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    Processor not reading 2GHz!

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Paul, Jun 11, 2006.

  1. Paul

    Paul Mom! Hot Pockets! NBR Reviewer

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    Hey, I have a Dell Latitude C640 (see sig). As you can see from my sig, it's supposed to run at 2GHz, but for some reason it's only running at 1.20 GHz. WTF? Does anyone know why this would be? I've only seen this happen once, and it was in a virtual machine that I had running on my computer at the time, but the host OS was still showing 2GHz. As you can see from the attached pic, it says that it's a 2GHz processor, but then it says 1.20GHz below that. I noticed this when I was testing my computer to see if it would run certain games, and it was only logging at 1.2GHz. If anyone could help me out, it would be appreciated. I'm gonna check my BIOS to see what's up there. Thanks.

    [​IMG]
     
    Paul, Jun 11, 2006
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  2. Redline

    Redline Notebook Prophet NBR Reviewer

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    Possibly you were running on battery, and the notebooks power regulation settings kicked in and throttled back the cpu speed? It does that when its not plugged in on most laptops, so that may be the problem. If you were plugged in and not running battery, I have no idea what the problem may be...
     
    Redline, Jun 11, 2006
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  3. qwester

    qwester Notebook Virtuoso

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    Yup, most of the time WinXP reads the lowest speed setting, which is usually the selected speed at idle.

    Try CPU-Z to see your CPU clock speed in real time, along with FSB and multipliers and other cool stuff :p
     
    qwester, Jun 11, 2006
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  4. Paul

    Paul Mom! Hot Pockets! NBR Reviewer

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    Well, I restarted the computer and checked the BIOS, and it was saying the same thing: 2.0/1.20. I swear I've never seen it do that before. Then, when Windows came back up, it was still saying the same thing. But then, like 1 or 2 minutes later, I checked again, with less processes running (no AIM, etc.) and Windows said 2.0/1.99. And I was plugged in the entire time. I don't understand. Now it's saying 2.0/1.20 again. ?????
     
    Paul, Jun 11, 2006
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  5. Paul

    Paul Mom! Hot Pockets! NBR Reviewer

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    And now, just 30 seconds later, it says 2.0/1.99 again. Any ideas?
    [​IMG]
     
    Paul, Jun 11, 2006
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  6. -Tomy-

    -Tomy- Notebook Geek

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    Thats normal, it underclocks it at idle and speeds up when you need it.
     
    -Tomy-, Jun 11, 2006
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  7. qwester

    qwester Notebook Virtuoso

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    Your CPU is constantly changing speed as the demand changes. And it depends when windows updates the reading, if at a hi or a low.

    If you do as I suggested and get CPU-Z you will see that in real time your CPU will clock up and down as your demand changes.

    There is nothing wrong with your notebook. That's just speedstep doing what it's supposed to do.
     
    qwester, Jun 11, 2006
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  8. Paul

    Paul Mom! Hot Pockets! NBR Reviewer

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    Alright, thanks guys. It's showing 1.99GHz right now, but it's been switching back and forth. So I'm just gonna assume it's okay.
     
    Paul, Jun 11, 2006
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