Make sure EIST (Intel Speed Step) is enabled in BIOS. Open CPU-z, go to the Bench tab and click the Stress CPU button. Then go back to the CPU tab and see if the multiplier increases under load. It should be 6 when the CPU is idle and should increase when under load.
I retired my similar Dell notebook because something was failing with Speed Step. The multiplier would get stuck at 3 (6 was supposed to be minimum) and it became unusable running at 600MHz.
I retired my similar Dell notebook because something was failing with Speed Step. The multiplier would get stuck at 3 (6 was supposed to be minimum) and it became unusable running at 600MHz.