My Processor Keeps Changing Its Mind As To How Fast It Is: WTH?

[Fifty]

While trying to open paint I stumbled upon "system properties" and discovered that my processor is apparently was stated as being 450MhZ when it used to be 1.7 GhZ, and now it says 994 MhZ.

1. What the crap is going on?

2. Can I fix it without spending a dime or more than ten minutes?

 

[Speedo]

Download CPU-Z and see what it reports. Better yet, post a screenshot of what it shows.

 

[Perfection]

In many systems when the processor starts to get into a temperature range that may be damaging a temperature sensor is tripped which reduces processor frequency to save on power dissapation. These are especially common in laptops. You're probably covering up your fan intakes while lounging around with your lappy.

 

[Asher]

That's called Cool n' Quiet (AMD) or SpeedStep (Intel). It cranks down the CPU when it's not needed, cranks it up when it is. It's good.

 

[Speedo]

That's called Cool n' Quiet (AMD) or SpeedStep (Intel). It cranks down the CPU when it's not needed, cranks it up when it is. It's good.

Neither of those should be reducing a CPU that's normally 1.7GHz down to ~500MHz.

IIRC a 1.7GHz P4M shouldn't go below ~1.2GHz. Never used CnQ on a laptop, but I've haven't seen it drop a CPU below 1GHz on desktops.

 

[Fifty]

Lemme know if you need any other tabs to be shown and I can ss them too.

What's odd is that a couple times the "core speed" box flashed up to around 1700 MhZ for very brief (like less than a second) periods. It hasn't gone down to as low as it was earlier in the system properties, though.

EDIT:

ok, so I just go the 1700 thing to flash again and managed to SS it:

What is odd is that the flashes of 1700MhZ seem to correlate quite exactly with my moving a window around. So like if I grab a window (say a my documents window, or a paint window, or anything) and move it around the screen fast, it will register 1700MhZ briefly.

 

[Grisu]

well, that sure sounds like Cool'n'quite. moving the window will generate load (though very briefly) on your cpu, so it'll step up its speed.

 

[Speedo]

Probably is CnQ then, the 450MHz reading was probably just a quirk and/or mild insanity on the part of the reader.

You can disable it if you like, but it'll reduce your battery life somewhat. I leave it on fulltime on my desktop, works perfectly fine even when gaming or etc.

 

[Comraddict]

Lemme know if you need any other tabs to be shown and I can ss them too.

What's odd is that a couple times the "core speed" box flashed up to around 1700 MhZ for very brief (like less than a second) periods. It hasn't gone down to as low as it was earlier in the system properties, though.

EDIT:

ok, so I just go the 1700 thing to flash again and managed to SS it:

What is odd is that the flashes of 1700MhZ seem to correlate quite exactly with my moving a window around. So like if I grab a window (say a my documents window, or a paint window, or anything) and move it around the screen fast, it will register 1700MhZ briefly.

Thati s how it should be, it jumps to 1.7GHz only when load>80%

 

[Asher]

IIRC a 1.7GHz P4M shouldn't go below ~1.2GHz. Never used CnQ on a laptop, but I've haven't seen it drop a CPU below 1GHz on desktops.

My 2GHz Athlon 64 regularly dropped below 1GHz.

 

[Asher]

Ooo, we're posting CPU-Z pictures?

 

[Perfection]

My 2GHz Athlon 64 regularly dropped below 1GHz.

As does my sempron.

 

[Rheinmetall]

You can see that it also drops the CPU voltage while it drops frequency. Saves battery, less heat.