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9211
April 2nd, 2009 21:00
XPS M140 Speed Step Issue
Hello. I just bought a used Dell XPS M140 laptop. It's got the Pentium M 1.73 ghz CPU (model 740). And only once has it ever ran at the correct speed. It is steady at 800 mhz no matter what I do. I've tried the following: stress test on cpu to bring it up to max load, set power scheme to 'Always On', updated BIOS to latest revision. I've thrown every hardware test at it that I can think of, and it's passed them all with flying colors. Does anyone have any ideas?
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kirkd
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April 3rd, 2009 10:00
Speed-step adjusts the speed to whatever is needed to do the operations running. If you set the speed to full all the time, you will see no real improvement in speed of operation, but the CPU will run at higher temperatures.
That said, you could go to the BIOS and disable speed-step, but in some cases, this can result in a consistently low speed. I assume you have XP, which I haven't used in a long time. I don't remember XP having a CPU speed selection in the power settings. It's easy in Vista.
styx84
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April 3rd, 2009 15:00
Well I figured out the problem. Thought maybe it was overheating. So I took off the cpu panel. And to my surprise the heatsink was just laying in there. Not mounted down at all. Decided to investigate further, and the cpu fan wasn't hooked up either, all 3 wires had been yanked out of the power connector on the motherboard. I like to think I'm pretty detailed when checking out a used laptop to buy. But never have I thought, gee better check the heatsink to make sure its actually mounted. It'd be akin to test driving a car and tearing down the top end of the engine to check the lifters. Anyway It's working fine now thanks to Intel's overheating protection. Luckily the CPU was smarter than the former owner.
kirkd
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April 3rd, 2009 18:00
Amazing!!! Wonder why he had removed the heat sink. If he had replaced the CPU, you would think if had the knowledge to get it back together. You should download I8kfangui to monitor temperatures. It will also allow you to control the fans so as to keep temps where you want them. If you see higher than expected temps, perhaps you will theed to replace the heat transfer paste or thermal pad.
styx84
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April 4th, 2009 04:00
Thanks for the tip on what program to use to monitor temps. I'm used to Core based cpu's, for those I generally use 'core temp' or cpuid's hardware monitor. Doesn't seem to like the old Pentium M's though. And I before I mounted the heatsink back properly i cleaned the cpu and heatsink surface and applied Arctic5 thermal grease. I'm a tech at a small data center and go through a lot of that stuff in a year. For the life of me I can't figure out why someone would not only take the heatsink off but also rip out the wires on the fan. Again, thanks for the tip on the monitoring program.