Problem
After suspend/resume, all CPU cores get stuck at ~600 MHz (the lowest P-state) and won’t scale up, even under full load. The system becomes extremely sluggish.
Key observation: The issue persists across normal reboots. A standard reboot does NOT fix it - the throttle state is stored in firmware/EC.
System Info
- Laptop: Framework Laptop 16 (AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series)
- CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370
- BIOS: 3.04
- OS: Arch Linux (CachyOS kernel 6.18.4)
- Date: 2026-01-12
Symptoms
- All 24 cores locked at ~600 MHz
amd-pstate-eppdriver reports incorrect hardware limits (605 MHz - 3.29 GHz instead of full range)- System is painfully slow - even the BIOS menu runs slowly
- Governor set to “performance” has no effect
- Platform profile set to “performance” has no effect
- Issue persists across reboots
How to Check
# Check if stuck (all cores should NOT be at ~600MHz)
cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq | sort -n | uniq -c
# Check driver
cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_driver
# Full info
sudo cpupower frequency-info
When stuck, you’ll see output like:
driver: amd-pstate-epp
hardware limits: 605 MHz - 3.29 GHz
current CPU frequency: 603 MHz
Solution: EC Reset
Hold the power button for 10+ seconds while the laptop is completely off.
Steps:
- Shut down the laptop completely (not just sleep)
- Wait a few seconds
- Hold the power button for 10+ seconds
- Release and boot normally
Result:
- All cores now scale properly (600 MHz idle → 5.1 GHz boost)
amd-pstate-eppdriver reports correct limits- System runs at full speed again
Why This Works
The Embedded Controller (EC) manages power states independently of the operating system and main CPU. When the firmware enters a bad throttle state after suspend, it persists across normal reboots because the EC maintains its state through warm boots.
A long power button hold (10+ seconds) triggers a full EC reset, clearing the stuck throttle state from the firmware.
Partial Workaround (if EC reset isn’t possible)
Switching to the acpi-cpufreq driver can unstick some cores (~50%):
sudo sh -c 'echo disable > /sys/devices/system/cpu/amd_pstate/status'
sudo modprobe acpi-cpufreq
sudo sh -c 'echo performance > /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile'
This is not a full fix but makes the system usable until you can do a proper EC reset.
Related Issues
- Framework Issue #91 - CPU frequency stuck after suspend
- Framework Issue #133 - Stuck at 0.55 GHz after BIOS update
- Framework Community - AMD CPU stuck in low-speed state
- Ubuntu Bug #2088733
Prevention (Untested)
These may help prevent the issue from occurring in the first place:
- Use s2idle instead of deep sleep - Check with
cat /sys/power/mem_sleep - Kernel parameter:
processor.ignore_ppc=1 - Systemd resume hook to reset power state after wake
Hopefully this helps others hitting the same issue on the Framework 16 with Ryzen AI 300 series!
. I went through methodically and figured out it was a firmware issue. The interfaces from the kernel to the firmware are limited but the ones I could probe were changing the lower bound of power governor and CPU scaling. Now the firmware can see sensor data if things are high to lower clock speeds so cleaning might help, but I can also see the sensor data too and could see everything was around 40c and cold. So the firmware wasn’t lowering clock speeds to lower the temp.