# nvidia PowerMizer not working (no underclocking)

## Elmo234

I am switching to gentoo (64 bit) from kubuntu in my new dell XPS 1330 laptop, but I found this problem:

My graphic card is a nvidia geforce 8400M gs. But powermizer doesn't work. It stays continuously at maximum level (400/600 Mhz), so there is no underclocking. It doesn't matter if the laptop is on batteries or on AC, that the powersource in nvidia-settings always indicates "AC" and the performance mode "Desktop".

I am using the 169.12 driver (the 173.xx version was giving me lots of problems as I am also using uvesafb).

PS: in kubuntu (also 64bit) this same version of the driver was working without any problems .

PS2: I detected that laptop-mode also doesn't detect that the computer is on batteries. When I type " cat /proc/sys/vm/laptop_mode" the answer is always "0". But kde detects correctly when the system is on batteries or not.

Let's see if someone knows where could be the problem.... as I am running out of batteries faster!!!

Thankssssss

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## <3

Are you running a composting windows manager like compiz or kde 4.0?

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## kernelOfTruth

Elmo234, you got acpid installed and added to runlevel default, right ?

if you're plannung to literally underclock the gpu, forget it - it hardlocks for me   :Idea: 

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## ZeuZ_NG

Well, I have virtually some similar situation here,

It shows that the power source is the battery (even though I do not have acpid, and running compiz-fusion over gnome 2.22.3) but it's still locked on maximum performance, I also haven't installed laptop-mode yet, because it's behaving smooth as hell without it, and I don't want another daemon to be messing in my startup  :Wink: 

So, any ideas what can I do to solve that? perhaps both solutions are similar... I'm using 173.14.09

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## kernelOfTruth

 *kernelOfTruth wrote:*   

> Elmo234, you got acpid installed and added to runlevel default, right ?
> 
> if you're plannung to literally underclock the gpu, forget it - it hardlocks for me  

 

screw that   :Wink: 

underclocking should work - but only for 3d-mode (underclocking in 2d still leads to hardlocks):

```
nvidia-settings --assign "[gpu:0]/GPUOverclockingState=1" --assign "[gpu:0]/GPU2DClockFreqs=169,100" --assign="[gpu:0]/GPU3DClockFreqs=169,150"
```

that is for a Geforce 8400M GS (on an dell xps m1330)

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