LG LS50 running at 600MHZ instead of 1500MHz

My laptop has been running slow since format.

The CPU multiplier is running at 6.0X (CPU clock is only running at 598 MHz, original: 1500 MHz).

CPU FSB: 99.67 MHz
Memory Bus: 166.12 MHz

I also noticed the system only sees 240 MB RAM of 256 MB.

The BIOS on this LG laptop doesnt let you make any of these changes...
Any ideas??

 

1 : can you hear the cpu fan running?

2 : what is the speed when you first turn on the computer, you might have to press the esc button to get it to show.

3 : what processor is it, an pentium-m?

4 : the 16mb you are missing is being used by your graphic card.

regards.

John.

 

Thanks for the quick reply John.

1) I'm not sure if there are multiple fans, but I only hear one fan and it goes on and off periodically. Should the CPU fan run continuously like desktop PC's?

2) When I boot, the speed isnt shown at POST. In the BIOS it's shown as 1500 MHz. When I boot into Memtest86+ the speed is 1495 MHz, but when I boot to Windows it's 598 MHz.

3) It's a Mobile Intel Pentium M 715, 1500 MHz (15 x 100).

4) You're right about the 16 MB allocated to video - I was confused because I thought there was 64 MB built-in video memory, but that's the max you can allocate. Do you know how to change this without entering BIOS?

Thanks again!
-Amex

 

The Pentium-M has speedstepping, so check your speedstep settings in the BIOS and in your power saving software. If it's just 600Mhz in Windows it's most likely a windows based power/battery management software that's restricting your cpu.

As for graphics ram, that's usually adjusted by the BIOS. If it's set automatically then it's often based on total system ram so to get the most amount of graphics ram you might well need to upgrade your total system ram.

 

Intel's CPUs have SpeedStep as moon_angel explained, whereby the CPU's clock speed is automatically adjusted according to the user's need for computing power. This reduces fan noise and power consumption, thereby prolonging battery life.

As for the "missing" RAM, that is explained by the probability that you have an Intel graphics card (or perhaps an ATI/Nvidia with Hypermemory/Turbocache; both technologies do the same thing); those also dynamically adjust their frame buffer memory between 16MB and 224MB, unless I am mistaken.

 

You guys rock!

Turns out it was SpeedStepping! And Windows XP was the cause. I had my power scheme set to "Portable/Laptop". I changed it to "Home/Office Desk" and she's back up to speed! Too bad Windows hides things like this from the user...

Thanks for your help, Tinderbox, moon angel, and bc135!

-Amex

 

What the other posters have told you is correct however, notebooks that have dynamic speed switching capabilities (i.e speedstep and cool 'n' quiet for amd) should have windows xp power management set to Portable/Laptop. This setting is used so that when you need the power the cpu ramps up to "full power" and then it will slow down when the high processing power isn't needed. If you set it to Home/Office Desk your processor will always run at full blast thus producing more heat and when you are on battery it will drain your battery even faster running at full power.

Perhaps when you checked the cpu speed before you were not doing anything demanding therefore it slowed down as it should because of speedstep.
I also noticed that you state you only have 256mb of ram onboard and with the shared graphics down to 240mb. While windows xp can run with this I suspect this is why your system feels sluggish, with only 256mb your system will struggle as it will be hitting the paging "swap file" on the hard drive for virtual memory as hard drives are way slower than ram. I suggest that you get more ram for your notebook (at least go to 512mb) and change that setting back to portable/laptop because as you have it now you are running at full blast unnecessarily, unless you don't care about heat output and battery life .

 

Evolution, you're absolutely right about the RAM. 256 MB is a joke... I've got 308 MB in use this moment on my own rig. This post was regarding my mother's notebook, and I've been trying to get a 512 MB stick in there for about a year now and she didn't believe she needed it. I read her your reply and she since changed her mind! Next time I'm at the hardware store I'm picking up some RAM!

Thanks for your help!