GCUService.exe using nvidia GPU - can't shut off

[Eldavo]

Hello,
I noticed GCUService.exe (the control center service) keeps the discrete GPU on and does not allow it to turn off, making battery life very poor on my ionico 15.6 .
Does anyone have the same problem?
Thanks,
David

edit: control center downloaded from pcs website, version 3.1.6.0

 

[SpyderTracks]

Have you configured the MUX settings at all?

 

[Romain337]

@Eldavo Don't use any external monitor while on battery, and use only the 32 bits version of HWMonitor, CPU-Z or whatever monitoring program to keep gcuservice away from your GPU.

The better, turn off your computer, and start it (on battery). Then try to check what make gcuservice to start by looking at the nvidia icon in the task bar (the icon that show when you click "options -> show gpu activity" in the nvidia control panel) while you are doing your usual usage.

Edit: when gcuservice is not running you will notice the GPU frequency frequently going to about 1500Mhz from time to time. Don't worry about that. When gcuservice is running, the GPU will be locked at 210Mhz, but you will lose way more battery (2 hours in my test).

 

[Eldavo]

@Eldavo Don't use any external monitor while on battery, and use only the 32 bits version of HWMonitor, CPU-Z or whatever monitoring program to keep gcuservice away from your GPU.

The better, turn off your computer, and start it (on battery). Then try to check what make gcuservice to start by looking at the nvidia icon in the task bar (the icon that show when you click "options -> show gpu activity" in the nvidia control panel) while you are doing your usual usage.

Edit: when gcuservice is not running you will notice the GPU frequency frequently going to about 1500Mhz from time to time. Don't worry about that. When gcuservice is running, the GPU will be locked at 210Mhz, but you will lose way more battery (2 hours in my test).

I never used an external monitor at all. I'm not running any monitoring program. I'm only watching the nvidia icon.

The situation has somehow improved:Now, if I start the computer, the gcuservice.exe will not use the gpu until another program uses it. If for example I open cuphead and then close it, the gcuservice will keep the gpu until i manually restart the service. this also works when cuphead is still running.
This behaviour, however, includes Throttlestop, which does not actually use the gpu.

In other words: i need to restart the service everytime something uses my dgpu.

 

[Romain337]

@Eldavo Yes ThrottleStop don't wake the service (it is a 32bits executable, and it's nice since we use it to undervolt). I guess that any game (not only cuphead) will wake the service and once the service is running you have no choice appart to kill it manually (kill the 64 bits version from the task manager but let the 32 bits version running). This solve the problem for me like you.

Software is crappy. I don't even know what's the purpose of the fake sliders to [over or under]volt the cpu in the control center for example. I feel like I'm taken for a jerk by TongFang or PCS, but that's okay ....

 

[Eldavo]

I guess, however, that restarting the service can break the fan control. For example, now my CPU is hot, but fans won't turn up. Will probably need to restart the PC to get the fans going. This is ridicolous. So now I need to let my cpu task finish in office mode because in other modes cpu goes instant 95°.
The bad thing is that PCS can't do anything because I suppose they are not the developers of the CC (tongfang is). How to contact the developers, then?
About the voltage sliders, they are made for desktop PCs for overvolting. It obviously has no use in this laptop.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I guess, however, that restarting the service can break the fan control. For example, now my CPU is hot, but fans won't turn up. Will probably need to restart the PC to get the fans going. This is ridicolous. So now I need to let my cpu task finish in office mode because in other modes cpu goes instant 95°.
The bad thing is that PCS can't do anything because I suppose they are not the developers of the CC (tongfang is). How to contact the developers, then?
About the voltage sliders, they are made for desktop PCs for overvolting. It obviously has no use in this laptop.

Contact PCS they’ll need to liaise with TongFang