Arch Linux

garliccheese

Member

Registered: Yesterday

Posts: 2

Thinkpad X270 3rd party battery causing CPU throttling

Hi everyone,

I'm using Arch (Plasma atm) on a Thinkpad X270 with a third party battery. This appears to cause the CPU to be throttled. The CPU is inconsistently throttled to 800-900 Mhz, rendering the machine barely usable. Throttling occurs independent of battery level or charge. The same happens with other distros, so it's not explicitly specific to Arch, however I've had it throttle down to 400 Mhz on other distros.

The throttling is removed once I connect an external power source, even if its just for a couple of seconds. This is quite unreliable and makes using the device without being plugged in a pain.

Is there any approach I can take to effectively disable the throttling? I’ve read that there may be a risk to also have thermal throttling disabled as well, which I would be fine with.

Thanks everyone for sharing your experience

5hridhyan

Member

From: Asia

Registered: 2025-12-25

Posts: 357

Re: Thinkpad X270 3rd party battery causing CPU throttling

https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/any/throttled/
install it and enable the service, the config file usually located at /etc/lenovo_fix.conf, you can check if BDPROCHOT is set to "False" in that file to ensure the battery signal is ignored, however, monitor your CPU temperatures if you disable it, since BDPROCHOT is a safety mechanism, also make sure the system is not approaching thermal limits (around 99-100°C).

edit:
my bad it was my file location, sorry

Last edited by 5hridhyan (Yesterday 13:19:01)

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Keep your virtue sharpened in a kingdom of carrion, and the throne they offer will be built from your ribs.

garliccheese

Member

Registered: Yesterday

Posts: 2

Re: Thinkpad X270 3rd party battery causing CPU throttling

https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/any/throttled/
install it and enable the service, the config file usually located at /etc/lenovo_fix.conf, you can check if BDPROCHOT is set to "False" in that file to ensure the battery signal is ignored, however, monitor your CPU temperatures if you disable it, since BDPROCHOT is a safety mechanism, also make sure the system is not approaching thermal limits (around 99-100°C).

Marvelous, thanks a lot, I'll give it a shot right away!

Looks good so far. I had to edit the `/etc/thorttled.conf` to disable BDPROCHOT in the BATTERY section. But so far I haven't been throttled!

Last edited by garliccheese (Yesterday 13:01:32)

5hridhyan

Member

From: Asia

Registered: 2025-12-25

Posts: 357

Re: Thinkpad X270 3rd party battery causing CPU throttling

But so far I haven't been throttled!

glad, "test" for while at least ~24 hours and see...

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Keep your virtue sharpened in a kingdom of carrion, and the throne they offer will be built from your ribs.