CPU Problem after Upgrading BIOS for 600m from A02 to A15, need help badly

Question

I recently upgraded the bios, i played a game called warcraft3, in the middle of the game, it suddenly become really laggy, and i found out the CPU speed went down from 1.7 GHz to 600 MHz, and i had AC power plugged in this whole time, i tried to disable the speedstep in bios, but then it made the laptop runs at 600 MHz, please help, i just want the laptop to run at full speed when i have AC power on, by the way, i tried the speedswitchxp, it doesnt work in this case, is it my CPU starts to burn out? help plz

GTRSkyline · Answer

it is an Inspiron 600m, it worked fine before with the old bios, so i am assuming its the new bios which it causes the problem

Bay Wolf · Answer

What notebook do you have?  It is hard to diagnose a problem without all of the input.   More than likely it is a heat problem.  With the notebook off, blow air into the exhaust fan using compressed air.  Some of Dell's notebooks are notorious for this.

egoneo · Answer

go to control panel, power options and switch from 'Portable laptop' to 'Always on' and it should run at 1.7 all the time. if not try downgrading your bios and seeing if the problem still persists

SmoothSL · Answer

Is this not the problem everyone has been talking about with the newer 600m bios?  I believe A06 was the last one that didn't 'compensate' for the non-existing cooling for the ram..  The solution was to slow the system so it wouldn't overheat..  Message Edited by SmoothSL on 01-23-2005 02:26 PM

billw020104 · Answer

Here's a link that summarizes all BIOS updates for the 600m. http://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/I600MA16.txt Bill Inspiron 600m Inspiron 8200 Inspiron 8100

gospastic · Answer

i also have this problem as well. it started when i upgraded to the a15 bios. my temps will be fine, but after playing counter-strike for a certain amount of time the cpu will throttle down to 600mhz for a couple minutes. it's very annoying. i've upgraded to the a16 bios, but am not sure how it's affected anything at all. i have yet to try out any games. hopefully it won't happen again, but i don't have my hopes up. if it doesn't work i will probably go back to a14, which is what my laptop shipped with.

SmoothSL · Answer

I'm still pretty sure ever since A07, this has been a problem..  A06 is out there, just not on the dell site..  I've been running it ever since new and have had no problems with gaming at all..  The only reason I would upgrade to a newer bios is if it helped performance tremendously, and did not have the thermal issue or if I had to update for new CPU reasons..  Anyhow..  Go back to A06 if you can..

GTRSkyline · Answer

I am not able to install the bios A06 from A15, it said   An unexpected error occured while running the Flash application. Please reboot and try again.   If the error continues, please contact technical help.   Application Error Return: 0x00000504   And i also tried to install in safe mode, but it said i need to plug in AC adapter and battery but then when i press OK, it keep popping back the dialog, said i need to plug in AC adapter please help =(

SmoothSL · Answer

Try the A05 then..  Bay-Wolf has the A05 and the one you can boot from a CD..  If you go that route with the bootable cd, please read his instructions...  I've never liked bios updates from windows..  Horrible idea..  But anyhow..  Give A05 a shot..

sansjunk · Answer

I got my Inspiron 600m last october (1.6GHz with 64MB video ram). BIOS is at A15 now. I recently played a slightly older games (NOLF2) with medium detail setting. I notice that very soon the laptop fan comes on at high and stays that way. The temperature tops at 59 deg and is steady (tops at 55 if I use a cooling pad). But I never had the CPU throttling down. I have played continously for a couple of hours at most.   I am not sure if the game is stressing the CPU enough (though the CPU utilization stays at about 100%). Those who are experiencing the slow downs, can you report what the temp was when the CPU throttled back to 600MHz?

GTRSkyline · Answer

not sure what my temp was, but i have played for like prolly 5 mins, it shouldnt be that high in temp... and my old bios lets me play for like hours and never throtte down, sigh... still searching for solution

SmoothSL · Answer

Did you try the A05 bios???

GTRSkyline · Answer

I tried but it said it needs a floppy disc, and i dun have a floppy drive, what should i do?

SmoothSL · Answer

You should do the cd-rom method that bay-wolf describes on that page....    Make sure you read the instructions so you understan exactly what he's saying.

GTRSkyline · Answer

I currently went back to A05, the speed seems more stable now, thanks guys, and, not recommanded to upgrade to A15

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