Limited CPU Multiplier/Clock Speed?

Can someone please help me out here, I'm at my wits end! Noticed something weird about my NP5135 with i7 640m today and it's bugging the crap out of me.

The multiplier stays at x14 ~ 1.9ghz max when it should be x21 ~ 2.8ghz. I think it is software related but I have no idea what is actually causing the problem.

I have not done any over/under clocking on this laptop.

The reason I think it's software related is that the multiplier correctly goes up to x21 ~ 2.8ghz as soon as I enter desktop on boot up, but quickly gets limited to x14 ~1.9ghz when windows finishes loading everything. I have tried to terminate processes one by one while running prime95 to see which one is limiting it but had no success.

Here's some screenshots of processes running. If more info is needed please give me a shout.

Specs:

i7 640m
4gig Ram
Windows 7 Home SP1
Geforce GT 425m

 

May I know, which monitoring application is used??? If it is CPU_Z(and i see it in task manager) try running processing-intensive applications. It always shows u clock speed of cpu real-time.
read the first one! FFS
CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

 

Also are you running on battery, or in 'power saver' power plan?

 

this is all under AC plugged-in high performance power profile with 100% CPU power on MAX LOAD running prime95 so it's not a speedstepping on idle issue.

I'm using CPU-Z + CoreTemp to monitor and they give the same reading, stuck at 1.9ghz on max cpu load.