This is a good solution if you run the standalone version of a program. Using Cantabile, you don’t need that. You can set in Cantabile’s menu (audio engine -> switch to power plan) the plan you want. Closing Cantabile, the system will be reverted to the original power plane.
Real trouble is most of power control in a modern CPU is managed by the CPU itself and its chipset, sometime the user can only do a minor tuning by modifying BIOS parameters. In laptops, most of time, not even that is possible.
Well, on my Lenovo Yoga the ‘High Performance’ power plan is not available, I only have the standard ‘Balanced’ plan to choose, so it is not possible to select it in Cantabile, which is why I need this workaround. I can of course create a new power plan, but most of the settings are also hidden, so is not making any difference. I can try to tweak the registry to get things my way - or I can use the shortcut as described, and so far I have opted for the latter, as it is quite simple to set up, and it works.
Oh, and I have tested it now, it seems to work smoothly. The link to use for Cantabile (at least on my setup) is:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c “C:\Windows\System32\powercfg.exe -s 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c && “C:\Program Files\Topten Software\Cantabile 3.0\Cantabile.exe” && C:\Windows\System32\powercfg.exe -s 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e”
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I also use a Lenovo Yoga, so I will try this
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So, Lenovo chosen not to implement the hi power plan. Fanless? Keeping slow speed fan? Reduce heat sink size? I don’t know Lenovo policies about power management. In my experiences, with both workstation or ultrabook laptop, always got power plans without restriction
I remember having to do some registry work in order to get Ultimate Power Plan to show up on my HP laptop. This link has steps if interested in trying it (of course do a system backup beforehand). Ultimate shows in Cantabile when plugged in after doing the steps.
Sekim
It seems users of Lenovo 2in1 PC, are not able to switch to a simple high performance plan. I guess they can’t use the Ultimate power plan too, due Lenovo BIOS/hardware restriction.
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You can actually turn “High Performance” (and others) on by using the powercfg command directly with the correct GUID. But it does not make it permanently available, it disappears as soon as you select another powerplan. And that is also the reason why it is not feasible to use the build-in power-plan-selector in Cantabile, because it will require the power-plan to be visible when Cantabile is started …
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While I might prefer to have the choice, I can understand why a manufacturer would choose to do this in 2in1 convertible laptop, because they are thin machines designed with other priorities in mind other than ultimate performance, and there is very little room to dissipate the heat.
Having said that, I do like my Lenovo Yoga.
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Lenovo is bad about doing that sort of thing. Similar story with network cards and BIOS. Lenovo BIOS white lists “compatible” wireless cards and even enforces rebranding of the wireless card of the few white listed. Found that out the hard way with a pair of ThinkPads. No such issue with my HPs.
Concerning the power plan issue, my HPs are convertibles and no problem enabling Ultimate and Cantabile recognizing it. I like Lenovo products but with all this silliness in the BIOS probably will not buy any more of them…
Of course Cantabile will use one of the system power plan. The one-shot or disappearing plans are one of the tons oddity of Windows.
I agree, there is no reason to rise to high performance plan on the extremely portable PCs. My considerations are merely theoretical. I only tried to check if a high power plan were applicable on a low TDP processor. Anyway, as you said, a convertible (2in1, 360 etc.) PC is not designed for high performance.
Hi all, my first post here, just thought I could share my workaround for situations when Ultimate Performance plan exists but is hidden. I use a script that switches power plans when certain applications are running (and then goes back to Balanced when they are closed). I use it for DAWs and video editing software on my Lenovo Yoga 920 laptop. Note that I don’t have 2004 yet, so not sure if it will work when the update comes, but it shouldn’t depend on visibility of specific power plans in settings. Another benefit of this solution, of course, is that it switches to Ulltimate Performance for any program of your choosing, not just Cantabile. It also works when running on battery.
First, the script itself (I can’t post it here since the forum messes with formatting and I can’t upload files yet): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EI7p1MS_VMHCEu82GoJ8aZRfC02AX3lV/view?usp=sharing
Download and unzip to any location.
Second, you may want to do some edits in the script (i.e. this version doesn’t check for Cantabile). Check the script for applications you want to watch and edit the $special_programs variable. If you want to add a program to the list, you can find its name by launching it and running Get-Process command in PowerShell. You’ll get a long list of running processes where you can find your program.
This script switches between Ultimate Performance and Balanced plans. If you want some other plans involved, you’ll need to update the $programs_running_cfg, $programs_running_cfg_guid, $programs_not_running_cfg and $programs_not_running_cfg_guid variables. To get the guids and names of power schemes, run powercfg -l command in PowerShell.
Third, (optional), see if it works. Edit the script and uncomment (remove “#” signs) all lines starting with # write-host. Open PowerShell as Admin, run the following command:
powershell -executionpolicy bypass -noexit -file C:\D\powerplanswitcher.ps1 (obviously edit the path to where you saved the script). Start and close applications, see how the script reacts.
Finally, create a task to run the script automatically. Open Task Scheduler, hit New Task.
On General, select Run with highest privileges, Hidden, Configure for Windows 10
On Trigger, click New, select On startup
On Actions, New - Start a program. The Program is: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
The Arguments field should contain:
-WindowStyle hidden -nologo -executionpolicy bypass -noexit -file C:\D\powerplanswitcher.ps1 (obviously edit the path to where you saved the script)
On Settings, select Do not start a new instance (and adjust other settings to taste)
That should be it. Note that when computer starts, a PowerShell window will flash briefly and then disappear, this is normal. It’s complicated to hide it totally.
The script isn’t my idea, I got it here: http://www.bigsoft.co.uk/blog/2013/09/30/change-power-plan-when-application-starts
I agree, there is no reason to rise to high performance plan on the extremely portable PCs. My considerations are merely theoretical. I only tried to check if a high power plan were applicable on a low TDP processor. Anyway, as you said, a convertible (2in1, 360 etc.) PC is not designed for high performance.
I’ve been using my Yoga 920 convertible for 2 or 3 years, including for live gigs and rehearsals running Ableton with playbacks and MIDI controlling the whole show - devices, monitor mixer, etc. Without issues on high performance plans. And used a Yoga 910 before that.
It’s also my main computer for audio and video editing.
2 in 1s are great for this, touchscreens are sometimes useful for these applications. So of course there are reasons to use them.
It seems you used mainly your Yoga 920 for play audio tracks and control devices by midi. Sorry, this sounds unclear to me. Didn’t use any vst synth/effect? If so, please name them. The point is: sending audio and midi data is light task, running synth will be heavier. You said “playback”, that’s why i’m a bit puzzled (and amazed as well).
Sure, just playback and sending MIDI messages is light, and that’s what I do for gigs, but I also use it during rehearsals where I can have instrument tracks, sometimes heavy ones, both for playback and as an instrument. It’s also, as I said, my main computer for mixing and video processing (although the latter is just editing, not so much FX, as that really requires a discrete graphics card).
I don’t see anything in the convertible form factor that would decrease performance compared to a regular laptop. Whenever there are two versions offered by a manufacturer, they’re the same inside apart from the touchscreen and different hinges.
All Windows laptops (well, except maybe some gaming powerhouses) have processors with “U” in their model names, so they aren’t as powerful and have fewer cores than their counterparts that can be found on Macs, but that’s another issue.
Mikhail
Big misunderstanding? I’m not being criticizing a form factor, a brand, a model. I know any U series processor can be used for light video editing. More powerful processors and discrete video are used not only in gaming PC, but also in mobile-workstation, mainly used by software developers, engineers (for CAD) and so on.
At the end we buy a PC to get the performance we need, not only for what marketing claims, I hope.
I own a “U” laptop, I had a Spectre 360, I’m not a newbie. So i found a bit weird that your configuration with no hi power plan, no tweak on Windows, is able to manage the whole show. That means nothing really. If it works, it works!
Paolo
I use high performance power plans for all editing or live work.
Hello,
I just had a problem related to missing power management CPU options with a new Dell computer “upgraded” with “Dell Optimizer”.
The result was that my Max’s patch (used in parallel with Cantabile) was using 25% CPU on battery compared with 5% plugged in.
Didn’t really want to get into registry.
I just find a simple way to restore it quite simply, from the (admin) cmd window. Here are the links :
Hope this helps in case the solutions proposed here didn’t work.
Best regards,
Fred
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