is it possible my CPU has underclocked its self?

[craig20102010]

hi,

i dont know if im being stupid with this or not but i think my CPU has underclocked it self to a 840Mhz CPU.

It struggles to run webpages in that i have a very jerky scrolling and also youtube videos take a couple of seconds to catch up with them selves.

Even writing this out to you now its struggling to put the words on the page faster then i can type them.

When i load up CPUz on the first screen it says CPU's and at the bottom it has a run down of the current speed etc the format is like this:

Core speed: 840Mhz
Multiplier: 4x
bus speed: 210Mhz
HT link: 2100Mhz

on Windows it self it says its a 3Ghz Processor but only scores 2.9 on the index and on the little window in the top right hand corner that you can have running it also says 3Ghz but i thought CPUz was a live feed of what the processor is currently running at, which is what iv put above. Even when im loading things up this number doesnt go above 840Mhz. Unless of course your meant to add the HT link and core speed together to give you near the 3Ghz?

Any clarification on the matter would be great.

Mobo : Asus M4A77TD Pro
Processor: AMD Phenom 2 x2 545 3Ghz
Graphics Card: Gigabyte HD5750 1GB GDDR5
RAM: DDR3 4GB (3.25 usable) (cant remember the brand)
Screen: Samsung 22"

cheers Craig

 

[craig20102010]

its possible that your cpu has failed.

but someone here might have had this before and give another asnwer/reason as to why its doing that.

something is certainly wrong i had a look in the Bios and couldnt see anything. Everything is set to auto in there. When the Pc was loading up i opened up Cpu-z as soon as i could and it flashed up in the core speed 3000Mhz and the multiplier went up to 15x! then its dropped straight away back down to 804Mhz and x4 even under load.

are there any programs that you would recommend to test my CPU?

 

[craig20102010]

well since i was paranoid about this issue i went into the bios and looked at a few settings as i said everything was set to auto apart from this one setting called Core unleashing or something.

Turned that to enable and it said 4 cores now available!

iv changed the multiplier from auto to 15x and its now running at the full 3Ghz it was meant to. Im now curious whether i will be able to overclock the core speed to any higher but im well out of touch with it all now and cant think what i need to increase slowly.

 

[craig20102010]

no idea if im honest but now when i go into CPU-z it comes up saying its a Phenom x4 B45 processor.

Managed to overlock it to 3.6Ghz so far and it seems to be stable. Its certainly faster and webpages are running smooth again

 

[craig20102010]

are you using a stock cpu fan ? i'd swap it out if you are , just to help with cpu temps

Haha I'm guessing this isn't meant to happen normally then?

It was a setting called unleash in the bios clicked enable and the next time it turned on it was quad core lol!

Running stock cooler which is keeping it at 39c under no load and around 55c under load. Tried running Colin McRae dirt 2 and it ran amazing even after over clocking it to 3.6ghz and 4 cores.

I'm not aware of any stress tests I can use to try it?

I did understand that CPU-z was showing it in the lower power state but even under load it wasn't changing, resulting in slow browser scrolling and very slow loading times.

Seems stable to me with out stress testing it. Iv got pc probe running to keep an eye on temps and has an alarm at 77c so il know if its cooking. Thinking about getting a better cooler for it as well. Stock cooler is just alloy with 90mm fan on.

 

[craig20102010]

You'll want to lower that alarm to 62c and unlocking phenom chips us the norm, was an overclockers favourite a few years ago.

O well lol it's made me happy anyway. Ill lower that alarm. If it ever gets near that ill order a new CPU cooler. I want it to be just as quiet as the current stock one with a controlling fan but obviously more efficient.

 

[craig20102010]

just been messing about with playing games etc and it does reach 62 pretty easily. Whats the safe limits for this CPU and what would be a good recommended cooler?

 

[craig20102010]

1.55v max and aim for below 55'c. Around 1.45-1.5v is normal for 4ghz

Not sure on coolers I'm still using a titan Fenrir from about 2010 which is fine upto about 1.4v 3.8ghz on my Phenom II. 4ghz was easy when I ran custom water.

For some reason my mobo won't let me adjust the voltage it has it set to auto. I think I need to change something before it will let me adjust.

I do need a better cooler since as soon as I run a game it pushes the temp over 62c. On idle it stays below 39c. I can't imaging getting as high as 4ghz. I was happy with 3.6ghz and 4 cores.

The windows index hasn't changed like and the little gadget will only read it as a 3ghz with 4 cores but CPU-z says different.

 

[craig20102010]

you wont get a propper temp reading and other readings properly because you have unlocked the cores.

i dont know why it does this, but it does :/.

what are you using to read the temp ? hwmonitor ?

i would drop the clock down to about 3.4ghz to be on the safe side if 3.6 is taking it over 62c.

Iv used hwmonitor and iv used pc probe as well. Both give me the same readings. I am only using the stock cooler which is just a alloy block so I think I'll be buying a better one.

Was looking at the artic cooler freezer rev 2 as that's rated for a 130watt processor so should be ample.

 

[craig20102010]

Depending on the motherboard you can estimate the core temps using the socket temps. You have to first identify the sensor, then run prime with the cores in the stock configuration and mark how much the sensor goes up relative to the core temps.

It doesn't give me the individual core temps but it does give me the socket temps.

I will try putting it back stock at the weekend and seeing what the temps rise too running stock. At least it will give me an idea what it's increasing by.

 

[craig20102010]

just to give an update on the windows index. The processor and Ram have now changed. Original was 2.9 (processor) and Ram was 6.4. They have now increased to Processor: 7.4 and Ram: 7.6.

I can certainly see the improvement on the PC anyway but its nice to see that windows has recognized it.

New cooler to be fitted shortly to keep the temps below 60c