Legit Reviews

Same laptop I was having the NTLDR problem with. I looked at the system properties and it shows the alleged 1.4 GHz cpu running only at 600 MHz?!? I ran cpu-Z on it--same thing. It's a Pentium M Banias. It's running at 6*99.9 and the rated bus speed is 399.7.

I'm slightly confused. I know the Dells & HPs of the world tend to play it safe so their junk will last longer and I don't necessarily want to OC a customer's computer but are these readings normal? Customer IS complaining that his computer is slow....

Thanks,
Jack

Its called Speedstep, disable it in the Bios

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately it seems to have made it even slower than it was.
Jack

Turn speedstep back on then.

Speedstep should ramp up the clockspeed of the CPU when something is being done, so open the calculator and (on scientific mode) do 1000000 n! and see if the clock speed jumps up to it's rated 1.4Ghz. (the calculator will ask you if you want to continue or quit the calculation after a short time, so when you have established the corespeed in cpuz tell it to cancel).

If you really want to turn off the speedstep dynamic throttling, then go to the system power settings and set the mode to "always on" or "max performance" or something to that effect. This will shorten the battery life and cause the CPU to run hotter though as it will be at full speed all the time.

I presume the machine has been defraged?

Dan

It did jump up immediately to 1399.8 MHz with a multiplier of 14.

I'm a little hesitant to do anything drastic (even though that's not terribly drastic in the truest sense of the word) as far as in any way shortening the useful time of a charge because I'm not 100% sure how the customer uses the machine. He seems to use it mostly plugged in either at his office, his home in Buffalo or his second home in Ft Lauderdale, Florida. Primarily for email, Quickbooks, Office tasks, etc. But again, I'm not 100% sure.

I swear this customer reminds me of Larry David of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm fame. I have to struggle not to laugh whenever I'm face to face with him.

I did double his RAM at his request which has helped some but I don't want to do too much radical modification because he will certainly call me asking "WTF, Jack?!?!?" He already calls whenever he goes to FL because he uses a different ISP down there and he can never figure out how to connect wirelessly to the new one. Then again when he comes back to NY. Just thought I might be able to do something simple to speed it up a bit more.

Thanks, though, Dan! I'll keep that tweak in mind for more open-minded customers.

Jack

Not sure if you've done this already but try downloading ccleaner and cleaning up the registry and startup programs a bit. I've found doing that usually speeds up boot, if not the whole computer. Just make sure you don't accidentally install the Y! toolbar along with it...

Hi. By coincidence, I just worked on a Dell Latitude D600 with a similar problem yesterday. Apparently, it's a known problem with some Dell laptops. Once the CPU reaches 100% usage, the BIOS SpeedStep function locks the CPU somewhere near the bottom of its range and there it stays forever. Dell has a fix for it on their support site:

http://support.dell.com/support/downloa ... id=&impid=

It's in the System Utilities section of Drivers and Downloads for the Latitude D600. Look for 'SpeedStep Fix for XP'.

John

Thanks for signing up and sharing,

Dan

Hi,regarding above problem cpu slow,on dell d600. The problem is built in to these by dell! the motherboard has a dallas i.d. chip on it an the dell charger is also fitted with it.Hows that the problem you say,well if you use any other charger that isnt dell it drops the cpu speed so an 1.8 will be 221 or 600 max! speedstep will do nothing. It is very common for a short on the leads of dell charger,as poorly made,but that can kill id chip,so it wont charge or run full power.
Again if you break there poorly fitted power socket an all 3 pins are not conected up,again it wont charge or ever run full power! Socket on motherboard has 3 pins, 1 is power,2 is negative,3 is to id chip! the ring of solder to solder to is very very small,an can come off! if it does,beng a multi layer board,you will have nothing at all to solder it to,only cure is new board! Try a test on a working d600,download cpuz,plug dell charger in look at cpu speed,1.8 running at 1.8. leave that running,but plug a non dell charger in,look at running speed again an it will have dropped to 221-600! Dells excuse is,its a safety feature! But limiting resistors could of done same thing,an not affected cpu speed!!

Dell Lattitude E6400 CPU 100%

Hey, I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in. I've been having issues with an E6400. First the facts:

A couple times now, the thing just pegs at 100% CPU with nothing running and won't do anything. It happens when I'm working at home, and fixes itself instantly when I plug it in the docking station. I have two power cords (both official Dell) - one for the docking station, and one for the laptop. Based on one of the comments on this forum, I tried just re-plugging in the charger cord, and the problem went away.

My interpretation:
If the power cord isn't seated correctly, even if it's official Dell, the thing puts itself in "protect mode" (as in "protect Dell's profits") and won't run.

What a way to do business.

Thanks for the idea in this forum. As you might guess "Tech Support" never had a clue what the problem was.