Bizarre CPU Behavior

I recently bought a budget laptop as a gift. Naturally, I wanted to check it out myself first, so I started uninstalling the bloatware, and installing what I know the person would want. It all felt sluggish, so I tried investigating.

I discovered that the CPU was not ever leaving the Idle state. The laptop has an A6-4400M CPU which has an operating frequency of 2.7 Ghz. The laptop I was using stayed around 900 Mhz. Bus speed ~100, multiplier x9. I poked around in the BIOS for some limiting setting, but I did not find anything.

Exact model of the laptop here: np365e5c-s04us

I contacted Samsung's support and they suggested I try a factory reset (on my new laptop ...) but I did it anyway, hoping to get to the next part of their script. Sadly that was the end, they said sent it to Samsung for repair.

I only recently bought the laptop, and I can still return it. However, if the Gurus of Toms can help me fix it, then I don't have to go to the trouble.

Thanks in advance for any help.