[Ryutso]

I was just handed a laptop by a friend of mine.

It's got an Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 2.0 GHz, however, it's only running at 997MHz.

Is one core just burned out, or is there something in the BIOS I can change?



Don't mind the background image, that's his homepage in Chrome.

[Schuyler]

It may be running in System safe mode

[Bl00dyMurd3r]

If there is no setting in the BIOS to control processor's clock speed, then a core could possibly burned out.

Also, there is software out there to underclock a processor, check if any programs like that are on there. An example of an app like this is:

Cpukiller3

[MakingMoneyX]

Nah, it's just Intel's throttle down feature for laptop CPUs, SpeedStep. It reduces CPU speed when it's not needed, akin to AMD's cool'n'quiiet.
Oh, wait. It's on 900 MHz ALL THE TIME? then yeah, it's messed up.

[Ryutso]

Originally Posted by Schuyler

It may be running in System safe mode

How would I get it out?

@MakingMoney: I'll post a screenshot.

[MakingMoneyX]

Try playing an HD movie on it, and check the speed while it's playing. If there's no change in speed (and the movie is lagging as hell), then yeah, there might be a BIOS config/CPU problem.

[Ryutso]

Screenshot posted.

[Ascorbic]

You can't have one core stop working on a processor, and even if it did that would still leave you with 2.00 GHz as intel markets the speed for each core not the total speed. If the laptop is plugged in speedstep should turn itself off, but you can go into power settings to make sure. Also check the BIOS when the computer is starting up, if it doesn't show you the correct speed in the bios settings then it is clocked wrong separate from speedstep settings.

EDIT: Here is something for you to check.
Right click my computer and go to properties. On one of the tabs (advanced?) you will find the device manager. Open that up and find a section for CPU or Processor or something. If you click the plus arrow next to that you should see two processors each listed at 2GHz if things are clocked correctly

[MakingMoneyX]

Hmm... try running CPU-Z on it. It shows if there are any speed changes in real-time. I don't know if Intel's SpeedStep affects Windows' speed detection, but I know AMD's Cool'n'Quiet doesn't.

[Ryutso]

pastebin - collaborative debugging tool

CPU-Z report.

Originally Posted by Ascorbic

You can't have one core stop working on a processor, and even if it did that would still leave you with 2.00 GHz as intel markets the speed for each core not the total speed. If the laptop is plugged in speedstep should turn itself off, but you can go into power settings to make sure. Also check the BIOS when the computer is starting up, if it doesn't show you the correct speed in the bios settings then it is clocked wrong separate from speedstep settings.

EDIT: Here is something for you to check.
Right click my computer and go to properties. On one of the tabs (advanced?) you will find the device manager. Open that up and find a section for CPU or Processor or something. If you click the plus arrow next to that you should see two processors each listed at 2GHz if things are clocked correctly

Everything's clocked correctly. I see two cores @ 2.00GHz.

[MakingMoneyX]

Nah, a report is not needed. Just run something CPU-heavy in the background, and check if the "Core speed" changes in CPU-Z. An HD movie would do nicely.
If it doesn't change, check for "SpeedStep" on BIOS settings and disable it.

[Picard1595]

depending on what type of laptop it is, most have drivers for the speedstep technology to work properly that has to be installed or else it will never run at its default clock speed. There should be a way for you to turn off speedstep in the bios though.