Hey--I've scoured the forums for the longest time to try and help alleviate this problem with no luck. This has to do with the Intel speedstepping in my I9300 (outfitted with a GF6800 Go, 512x2 MB of RAM, a 2 GHz processor, and a 100 GB HDD). I've had my laptop for two years now and it's been working fine until just recently. I was having problems with the processor and opted for a reformat. My laptop is starting from a clean slate! I've done this multiple times already--I installed the necessary drivers and programs and so on to get my machine up and running again. But, the speedstepping issue STILL occurs. The problem is that my machine never increases its CPU speed when the load is high. It stays at a constant 798/800 MHz and never uses its full potential of 2 GHz. Before any recommendations are given, yes, I have tried enabling and disabling Speedstepping in the BIOS. I have already checked the power schemes--setting it to "Always On" even with the AC plugged in does not increase my processor to 2 GHz; it seems to be "stuck" at a slow paced 800 MHz. On top of this, when it hits a high load, the I9300's fan goes on full blast and never reverts to slowing down when the laptop is already in a cool state (at 38 C and it still insists on a high fan speed). This really affects my watching of media files and gaming. I was wondering if anyone had a feasible idea as to why this is occurring?

LASTLY, I would just like to mention that the HDD that I have failed the Short DST test when I decided to run a diagnostic--so it's soon to be failing. I've already ordered another ATA-6 HDD, but I'm pretty positive my speedstepping issue can't be simply due to a bad HDD (I even tested this by outfitting my laptop with my friend's I9300 HDD and speedstepping still failed to occur). So, anyway--I would appreciate any kind of help. I would be most grateful--thanks.

 

PS - Could it be perhaps I missed installing a driver? I installed the required ones from the site as far as I can tell.