[CURIOSITY] Why does A300 with failed nec tokin work fine after disabling cores?

[harispap]

Hello,
I Have a quation out o fmy curiosity. Why A300 laptops do still work fine even if they have the known nec/tokin problem when the two cpu cores are disabled?Does this affect the longevity of the processor or other components of the motherboard?

[ktmmotocross]

Re: [CURIOSITY] Why does A300 with failed nec tokin work fine after disabling cores?

bad tokin not filter cpu voltage so that makes restarts and instability. lower load makes it less

[goontron]

Re: [CURIOSITY] Why does A300 with failed nec tokin work fine after disabling cores?

^ This. You look at the output of a buck converter with no filtering and it will range from anything that of a saw wave to a full square wave. Dead NEC/TOKIN aren't fully dead. They still have some nominal capacitance that, under low load can smooth the waveform just enough to keep running stable(ish).

[harispap]

Re: [CURIOSITY] Why does A300 with failed nec tokin work fine after disabling cores?

Yes, but when 2 cores are disabled, in fact the speed-step of the Intel CPU is disabled and both are running at full speed. I even ran Prime95 for half an hour or so, played games for hours (of course with good quality MX-4 thermal paste , clean from dust ) and not a single crash (yet).
Will the problem come back even in this situation? Because it seems that the nec/tokin is only needed when the speed step technology of the intel processor is enabled if I have understood correctly?

[goontron]

Re: [CURIOSITY] Why does A300 with failed nec tokin work fine after disabling cores?

^ It will continue to degrade, yes. And while it's not crashing, look for programs starting to stop working/force close/segfault.

Now, the reason it has temporarily stopped: Yes, one of the jobs the N/T does is bulk power storage to keep up with the power fluctuations of the CPU when switching frequencies. With SS disabled, its doesn't switch frequencies, so the N/T isn't doing much work.

But, as i said before, this is a temporary fix.

[harispap]

Re: [CURIOSITY] Why does A300 with failed nec tokin work fine after disabling cores?

Ok thanks. Am I ruining the CPU by running it this way? Because I currently have no way to fix it and I use the laptop frequently. When it fails, my cousin can replace it as he has done on a friend's A300 and it runs fine but he is not here for the next 6 months

[goontron]

Re: [CURIOSITY] Why does A300 with failed nec tokin work fine after disabling cores?

^ I don't think so. Any VRM with its weight in mineral won't overshoot because of bad output filtering, so i would say the CPU won't be harmed.

[harispap]

Re: [CURIOSITY] Why does A300 with failed nec tokin work fine after disabling cores?

Ok thanks !