Um... since when was a MR9000 or GeForce4 4200 availible on the I8600???

the early i8600's came with an optional ati 9000 32mg card or a nvidia geforce4 4200 go 64mg card.. the more recent i8600's dont come at all with the ati at all and the geforce4 4200 was replaced with the fx 5200 which is a piece of junk.the 4200 smokes the fx 5200 whithout even breaking a sweat. that was a big mistake to switch to the fx5200... i applaude you for your curiosity but you are not helping me with my speedstep problem..   

then try downloading the NSS for 8600, it has a few fixes for SP2. not sure if this can help.. but i've tried sp2, slight performance decrease and i've revert back to sp1

i checked the bios and the intel speedstep is enabled. i just cant figure why the processor is stuck at 600mhz when it should be at 1700mhz. i know the i8200's had a patch you could download and install from dells support website just for this very issue. the issue stated that  the processor would not switch back to maximum performance once the speedstep was enabled. as far as i can see this looks like an issue with windows as windows has a built in speedstep switch...  thanks for the info, if you have any more dont hesitate to share   steve

Curiousity will be the downfall of me... sorry about that.

AFAIK, SP2 should not be the problem; granted, I did a clean install of SP2 on my 8600 and have had ZERO problems with SP2. The BIOS issue already mentioned is the only thing that comes to mine. Also, what BIOS version are you running?

From slashdot:

Reader ack154 writes "ZDNet is reporting that many Dell Inspiron users are reporting an extreme performance decrease since installing Windows XP SP2 - decreases as much as from 2.6ghz down to 300mhz. Dell claims no responsibility, claiming it is 'externally loaded software' and they don't support it. In the mean time there has been a fix posted on Dell's forums, which rolls back the processor driver."

wow!!!  had no idea that there were such big performance losses..  i wish i knew that before i installed sp2.. thanks fo that info...   steve

Oh, to those having speedstep issues... perhaps trying Intel's latest INF drivers instead of Dell's might help as well. I noticed when I first installed SP2 (clean install) when I installed the version 6 INF drivers from Intel, the bluetooth worked with SP2 built in drivers as well as USB 2 fully working. So, it may be a chipset driver issue. (Which may or may not be handled in the NSS).

what is the NSS and where do i find this download???  can you tell me what this is? i will try anything at this point..  steve

Am I the only one NOT having problems with SP2? I don't even install the NSS and have a perfectly fine problem free 8600... (knock on wood!)

NSS is "Dell Notebook System Software." For the inspiron 8600 it can be downloaded here.

Also, read this thread about the inspiron 1150 which doesn't have speedstep so it is likely a different issues than yours, but will give you a few things to try.

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@cademetz wrote:
Am I the only one NOT having problems with SP2? I don't even install the NSS and have a perfectly fine problem free 8600... (knock on wood!)

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I've installed sp2 on a inspiron 8500 with no issues. I've installed sp2 on a lot of hp and ibm desktops with no issues. The only computer that I've had problems with was my personal 3 year old toshiba satellite, but this isn't an appropriate forum to talk about that.

thanks for the info and i will definetely give it a try... i sure hope this will work. if not i think i will revert back to sp1 and see what happens then.. whats so strange is why when i switched to a different video card did this problem start. what the heck does the video card have to do with the speedstep anyways... well thanks fo the info and i will let you know what happens after the install...    steve

Just FYI: My Processor Driver Specs:

Driver Provider: Microsoft
Driver Date: 4/1/2004
Driver Version: 5.1.2600.0

Driver File Details: C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\intelppm.sys

Provider: Microsoft Corp.
File Version: 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_2_rtm.040803-2158)