I7 920 speedstep not working

[joemehnert]

hello everyone
just recently built another i7 system for a friend and i noticed that speedstep isnt working on his system. its also running perminatly in turbo mode. if i disable speedstep in the bios it goes back down to a 20x multiplier. ive run the usual benchmarks and compared them to 2 other exactly the same systems and they seem to be basically on par with the others. just no speedstep. the problemed machine is running xp 32 sp3. all the voltages and settings are correct. this is the first i7 ive built using xp as an OS. any problems out there? ive done some googling but havent been able to come up with anything.
system specs
asus p6t deluxe(newest bios)
i7 920
corsair 3x1 12800
ultra x3(all voltage in spec)

he is already past his tiger cpu return date so i would either be shipping it out to intel or having to do some fancy talking to get an rma at work=)ANY help would be GREATLY appreciated

Thanks in advance

 

[merlinbadman]

I think it has to do with the OS support for speedstep. In XP power options you can tell your pc what profile to use.

Taken from wikipedia:

The "Home/Office Desk" disables SpeedStep, the "Portable/Laptop" power scheme enables SpeedStep, and the "Max Battery" uses SpeedStep to slow the processor to minimal power levels as the battery weakens.

I assume your friends PC is set to the Home/Office Desk profile, try changing it to Portable/Laptop.

 

[merlinbadman]

Also turbo mode is engaged when the CPU is within optimal thermal limits, as soon as the CPU temp rises above these limits turbo mode is switch off.

 

[WR]

Is Speedstep really necessary? This processor generation is touted to be able to turn idle cores off and then back on in a few microseconds' notice. Are idle temps in line with other systems using the same chip?