs and Continuity, but it has a side effect of causing Windows to be unable to communicate with the firmware properly.

If you want proof, go to Events Viewer / Windows Logs / System, you can see a bunch of error with ACPI subsystem (the embedded controller does not reply in a specified timeout blah blah), and we know that SMC and EFI firmwares are near to impossible to downgrade.

What can we do is we need to get some voices out for Apple to take notice and fix it (we can't do anything except the workaround mentioned above).

For reference with my rMBP 13" 2013:
Post-Yosemite:
Boot ROM Version: MBP111.0138.B11
SMC Version (system): 2.16f68

Pre-Yosemite:
Boot ROM Version: MBP111.0138.B03
SMC Version (system): 2.16f63
 
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Lipid

macrumors member
Jan 28, 2014
49
1
Yep, guys. Now I totally have the same problem. Just installed Yosemite and Win 8.1 Update 1 via Bootcamp. Right after reboot Task Manager shows 30% cpu load (System and System interrupts processes share 15% + 15% both). Put it to sleep and wake - voila, 0% CPU load...

Strange thing. It never was an issue on Mavericks 10.9.5 with Win 8.1 installed. Now as the SMC and EFI firmware is updated after Yosemite installer - you need to sleep it and resume to avoid 30% cpu load each time after Windows reboot.
 
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Lipid

macrumors member
Jan 28, 2014
49
1
This is not a solution, but a state of fact: uninstalling Intel Graphics drivers resolves the problem. Trying to investigate further...
 
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dxong

macrumors newbie
Sep 24, 2014
1
0
Same Issue

I just recently, installed BootCamp for the first time, and immediately noticed cpu usage of 30%, with clean install; no application or specific services running. I also want to state the problem is indeed regular, when looking at event viewer, getting the event ID 13; ACPI errors.

rMBP 13" 2013:
Post-Yosemite:
Boot ROM Version: MBP111.0138.B11
SMC Version (system): 2.16f68

A workaround as stated, is to get into sleep mode for a few second, and the cpu usage drops to 0%. So far the recursive interrupts of ACPI is not there...
 
ssn637

ssn637

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 12, 2009
452
48
Switzerland
Glad to see I'm not the only one with this issue.

For what it's worth, my Retina MacBook Pro 15" with OS X Yosemite installed is unaffected by this issue with Windows 7 x64 in Boot Camp and the latest NVidia graphics drivers. So I'm not sure the root cause can be isolated to a firmware update, unless OS X Yosemite only updates the EFI for post-2013 models (my 15" is a 2012 laptop with an earlier version of Bluetooth and Wireless LAN hardware).
 
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