Laptop CPU running slow?

[davcohen]

Im not sure if there is something wrong with my processor/ laptop it seems to be running fairly slowly, i cant format it at the moment till i build up my pc in the next few days however

http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/3401/laptopsr8.th.jpg (http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=laptopsr8.jpg)

when i opened that it says my laptop is runing at 797mhz which doesnt seem normal although i cant see a way of changing this

the laptop in question is a HP/ Compaq nx9150 with an extra gig of ram installed, link to offical spec
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11900_div/11900_div.HTML

anyone tell me if the info above looks wrong?

[alexnifty]

Is the CPU under load? It might be getting clocked down by power saving features.

[davcohen]

Is the CPU under load? It might be getting clocked down by power saving features.

im not sure what though, now displaying 707mhz

i havent changed any settings or anything so not sure why this is happening, its also running off the mains so shouldnt be in any powersave mode

anyway of adjusting this or software to see what the problem is

[mac124]

download / extract / run a program called cpuz when you have this running put some load on the cpu by running a fairly intensive program (superpi is good for stuff like this as it runs in a window) and watch the core speed within cpuz it is probably running in some low power mode to keep the cpu cool.

[davcohen]

formatted the laptop and seems to be a bit more stable but thats mostly because i installed TinyXP which has nearly everything cut out of it

CPU seems to be running at a constant 350mhz now

[Lynx]

Has the multiplier been fiddled with?

[wonderlust]

This is only a sort of guess, but Ihave found that Windows update or Microsoft update can slow a single core down on boot up for about five minutes. M$ have supposed to have been fixing this for some time but I havent found a cure yet, to avoid the symptoms turn off automatic updates. But remember to do regular searches for updates manually!!!

[davcohen]

ok strangely i updated the bios rebooted it and when it started up it stated 1.79ghz which i think is the correct clock speed, anyways after using it seemed normal switched it off came to use it later and it was back to its normal self

i have uninstalled some type of AMD software for the chip, possibly cool and quiet and it generally seems to be over 1ghz now, the version i had installed was something like 1.01 where as i downloaded a newer version 1.35 not sure whether to actually install this

[brendy]

Does this only happen when you are on battery power? Most modern laptops will underclock their cpus when they are idling or are on a powersaving mode.

[marsey99]

thats what c+q does, its like speedstep on intels, it drops the multi and the volts to stay cool/save power.

you can turn it off and on by changing one of the power options in the diplsy options in windows.

get hardware monitor to keep an eye on temps if youor running full speed all the time.

[Audigex]

Or put your hand near the fan! This (or your ever warmer genital area) [wtf? I just typo'd area into aria... spending too long on the forum!!] will easily warn you if the CPU is getting hot.

When any of my laptops reach 60, you can feel the heat coming off them easily.

[davcohen]

ahh right so this is normal for the CPU to vary like that, it has run hot possibly over heated a couple of times tbh as i discovered the inlet/outlet was caked in dust dont know why i didnt check it earlier now the fans are just constant running at a very low speed as they should unlike before where they were running at higher speeds

unsure if this did any damage or not though

[marsey99]

its almost impossible to damage modern chips as they shutdown once they get close to their thermal threshold to stop it happening.

[Audigex]

It's not necessarily normal. Try making the laptop do something that requires heavy CPU useage.

HeavyLoad - available at http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml will make the CPU run at full load. Run it while the laptop is plugged in and on its highest power setting and check again. If the speed still doesn't revert to normal, something's wrong. If it goes up to whatever it's rated as, everything's fine :)