dell laptop cpu speed is low

[amanojyaku]

I was looking at my friends dell laptop today and i noticed it was a little slow. so I looked at the speed in the system section and it said pentium 4 m 3.06Ghz but the speed was at 1.59ghz what is the deal? Do moble proccessors underclock or does he need to send it in for repair/replacement? Its a dell inspiron 5150 model I think

[9mmCensor]

I think its the "speedstep" or something. It underclockers for heat and power.

[enduro]

I've been trying to figure mine out as well. It clocks it down around 50% but there's not way to make it like 25% or anything. I wish clockgen worked and then i would use that but...... nothin doin. Even when I'm gaming it stays at 800 Mhz according to 2 different programs... really weird.

[enduro]

You want to know what's funny. As soon as I finished that post and ran a program it jumped up to 1.6 Ghz...... you've got to wonder. It was at 40 C before and now it's at 61 so it can't be worried about temps.....

[enduro]

Man, my folding speed just increased like nothing else. No wonder it was taking so long to finish this 600 pointer. Folding at 800 Mhz definitely kills production.

[SkyFire47]

this underclocking automatically happens when the computer isn't being used much. since it is a laptop, it's a power saving feature designed to help keep your laptop cool when not in heavy usage .

my Dell 700M has the Pentium M 1.6Ghz processor, yet the majority of the time it's actually running at 600mhz unless i have some programs open and running.

[Dreamstalker]

I noticed recently that SpeedStep in my 5150 actually increased temps. I may try re-enabling it later this week and see what happens... Anyone else seen this happen?

I think whatever was possessing my mom's Dell jumped over to this one...or something.

[ozzlo]

on all p4's i've ever seen the cpu speed is halved when not plugged in and theres no way to make it run normal unless u disable speed step or plug it in. if you thought the battery life was bad you should see your p4 based laptop run at full speed= dead <45 mins. this is the advantage of p-m as it can run full speed anytime.

[dead_man311]

I thought that was messed up at first , i was like i bought a 3.06GHz to have a 3.06Ghz not a 1.59Ghz. then i seen i would have a 40min batt at 3.06Ghz. then i liked the idea of slowing down when not plugged in

[enduro]

LOL, no kidding. I couldn't imagine running my processor at full speed.... I'd have no battery life at all

[Prot]

Putting in processor that can't reasonably run in a system is ridiculous. I guess they get to sell more systems at a higher price that way by being able to put the sticker on it that says 3.06Ghz instead of the normal speed that it can be expected to run.

[Slackfumasta]

It can run just fine in that system. When it's plugged in you can run in at 3.06 GHz all day long if you like.

Heck, you can do it on battery too if you like, but it will drain your battery faster. Speed takes power. Heck, I have heard people on this board talk about underclocking their laptop CPUs when on battery as low as 600 MHz to prolong battery life; it works quite well in that regard.

[violineb]

How shall I go about getting it to run full speed. I also have the cpu running at 1.59 and it bothers me when I wish it would run at 3.06

thanks :)

[enduro]

AFAIK, the only way to do it is to have it plugged in. For mine if I take the plug out then it drops to 600. IF I then put the plug back in the cpu speed goes to 800 not 1600. To get full speed you have to hibernate or restart your laptop and then it will go back on it's merry Folding happy way........

:eek: Nooooo, you're folding for Fishy.......... :eek: :D jking Fishy.

[Dc5e]

The speedstep works by running at 1.59ghz or 600-700mhz or whatever it is whenever your cpu is idling. Usually once there's full load, it will kick into high gear and go to its full potential (3.2ghz or 1.7ghz for wahtever cpu speed it is).

Disabling Speed-step in the bios will permanently run it at its max speed. Windows also has some power settings which affect the way speedstep works, but here is a handy program to control the speedstep. http://www.diefer.de/speedswitchxp/index.html

edit: i think someone should make a sticky with all the useful laptop programs and info. Alot of people miss out on this program to control speedstep.

[ozzlo]

^^^^^ i have that program but it only controlls the timing of the speed step not how much or how little it steps. on my lappy (p-m 1.6) disabeling speed step makes it run at 1/2 speed always.

[Mr.Guvernment]

on all p4's i've ever seen the cpu speed is halved when not plugged in and theres no way to make it run normal unless u disable speed step or plug it in. if you thought the battery life was bad you should see your p4 based laptop run at full speed= dead <45 mins. this is the advantage of p-m as it can run full speed anytime.

i got a 3.2 pressy in an inspiron 9100 and i can get 60mins while watching a DVD - somehow.

[ozzlo]

that's because your processor underclocks to 1.6 automatically when unplugged. if it was actually running at 3.2 your battery would die before the movie was loaded into the drive. :) also the 9100/9200/xps have higher than normal capacity batteries to handle the power consumption of those high powered processors.

for example my laptop has a 7 cell battery, an xps system has a 12 cell battery with an optional addational 16 cell battery.

if my laptop had that kind of power, it would be able to run 24 hours straight on a single charge.

[four4875]

try the program CPUMSR, it has settings to change: P4sm P-Ms, A64s, athlons, K6's and P3s, according to the icons to choose the cpu. i use it and softFSB to drop my cpu down to 90x3 at 1.250 V for 270 mhz when usin the lappy for MP3s while i walk (throw the lappy in the bookbag and run the headphones through a hole in it) it gets me about 4 hours of battery. btw its a mobile duron 1200 CPU. it drains about 15 watts of power according to a prog i use called mob monitor. playing counterstrike at 1400 mhz on this i drain about 64 watts, to give a power usage comparison (lightly loaded underclocked to fully loaded overclocked)

BTW the first step to havin a sticky of all the softwares is to compile a list. my contributions are CPUMSR, softfsb, mobmonitor (found on here) WCPUID, a prog called everest home edition by lavalys shows ALOT of info bout the system, even shows me my serial number. (thanks to mr B) and i think thats all i use. i can find links or host copies of all of these on my webserver.

[ozzlo]

somebody allready tried to make a stickey but it fell kinda short and got buried under the other threads... if by next week no one manages to get stickey status then i will start compileing one.

[four4875]

ill add on the battery thing...mine has a 14 cell battery.... i tihnk that the capacity of the cells also influence the total charge, not jsut the number. i know that with RC cars... i had a 7 cell pack that had a capacity of 1.7 AH, while i had a 6 cell that had a capacity of 2 AH. and i coulda gotten a more expensive one that was a 6 cell that had a capacity of 3 AH. and i just pulled the battery out of this, it has a capacity of 4 AH and its 14 cells...

[Mr.Guvernment]

that's because your processor underclocks to 1.6 automatically when unplugged. if it was actually running at 3.2 your battery would die before the movie was loaded into the drive. :) also the 9100/9200/xps have higher than normal capacity batteries to handle the power consumption of those high powered processors.

for example my laptop has a 7 cell battery, an xps system has a 12 cell battery with an optional addational 16 cell battery.

if my laptop had that kind of power, it would be able to run 24 hours straight on a single charge.


Prescott's dont have speed step technology.... as far as i know only mobiles do


this thing probaly does have a bigger battery - it is heavy and has a sub built into it - will have to check what battery it has.

[ozzlo]

!!doh lol i somehow overlooked that... well that's quite an accomplishment then.

as for number of cells i know that not always true i was just usin cells as example cauz i only remembered the statistics for the laptops cells an not theyre AHour or WHour ratings. good catch :)

[Slackfumasta]

Mobile Prescotts do have Speedstep technology.

These are not to be confused with Pentium Ms. Different CPU.

My Prescott is a 3.06 GHz CPU with HT Technology and Speedstep.

[Mr.Guvernment]

i didnt know there were mobile precotts 0 i know there was rhe pentium 4 M

Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor - M - max 2.6GHZ
Mobile Intel® Pentium 4 Processor - max 3.4 - and these ones do have speedstep - mmm i will have to check this out :D

how can i check my CPU speed when on battery - will My Computer / Properties show the slower speed or ?

[Avatar28]

Okay, there is also a bug (I think in Win XP) that causes it to run at the throttled back speed even when plugged in. I only skimmed through the thread. If it's doing it when it's plugged in, PM me on Monday and I'll try to research it and point you to the fix. I've stumbled across it when looking for something else entirely.

[four4875]

if its like the AMD powernow, it will run at slow speed even when plugged in, but as soon as its loaded it will shoot back up there. and you can use WCPUID or CPUCLK (mine was in the zip with WCPUID) wcpuid gives yu a bunch of info like bus speed and multi and crap, cpuclk is a real time monitor of the speed, so you can see the speed changes

[ozzlo]

hmmmm intel has not posted a mobile prescott on their site... does that mean theirs a mobile extreme edition also :)

[Slackfumasta]

http://sskai.homestead.com/files/mobilep4.jpg

[Mr.Guvernment]

looks like no speedstep technology for my cpu :D