I just installed a new cpu into my old machine and it's saying that it is running at 1.6 ghz when it is in fact a 3.06 ghz P4. What is going on here? It sees it as a 3.06 but runs it at 1.6. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
First, set your BIOS to default, reset your motherboard and reboot. Without knowing what motherboard you are using, it is difficult to provide much help, however I would say you have your CPU set to a manual setting.
One thing I didn't think of was that this cpu came out of a laptop. I know that there are some that will ramp up when needed but I didn't think that p4's did that. I could be wrong though. This is the mobo I'm using: http://www.firingsquad.com/hw/1811/ECS_L4S8A2/HT_V1.1/ with a gig of ram.
Could be a power-saving trick. If the CPU doesn't have much to do it might scale back to a lower frequency to save power and reduce heat. Try running some video compression or whatever to push it a bit, then see.
ill save you sometime,
there is a jumper on the motherboard, this the cmos reset, reset it. then see if still no happiness then up date your bios often board designed to work with early P4 need flashing