CPU way underclocked?

iviv · 1 Mar 2008 at 22:42

I've just formatted my laptop as it was having some problems, and the reinstall of everything went mostly fine. However I believe that my cpu is running much slower than it should be. Its having trouble coping with playing video files (CCCP installed, tried WMP11 and MPC), with cpu usages jumping from around 40-100% and .mkv files are unplayable.
When right clicking on my computer and selecting properties, it says the following:

Computer:
Intel Pentium M
processor 1.70Ghz
598Mhz, 1.00Gb of RAM

So, I'm guessing that for some bizarre reason my cpu is only running at 598Mhz instead of 1.7Ghz? I don't think this could be the result of a format, and the only thing I can think of that would cause this is the speedstep thingy that intel CPUs come with. But shouldn't that give me full power when I do something cpu intensive, such as watching a video?

postmanfw · 1 Mar 2008 at 22:49

Have you used cpu-z to see what the speed is as during idle and then as load goes on? It should jump up to 1.7 as you say under load.

Rackerz · 1 Mar 2008 at 22:51

You'd think it would, if you can get into the BIOS for your laptop I'd just disable C1E/Speedstep or whatever the option is to test if the same things happens. If it happens without C1E/Speedstep running then it's a codec problem.

iviv · 1 Mar 2008 at 22:52

I've just downloaded This little jobby, which is also telling me my speed is 592Mhz.
Its a dell, so I'm not sure how much of the bios I can poke around in, but I'll have a go.

iviv · 1 Mar 2008 at 23:12

Right, in the bios it says:
Intel Pentium M 1.7Ghz @ 600Mhz
CPU speed: 600Mhz

Speedstep is set to off.
And its a Dell jobby so I can't change the speed settings...
Curse you, Dell!

Can I has more megahurtz pleese?

d.chatten · 1 Mar 2008 at 23:43

Try going into the "Power Options" within Windows (XP) and setting it to "Presentation" or "Always on", at least one of the two should do it.

Hope this helps!

iviv · 1 Mar 2008 at 23:50

Set it to always on and rebooted, still only 600mhz

benjo plz. · 1 Mar 2008 at 23:53

d.chatten said:
Try going into the "Power Options" within Windows (XP) and setting it to "Presentation" or "Always on", at least one of the two should do it.

Hope this helps!

If it says 600 in the bios it's not a windows problem. Have you tried updating the bios?

d.chatten · 1 Mar 2008 at 23:56

Setting it to presentation should do it, the speed in the bios won't change but Windows will force the CPU to run at full speed, once you've set the power option to presentation use CPU-Z to check the speed of the CPU.

iviv · 1 Mar 2008 at 23:58

Hmm, there is only one BIOS and its a .exe file available from the Dell website, dated 2005 :3
I'm about to install it, see you on the other side, and lets hope things work now x_x

Edit: http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/5848/blehgb5.jpg
Screenshot with power options and CPUz readings.

d.chatten · 1 Mar 2008 at 23:59

Phnom_Penh said:
If it says 600 in the bios it's not a windows problem. Have you tried updating the bios?

I've had the exact same issue with a Packard Bell laptop, Windows and the bios said the CPU was running at 1.60GHz, when i set the power option in Windows to presentation the CPU was running at 3.20GHz as it was supose to.

iviv · 2 Mar 2008 at 00:08

Well, I now have a nice new BIOS (A13 instead of A11) but still only 600Mhz. Isn't there a 'Check under the back of the sofa' option? It shouldn't be too hard to find :3

benjo plz. · 2 Mar 2008 at 00:13

Does it have a enable geyserville support option in the bios? Might as well try turning speed step on too

.

d.chatten · 2 Mar 2008 at 00:30

I don't know if this is significant or not, but, have you got SP1 or SP2 installed, i ask this because i found the Microsoft article below concerning the Pentium M CPU's that may explain to some extent what the issue is, if you have SP2 installed then the update mentioned should be included, if you don't have a SP installed or you have SP1 then it may help.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811113

Take a look at 332179, 818133 and 823583 on the above link.

iviv · 2 Mar 2008 at 00:40

Nope, its XP with slipstreamed SP2. I'm going to try turning on speedstep, see if that does anything :/

d.chatten · 2 Mar 2008 at 00:49

Are you running on the battery or mains? if you're running on the battery that could explain why you're not getting full speed.

iviv · 2 Mar 2008 at 00:51

Running on mains.

Also, speedstep has saved the day, I have my Gigahurtz back now that I enabled it >_<;;

d.chatten · 2 Mar 2008 at 00:54

LOL, simple bios setting in the end then, i can't understand why it would run a 600MHz if speedstep is disabled.

MarcLister · 2 Mar 2008 at 18:44

This is an interesting thread. A while ago I noticed my Acer Aspire 2012 (Intel Pentium M 1.5Ghz) seemed to be running at 600Mhz and not 1.5Ghz. Just ran CPU-Z and that confirmed it. But then I opened Calculator to work out some numbers CPU-Z was giving me and the processor speed AND multiplier jumped from 599.5 Mhz and x6.0 respectively to 1498.5 Ghz and x15 multiplier. Strange! I wonder how I can stop it doing this and keep it at 1.5Ghz permanently?

.walls · 2 Mar 2008 at 19:19

Mobile processors (in laptops) tend to run at lower clock speeds until the extra power is needed. i.e. an idling laptop will run at a very low rate to conserve power - but as soon as it needs the extra MHz, the bios will up the multiplier. This can be demonstrated in MarcLister's example above.

Usually, turning off SpeedStep or PowerNow (I think that's the AMD version) should leave the processor running at full speed - although this obviously didn't work for the OP.

.walls