The problem is that my new Beelink Ser8 with Windows unfortunately consumes a lot of power, even when idle on the desktop.
My SER8 has the latest BIOS (V029 from 10/23/2024). For the examination I have freshly installed the following OS, with the latest drivers (and the drivers from Beelink as a test), no other devices connected, no programmes open, I measure the following power consumption via Wifi socket when idling in the desktop (i.e. not calibrated, but it is sufficient for estimating the dimensions)
Windows 10 1809 LTSC:
- Power consumption: 28 - 40 watts
Windows 11 24H2:
- Power consumption: 18 - 21 watts
Ubuntu 24. 04 LTS
- Power consumption: 7 - 9 watts
Under Windows I observe an abnormally high CPU utilisation due to the “system” process and numerous system interrupts. ‘system’ points to ntoskrnl.exe in the properties.
Windows 10 1809 LTSC:
Windows 11 24H2:
I think this is the cause of the excessive power consumption in idle mode. I have investigated the matter further with the Windows Performance Analyser and was able to find out that the high CPU usage of “system” must be related to the following components:
ntoskrnl.exe
Wdf01000.sys
ACPI.sys
msgpioclx.sys
amdgpio2.sys
amdgpio2.sys also causes a lot of interrupts.
The problem is the same in Windows 10 and 11.
To narrow down the problem, I reinstalled Windows 10 1809 LTSC on the machine without a network. Completely fresh and without any updates, the system then uses around 12W. I then installed each driver manually and offline, while keeping an eye on the task manager and the power measurement.
You can install the latest drivers for everything and the system stays at around 12W power consumption and also goes to 0% CPU load when it has nothing to do. ….
… Until the AMD GPIO driver (amdgpio2.sys) is installed - then the box starts to rattle around again, doesn’t come to rest and uses 3x as much power. I have tried different versions of the driver - without success.
The different versions of amdgpio2.sys only changed the CPU load a little and accordingly the power consumption. Depending on the driver version between 2% and 5%, which corresponds to 18 to 40 watts. However, the basic problem remains.
To verify this, I ran the same experiment again with Windows 11 24H2 - with the same result as with Windows 10.
Then, by chance/typing error, I gave the device (ACPI\AMDI0030) the amdgpio3.sys, which is actually for AM4 chipsets (ACPI\AMDIF030), and the trouble was over again. I probably just disabled the GPIO controller with the wrong driver.
What effect does this have? Which peripherals are connected via this controller in Ser8?
It is very likely that it is not the GPIO controller itself but a device connected to it that is causing the problems.
It would be important for the Beelink technicians to solve the problem and provide an improved BIOS.
The trial with Ubuntu shows that the system is basically capable of running as economically as would be expected with the hardware built in and as comparable systems from other manufacturers do. Beelink should urgently make improvements here.
(I don’t seem to be the only customer with the problem of high idle current consumption, in some reviews this was cited as a negative point for the Beelink Ser8)
