Power Mode Stuck?

Hello, I have a Dell G3, yes it's old. I have been trying to get the power mode to switch to performance to no avail.

If I type:
powerprofilesctl list

into terminal, I get this:

performance:
CpuDriver: intel_pstate
PlatformDriver: platform_profile
Degraded: no

  • balanced:
    CpuDriver: intel_pstate
    PlatformDriver: platform_profile

    power-saver:
    CpuDriver: intel_pstate
    PlatformDriver: platform_profile

Then if I type:
powerprofilesctl set performance

I get this:

Failed to communicate with power-profiles-daemon: g-io-error-quark: GDBus.Error:org.gtk.GDBus.UnmappedGError.Quark._g_2dio_2derror_2dquark.Code0: Failed to activate platform driver 'platform_profile': Failed to write to acpi_platform_profile: Error writing '/sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile': Invalid request code (0)

I have attempted to reinstall it, restart it and still nothing. Can anyone help shed some light on this?

Is your BIOS / EFI up to date?

If it is a notebook computer, are you plugging in using the Dell power cable? Dell will often lock changes to power profile if a different power source is used.

Does that computer have a "Game Shift" keyboard shortcut? Power Profiles can be restricted if it is toggled one way - so toggling the other lisfts the restriction.

1 Like

BIOS is up to date, power mode worked flawlessly on windows before I switched.
The power cable is OEM Dell.
Fn+F7 used to enable or disable "Game Shift" technology, Now if I click it nothing happens.
It also seems like the fans don't speed up like they're supposed to.

I know that for my system I wasn't able to set a "performance" mode until a certain kernel version arrived that properly supported it for my hardware. That being said, if you're running older hardware, I'm not sure how that might work with these power profiles.

That being said, I haven't seen a huge difference between Balance and Performance, so much so that I never turn on Performance. So if it were me, I don't think I would be too worried that the option isn't turning up. But the fans, there are tools you can look into for monitoring their speeds, because I've also had it on older machines where Windows would actually run them much faster than they actually needed to.

All of that typing to essentially say, this may just be a kernel issue and proper support for your hardware. That being said, I don't know what version of the kernel would be best for your hardware.

2 Likes

Understandable. I found a possible "fix" while digging around in my bios. In there I have what's called intel speed step. If I disable this it sets the CPU performance to the highest. This probably won't do my battery life any favors, not that it matters, I'm rarely unplugged anyways. I know this made quite a difference because for the last hour I was able to play "MOUSE: P.I. For Hire" and it did't crash, before it crashed every time I tried to play it. Power Mode still says "balanced". I'll just ignore it. I'll take what I can get. Maybe this will help someone else.

3 Likes

When You go to Settings>Power is there a Performance Mode Option?

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