laptop not going over certain cpu clockspeed

[Disco Boy]

Hi everyone,

So I am having some sort of problem with speedstep. Last night my CPU would not go over a certain multiplier when I run a game, or superpi.

Restarting the computer solved the problem... But then today, having put the computer to sleep overnight, the problem has re-occurred.

System specs:
Dell Latitude E6520
i5 2540M

I'm checking the clockspeed using CPUZ.

Interestingly, I am now having a problem with CPUZ. It doesn't start properly, and gives the error:

[bInitDriver] path = C:\Windows\system32\drivers
[bInitDriver] GetCurrentDirectory = C:\Program Files\CPUID\CPU-Z
[bInitDriver] GetModuleFileName = C:\Program Files\CPUID\CPU-Z\cpuz.exe
[vGetOSVersion] m_iOSVersion = 2 (6.1)
[vGetOSVersion] m_bIsAMD64 = 0
[bInitDriver] m_hDriverMutex = B8
[bInitDriver] m_szPath_2 = C:\Windows\system32\drivers
[bInitDriver] m_szFilename = cpuz135_x64.sys
[bLockDriverHandle 15:13:59] WaitForSingleObject error = 258
[vReleaseDriverHandle] release mutex = 0
[bInitDriver] bInitDriver returned 258
[vCloseDriver 15:14:01] WaitForSingleObject error = 258
[vCloseDriver] CloseHandle(mutex) = 1

Then it opens, but doesn't show the CPU speed.

Windows wise, I am on my performance setting, and the CPU setting is that the maximum processor state is 100%.

The machine isn't overheating.

I'm thinking that it is a software problem... but does anyone have any ideas?