Athlon stepping down

[Guest]

I have a athlon 900 TBird and when I run Mcafee discover pro. the cpu doesn't cycle at it's full 900 throughout the benchmark. I know athlons step down on laptops but do they supposed to step down on desktops? The benchmark sees the processor in the begininng as 903mhz which is what it should be. Then later it flucuates between 750-850 erractically. No other program runs in the background except for ViruScan. When I had Small Business Server running on the same box the health monitor for SQL read a fault in the processor. The mobo has been changed already, and also the cpu fan. So next guess it's the cpu. Any suggestions.
One more thing it is a zif chip not a cartridge and I never overclocked it.

 

[gelf1907]

Maybe you should tell us about why the MB and HS fan were replaced.

What kind of failure did you suffer?
Did the CPU fault show before the failure?

 

[Guest]

the computer store i bought it from ordered the mobo b4 I bought it, so i don't what was wrong with the mobo, or any any other problems for that matter. It was out of warranty when i bought it so the manufacturer is the last place to get repairs (without paying an arm and a leg). Looks like I've got to get a new cpu.

 

[slvr_phoenix]

No other program runs in the background except for ViruScan.

Wait, you had an anti-virus program running during a benchmark? Ouch. Every anti-virus program that I've ever seen sucks up CPU cycles like a vacuum. I always turn mine off when compiling. Try killing that and then re-run the benchmark. It might not be the problem, but it sure can't be helping.

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[Guest]

Well now it's beginning to act sporatically. Sometimes I can boot into the OS and sometimes not. I get windows protection errors or the screen just sits on a blank page for minutes, or it just keeps rebooting.