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CPU Performance Drop
Yesterday my system was a little slow to boot up but I didn't give it much thought but after awhile I did notice a big performance lag. I did the usual HD clean up and defrag with no noticable improvement. So today, just for curioustity sake, I re-ran the Windows 7 Performance Index Test and my Processor score dropped from 7.3 to 2.9 but the other scores remained the same. I pulled the cover off and checked to make sure all the connections were tight & clean and that all the fans were clean & fully operational. Every thing seemed fine. I then proceeded to run both the Dell Diagnostic and a CPU software program. What I discoverd was the the CPU was only running at 800 MHz (200 MHz with a multiplier of 4 under a 99% CPU load) it should be running at 3.3 GHZ (200 MHz with a multiplier of 16.5). The first thing I did was to check the BIOS to make sure that the AMD Cool and Quiet was enabled. I cleared CMOS and restarted the system but there was no change. I have been running this setup for about a year and never had an overheating or any other issues (well maybe a BSOD every once in awhile).
System Specs: Dell Inspiron 570, BIOS version A05, CPU - AMD Phenom II x2 560 (upgrade 01/2012), Memory - 4 Gigs (2 x 2 Gigs) Video Card - ATI Radeon HD 4650 (upgrade 01/2012), Power Supply - 400 Watt (replaced 01/2012). OS - Windows 7 64 bit Home Edition SP1.
Any idea or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You.
retusa1sg
12 Posts
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November 20th, 2012 09:00
Problem Solved: For some unknown reason the power setting in "Power Options" menu was set to "Energy Saver". Once I reset it to "Performance" the system was back to normal. CPU speed now goes from 800 MHz at idle (no load) to 3.3 GHZ as CPU load increases. Windows 7 CPU Experience Index went from 2.9 back to 7.0, not that it means a whole lot... Must have been a Senior Moment on my part!!!
DELL-Chris M
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November 21st, 2012 08:00
Good job finding the fix.