CPU Speed has changed in BIOS and Laptop (ex 1.80GHz/1.20GHz Current CPU Speed was 1.80GHz, now 1.20GHz)

Hello:

I am seeing this in the BIOS and when I use Belarc Advisor.  I also tried RMClock and it show the same thing.  Again, it did show 1.5GHz and suddenly showed 600MHz (as Current CPU Speed in BIOS) and I have had two other laptops do the same thing.  On this one and the others, I did not change anything in BIOS; I was doing MS Updates with this one.  Please note:  I also updated to the latest BIOS version.

It's called Intel SpeedStep Technology. You should research this. Start with this article.  And here is BayWolf's page about this with instructions to turn it off.

where are you seeing this? Most newer processors on modern laptops will throttle back when idle. This is by design

It is completely normal for the CPU speed to fluctuate depending on the load on the system.

Okay, what does that really mean?  Will it show a faster speed in BIOS and desktop software programs (the 1.5GHz it should be running at)?  And if yes, when and/or how do I get it to stay at the 1.5GHz Current CPU speed instead of 600MHz?  I am selling one of the laptops that this happened to and is now at the lower speed, and I need it to be at the correct/faster CPU Speed.

Hi,

You need to turn Intel Speed Step back on (in the BIOS)! Turning it off causes the CPU speed to drop to the slowest speed it is capable of running at,(in your CPUs case 600Mhz) and  even states this, on the right side of the BIOS, where you would have disabled it.

If you need the CPU to to run at 1.5Ghz all the time then use the Dell Quick Set application, and set it to High Performance. However this doesn't always work, as was stated before  If you are using Windows XP  try this application that was made by someone a few years ago, who wanted his CPU to run fullspeed on his Dell: http://www.diefer.de/speedswitchxp/          Speedswitch XP is an applet that sits in the system tray. It will let you run your CPU at full speed, and has other settings for when running on battery, etc. Dynamic switching, is what all mobility CPU models are programmed to do. Goto full speed when needed, then throttle back, to save power when not needed.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         JC                                                                                                        

I just tried a program I read about called RMClock and went under the "Management" and Set "Maximal Performance" profile, then rebooted and the laptop BIOS showed Current CPU Speed: 1.50GHz (Yeah!).  I still do not know why these laptops suddenly changed to the lower CPU speed nor how to fix it other then this program, but at least there is a fix which is more then I had before with the Dell Latitude C840.

I just tried a program I read about called RMClock and went under the "Management" and Set "Maximal Performance" profile, then rebooted and the laptop BIOS showed Current CPU Speed: 1.50GHz (Yeah!).  I still do not know why these laptops suddenly changed to the lower CPU speed nor how to fix it other then this program, but at least there is a fix which is more then I had before with the Dell Latitude C840.

There's nothing to fix because nothing is broken. Intel processors use SpeedStep to throttle back when they're not being used to their full power. This saves battery life and generates less heat. You'd be better off leaving SpeedStep on, because I highly doubt you need all 1.5GHz 100% of the time. It will automatically speed up to the full 1.5GHz when you do something CPU-intensive. Otherwise your laptop will just be using more power and generating extra heat for no reason.

Think of it this way: if you have a car with 6 speeds, you don't shift into 6th when you're doing 15mph in a parking lot, right?

There's nothing to fix because nothing is broken. Intel processors use SpeedStep to throttle back when they're not being used to their full power. This saves battery life and generates less heat. You'd be better off leaving SpeedStep on, because I highly doubt you need all 1.5GHz 100% of the time. It will automatically speed up to the full 1.5GHz when you do something CPU-intensive. Otherwise your laptop will just be using more power and generating extra heat for no reason.

Think of it this way: if you have a car with 6 speeds, you don't shift into 6th when you're doing 15mph in a parking lot, right?

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I agree with his assesment. Leaving any notebooks' CPU set at 100% clock speed, all the time, when not using it, for something like HD video editing,  gaming, or Power use,will only lead to a faster empting of the battery,[when off AC power] and lead to more wear & tear on the cooling unit, & rest of the notebook.

I thought you had a need for 100% of Core clock. I didn't know you just hadn't read up on the way it works!

The only time I use 100% throttle settings, on my Dell notebooks, is if I am gaming, or encoding HD Video. While Speedstep normally does shift the CPu into full Core clock speed of the CPU, I prefer, to have it run at full speed, by my setting, then switch it back to the dynamic setting afterwards!

The BIOS will show whatever speed it sees the CPU at, [when you either go into the BIOS, or if you have POST set to show instead of the DELL logo]

 during startup of the notebook., in Windows during a Benchmark, it could do the same. I've seen different clock speeds all the time, but they all worked fine

JC

PS.

every Dell notebook I've had, since the early days, has done the same.  the older ones I can't remember but one had,

which came with a PIII 8000Mhz CPu that went down to 400mhz, when it wasn't needed

1 D505 W 1.8Ghz Pen-M goes from 900Mhz up to 1.8Ghz

1 6400 W 2.26Ghz Core2duo Goes from 1.13Ghz up to 2.26Ghz

2 Studio 1737's both with Core2Duo 2.53Ghz 1066FSB go from 1Ghz up to 2.53Ghz(I used an App like RMclock to set their ability to go below 50% of core clock, to get extra battery power, when on long flights, and set undervoltage as well, they get about 7.6 hours per 9cell battery, and I keep an extra charged in my backpack, so I don't miss anything in mid air (well the one with the Intel HD4500m lasts about 4 hours longer then the one with the 256MB ATI HD3650 with 1768MB of hypermemory)

im actually having a problem with my lattitude. its 2.13ghz but the min speed is 800 MHz the problem is even under full load it doesnt speed up to 2.13ghz. its always 800, I used a few tools to moniter it under load, my favorite being cpu z. and even at 100% load it still sits at 800 MHz, which would explain the terrible performance ive been getting.

in bios its not disabled so it shouldnt stay at minimum speed, so what else could keep it from speeding up to max speed?