I have this exact (or at least, very similar) problem on my X200s. I have owned this laptop for nearly two years, and have never experienced this problem before.

However, the laptop was recently sent in for repair on several apparently unrelated issues, namely:

- broken webcam

- broken thinklight

- sticky keys (coffee spill)

- very high heat on the underside of the laptop under normal use

The service report came back with a bunch of replacements; namely, the following (this is the exact list from the repair summary sheet, I have no idea why there are duplicate entries).

- Camera

- Keyboard

- LCD Cable w/BT/Camera

- Motherboard

- Keyboard

- LCD Cable w/BT/Camera

- Camera

- Motherboard

- LCD Bezel

Now I am seeing frequent crippling slowdowns of the CPU during normal use, and even more frequent under heavy load. I first noticed it when zipping up a large folder (1.5gb); Windows 7 "Resource Monitor" showed the CPU maximum frequency dropping to 11% and staying there for several seconds, then bouncing back up to about 100%, and occasionally resting at around 40% for long periods of time.

I have installed and have run the ThinkVantage Toolbox diagnostics (CPU Test) several times, with the same result. ThrottleStop shows the CPU frequency hovering most often around 800MHz; this is on a 1.86GHz Core2Duo L9400.

I have tweaked the BIOS settings, tweaked some ThrottleStop settings, and messed around with Thinkpad Power Manager with no result.

This is my primary laptop. I am a multimedia developer. This problem makes this machine virtually useless for me, and is costing me money every day I am unable to use it.

What is Lenovo doing about this? How in the hell did a showstopper problem like this slip through production, and how in god's name did it get ADDED to my formerly functional machine?

My X200s is being returned to Lenovo warranty service anyway, since whoever installed the webcam neglected to remove the protective paper over the lens, rendering it useless, and installed a keyboard with a faulty backspace key.

What if anything can I tell the service depot in order for them to fix this? I really cannot afford to keep messing around with this fundamentally broken computer. I had thought that these were professional computing products, and I certainly do not appreciate having to jump through hoops and lose money while Lenovo gets its act together.

I've been using an X200s (1.86 C2D L9400) for almost 2 years without any CPU problems at all. Suddenly, after having sent in the machine for unrelated repairs (lots of heat on the underside of the machine, thinklight & webcam broken, messed up keyboard), I am having CPU throttling issues. Among other changes, the service depot replaced the motherboard.

At apparently random times -- though they seem to cluster around instances where the machine is under heavy load -- the CPU will be throttled back to 11%, essentially crippling it, for anywhere from several seconds to up to a minute.

Aside from that, under heavy CPU load (benchmarks, several tasks in various Adobe programs, zipping up large folders), the CPU seems to spend as much time throttled back to 40-42% as it does at 100%, where I would assume it should be. I am a multimedia developer and this behavior essentially makes this laptop -- my primary machine -- useless to me.

I posted this issue in the X220 thread where people seem to be having the same issue, but it was moved for some reason.

My X200s is going back to Thinkpad warranty service in the next day or two -- whoever installed the new parts didn't remove the protective paper over the webcam lens rendering it useless, and the replacement keyboard squeaks like a dying rodent -- so I am hoping someone can give me some indication about what I should write on the repair slip to fix this issue.

Yup. The screen bezel came loose and started flexing whenever I opened/closed the lid, I assume this weakened the cable connections.

I'd also add, the coffee spill didn't do any real damage. The computer was still working perfectly fine, just some of the keyboard keys were sticky. All the other problems appeared well before the coffee incident.

Serge, thanks very much for your repy. I have PMed you the details you requested.