CPU in laptop running slower than rated

[johnb0118]

I have a Compaq Presario C712NR laptop. It is a Pentium Dual Core CPU rated at 1.46 Ghz, but it is only running at 798Mhz according to CPU-Z. CPU-Z tells me that the bus speed is 133 mhz with a 6.0 x multiplier. I have tried to look in the bios to see if i could manually set the multiplier or the bus speed and i don't even get the option to try to change them. I also tried to run the cpu hard to see if the cpu speed would speed up, but i got nothing. Also, the temps of the cpu stay around 55 degrees celcius. Any ideas what might be going on? i've only had this computer since christmas of '07. Here is a screen shot of cpu-z. http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j253/johnb0118/cpu-z-1.jpg

Thanks for any help...
John

 

[pinaplex]

it's a power saving feature called speedstep. it lowers your cpu speed when it's idle to use less power and give off less heat. it's normal. it will jump back up to rated speeds when at load.

 

[johnb0118]

I have tried putting it under a load and it still runs at the slower speed. But when i check the system properties, it says that it is running at 1.46 Ghz.

 

[johnb0118]

I got it figured out. It wasn't speed step, it was the power saving option in vista. I had it set to "Power Saver" and when i switched it to "balanced" or "performance" it took off almost instantly.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[cjl]

Yep - my 2.33GHz T7600 notebook CPU runs at 1GHz (load or no load) when Vista is set to power saving mode. It is nice for battery life, but it certainly doesn't help performance at all.

 

[mi1ez]

Don't use the built in power-saving options in Vista if you have a laptop, personalise them and you can get a much better experience.

 

[t85us]

yeah, power feature. that's cool, it will increase the battery time.