The comp I use is an Inspiron 9200, "supposed" to have 2GHz processor, 512mb ram and the other stuff doesn't matter. I'm using windows xp home edition. Problem with my cpu is that its running at one fourth of the speed its supposed to be running at, i have this cpu info software and its telling me my cpu's speed is 598MHz. I used Ad-Aware and AVG Anti-Spyware to check my comp for virus' and they caught/saw nothing, but im still certain it's a virus or worm or trojan, or something screwing with my computer. I have 82GB of 111GB of space, so im not thinking its a worm using space or RAM because my RAM seems to be doing ok, seems to be doing all the work actually. So im wondering if there is anything i can do with REGEDIT maybe or another, better, virus scanner/remover i can try.
P.S. I do remember one of the dell techies saying there is a place where you can edit the delay time of your cpu to do tasks, usually they say to put it at 100 and its at like 100000, I'm guessing this is ms or something but i cant remember that location, if anyone is familiar with this step i have had some success with this in the past and would like to implement it. Thanks, sorry for the length but you said to make it detailed.
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Jump to PostIt is normal but if you wish to run it at its rated speed.
Okay, try it and go to:
Control Panel, Power Options. Set your power schemes. Always On for portable/laptop
Jump to Postgo into the BIOS
i had an old laptop which had something called speedstep (i think amds one was called cool n quiet) and in the BIOS i could choose "Battery Optimised" or "Maximum Performance". Max was 1.2ghz and battery optimised was 699mhz
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It is normal but if you wish to run it at its rated speed.
Okay, try it and go to:
Control Panel, Power Options. Set your power schemes. Always On for portable/laptop
Sorry guess i should've elaborated a bit more of what i already tried, that being one of the things i looked at, i don't have an "always on" option anywhere in the power scheme tab area when portable/laptop option is selected. It is not normal because i tried to run this game called fable it has a 1.4 GHz recommended processor speed right, when i try and run it it says my cpu is to slow to run the game. I have played this game before and never saw that message, and overall performance is lack on most of the things a run: games/programs of any time/internet page loading, etc. So I'm fairly certain there is a problem somewhere I just have no idea where to look. Because honestly i could find stuff in regedit or elsewhere but i don't want to go changing options I'm not sure about and make things work.
P.S. Foreseeing any other suggestions i also know and have controlled the whole, 'your-cpu-is-to-hot-so-it-wont-run' thing. External cooling unit under the laptop, works pretty well, but ya thats not it either :P
go into the BIOS
i had an old laptop which had something called speedstep (i think amds one was called cool n quiet) and in the BIOS i could choose "Battery Optimised" or "Maximum Performance". Max was 1.2ghz and battery optimised was 699mhz
Hello,
My name is Mike, I’m a Technical Analyst located at Dell corporate headquarters in Round Rock, TX. I’m part of an internet outreach team developed to interact with the online community regarding technical questions and issues that customers face with Dell products. I’ve read your question and wanted to offer some help.
Jbennet is correct, there is nothing wrong with your processor, its the Intel Speedstep feature designed to help with battery life and energy consumption on computer systems. It will throttle down the processor speed depending on the power scheme of the system. You can adjust the power schemes to let the processor run at higher speeds or you can simply go into BIOS, F2 at start up, go to page 6 of your BIOS and disable Speedstep all together. If you do this though please know that you will get substantially lower battery charges and the heat of notebook may increase.
There are utilities available online that a lot of customers recommend for controlling the fan once Speedstep has been disabled. Remember that heat is the number one cause of performance problems in computer systems, especially systems used for games. So disabling Speedstep to make your processor run faster may be counter-productive unless you take further action to cool the system. Your frames will begin to lag and the video card may lock if the system gets too hot. I can’t suggest a specific program, but I can urge that you Google Speedfan, which seems to be a favorite among customers and read some reviews. Do a bit more research until you find a product that you feel comfortable with. I hope this information is helpful.
Mike
Dell Customer Advocate
I thaught those utilities didnt work in dells?
I have a dell desktop and am unable to use them as the motherboard does not have heat sensors that the user can monitor
I've never used the utilities on a Dell machine before, but I've seen in a number of threads where our customers rave about them so I'm sure they work for at least some of our systems.
Our systems do have heat sensors that can be monitored, but you must find the correct software to do it. Because it's 3rd party I can't really comment on which one, but I would suggest Google to find what others with your specific system type have done.
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