Hello.
Undervolting your CPU has always been a daunting task - there's so many CPU steps, if you pick say -100mV to all frequency steps and you get a reboot, how do you work out which step (or steps!) is causing the problem? If you undervolt -25mV on one frequency, then wait a couple of days to make sure it's stable, then reduce the same frequency by another 25mV.. you'll still be undervolting a year later.
This thread is my tutorial on how to do a best effort at quickly and safely undervolting your phone CPU.
First of all - is undervolting your CPU worth it?
Initially it was thought not to make much difference, but after some serious testing (thanks AndreiLux), "we" decided that it was a good idea. I also did my own basic testing, and it looks like it's worth it.
What are the advantages of undervolting?
What are the disadvantages of undervolting?
That's the great thing! Really the worst that can happen is your phone freezes or reboots. The steps below should eliminate all of that. Once you have undervolted your CPU to just above its freeze/crash levels, there are no disadvantages!
Note: I have had some minor data loss (eg an app forgets a setting) after an undervolting related crash, but it was rare and I believe has to do with the Perseus kernel "Enable dynamic FSync" setting. I note below how to mitigate against this.
What do you need?
Sorry for the complexity here, but it was the easiest way I could write it without repeating myself too much. The TL;DR version goes like this:
You now have a set of frequencies that shouldn’t immediately crash the phone. Set the min and the max frequencies back to normal, and set the governor back to your usual governor. At this point for me I was able to use the phone for about 2 hours before I had my first crash. How running a stress test on each frequency for 20 minutes didn’t pick up this crash situation I’m not sure, but it didn't.
After screwing around for a while I found the easiest solution was to just raise each frequency step by 25mV and then continue every day usage. That was enough to stabilise my phone. If it still crashes for you, keep raising all the values by 25mV until it settles down. After a day or two of no crashes you can start slowly one by one reducing each step by 25mV again to find out which step caused the crash.
After that, you should be done!
Ps I know there is another thread around here discussing undervolting, but I found it too vague on the details and sometimes wrong, so I thought I’d share my experiences in the hope it might help.
Undervolting your CPU has always been a daunting task - there's so many CPU steps, if you pick say -100mV to all frequency steps and you get a reboot, how do you work out which step (or steps!) is causing the problem? If you undervolt -25mV on one frequency, then wait a couple of days to make sure it's stable, then reduce the same frequency by another 25mV.. you'll still be undervolting a year later.
This thread is my tutorial on how to do a best effort at quickly and safely undervolting your phone CPU.
First of all - is undervolting your CPU worth it?
Initially it was thought not to make much difference, but after some serious testing (thanks AndreiLux), "we" decided that it was a good idea. I also did my own basic testing, and it looks like it's worth it.
What are the advantages of undervolting?
- Better battery life
- Cooler phone, especially useful if you overclock your CPU
What are the disadvantages of undervolting?
That's the great thing! Really the worst that can happen is your phone freezes or reboots. The steps below should eliminate all of that. Once you have undervolted your CPU to just above its freeze/crash levels, there are no disadvantages!
Note: I have had some minor data loss (eg an app forgets a setting) after an undervolting related crash, but it was rare and I believe has to do with the Perseus kernel "Enable dynamic FSync" setting. I note below how to mitigate against this.
What do you need?
- A rooted phone, and a kernel that supports undervolting. Perseus and Siyah will work, but any kernel should be fine that supports SetCPU's undervolting schema
- SetCPU or you can use a combination of STweaks and Stability Test (use STweaks for setting the frequency and voltage, and use Stability Test's Classic Test for the stress test)
- A paper and a pen - I used Sticky Notes as I was at a computer for most of the process
- Some patience
- Open SetCPU. You’ll be greeted by the Main screen which has the min/max CPU frequencies, the governor options, and the IO scheduler options. Reduce the max CPU frequency to the lowest step. On the SGS3 this will be reducing 1400MHz down to 200MHz, so you now have both the min and the max set at 200MHz. The phone will get pretty slow at this point. Ensure the Set on Boot option is unticked
- Set the governor to Performance (note: you have to make sure all cores of your CPU are being used. In a complex kernel such as Perseus, you'll have to go into STweaks and set the CPU hotplug lock to 4 so all 4 cores are used. Also note there appears to be a bug in Perseus at the time of writing: you have to set the hotplug lock BEFORE you change the governor to performance)
- Move to the Voltages screen
- Ensure the Set on Boot option is unticked, and scroll down to the lowest setting, and change it to something low, like 700mV, and then apply it (click the third icon from the right at the top of the screen, a rectangle with a tick on it) . This first setting is always a bit of guess and check, and to be honest you’re hoping for the phone to freeze or crash on this first one. Has it frozen? If so move on to the next step. If not, reduce it by a further 25mV and apply again, repeat until your phone freezes or reboots.
- So, you have undervolted too far. Reboot the phone, and perform steps 1-3 again. At step 4, use the voltage that crashed your phone +25mV (eg if it crashed at 675mV, this time set it to 700mV). Now, you have a very slow phone running a low voltage that doesn’t immediately crash it. Move on to the next step
- An easy crash test I found was simply allowing the phone to go into deep sleep, and waking it up again. To do this, unplug your phone if it’s charging, and turn the screen off. At this point I usually wrote the time down on my piece of paper, as well as what frequency and voltage I was testing as I’m prone to forget these things. Wait 5 minutes with the screen off (and make sure no notifications have come in while the screen is off – this wakes the phone up and you’ll have to wait another 5 mins), then turn the phone on. You’ll know it’s gone into deep sleep as there’ll be a slight delay before the screen turns on as compared to no delay when turning it off and immediately back on again. If the phone doesn’t turn on, go to step 5. If your phone comes out of deep sleep OK, move on to the next step.
- Now, we stress test. In SetCPU scroll over to the Info screen, and scroll down to the Stress Test option. Start it, and note down the time on your paper/Sticky Notes. Your CPU will now run as hard as it can at the current frequency. Let it run for 15-20 minutes. At the lowest frequency it will be pretty laggy and slow, if you think it has frozen always give it 30 seconds to see if it picks up again. If it gets stuck for over a minute, you probably have a crash. Go to step 5. If after 15-20 minutes it’s still running, you have found your first stable(ish) voltage for that frequency! At this point I saved the voltages in SetCPU by pressing the diskette icon. To ensure the changes are written to disk turn the phone screen off for 5 seconds then turn it back on again.
- We are now ready for the next frequency. There’s pretty much no way a frequency will run stably on a lower voltage than a frequency below it, so our first voltage for the next frequency up should be the same stable voltage we found for the previous frequency. For example if we found a stable voltage of 725mV on the 200MHz frequency, our first test voltage for 300MHz should be 725mV. Write this down with the frequency on your paper. In the Main screen of SetCPU, change the max frequency to the next step up. Then, in the Voltages screen, adjust the voltage to be the same as the lower frequency, as discussed above. If your phone immediately freezes or reboots, move to the next step. If not, go to step 10.
- So, you have undervolted too far, again! Reboot your phone, open up SetCPU, and in the main screen ensure the max frequency is set to the frequency we’re testing. Give the sliding bar things a jiggle to apply it. Ensure the governor is set to Performance by pressing it on the lower left part of the screen. Move to the Voltages screen, and you’ll either see your previous “saved” voltage values ready to be applied in dark grey under the “current” voltage settings, or you’ll have lost your “saved” voltage settings. If you have lost them, never fear; just restore the latest settings by clicking the first from the right icon at the top (a square with an arrow pointing outwards). Adjust the frequency we’re testing’s value to 25mV more than the value you last used when it crashed, and apply it. If it crashes immediately, repeat this step. If not, move on
- We now start the two tests in steps 6 and 7 again, but this time if your phone crashes or freezes, go to step 9. If it completes the deep sleep and stress test tests, go to step 8 for the next frequency test.
Sorry for the complexity here, but it was the easiest way I could write it without repeating myself too much. The TL;DR version goes like this:
- Pick the lowest untested frequency, set the max frequency to this and the governor to Performance, and find the lowest voltage that doesn’t immediately crash the phone
- Put the phone into deep sleep, and see if it crashes. If it does, increase the voltage for the current frequency we’re testing by 25mV and test again. If not, move on
- Run a stress test on the phone for 15-20 minutes. If it crashes, raise the voltage by 25mV and go to step B. If it doesn’t crash the current frequency is now tested. Go to step A
You now have a set of frequencies that shouldn’t immediately crash the phone. Set the min and the max frequencies back to normal, and set the governor back to your usual governor. At this point for me I was able to use the phone for about 2 hours before I had my first crash. How running a stress test on each frequency for 20 minutes didn’t pick up this crash situation I’m not sure, but it didn't.
After screwing around for a while I found the easiest solution was to just raise each frequency step by 25mV and then continue every day usage. That was enough to stabilise my phone. If it still crashes for you, keep raising all the values by 25mV until it settles down. After a day or two of no crashes you can start slowly one by one reducing each step by 25mV again to find out which step caused the crash.
After that, you should be done!
Ps I know there is another thread around here discussing undervolting, but I found it too vague on the details and sometimes wrong, so I thought I’d share my experiences in the hope it might help.
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