Processor speed incorrect????

[RAR]

A friend has an HP Pavilion with a PIII 667mhz processor. When you go into My Computer, Properities it shows it as a 588mhz It even shows that speed when you go into dxdiag. Does anybody know why it would register a lower speed?? You can't go into the bios and set the fsb or cpu speed. Help!

[trieder]

There have been times when my ram reported 174 MB, 168MB etc.. and it was crucial ram (I had 384MB)! So if the CPU is reporting incorrect speed it could be a wierd glitch or it could be (far fetch) running in some type of reduced power mode...

[fuzzielitlpanda]

i duno bout cpu reading at wrong speeds but for ram using the reason for lower numbers is due to onboard graphics and such.

[Steve R Jones]

What operating system? Win 98 has a problem with this. There are several knowledgebase articles on it. M$ suggested solution is to pop the cover and look at the chip ...

[RAR]

It's with Win XP Home. Could a processor show a slower speed if the power supply is under too heavy a load? I'll check the knowledge base too.

[Dax_Brandy]

could be in the bios setting of the mobo.. wrong fsb or multiplier setings can cause the wrong processor speed.

[John Prophet]

I have never heard of power supply loading having anything to do with speed of the cpu..if anything, an overloaded supply would just "sag" the voltage and cause reboots and stuff like that. Now with laptops and mobile cpu's etc..that may be another story cuz sometimes they have different modes etc.

[John Prophet]

Does the bios show a speed when its booting?

[RAR]

I'll have to check, but I don't think so. When you go into the bios it is very limited to what you can do. Unlike our homemade computers where you can tweak all those settings.

[butch81385]

i tried to overclock my 1800+ once, it worked for a while, but then messed up: it started to underclock my processor... the only way to get it to normal was to place a jumper on the mobo to force it to the right speed....

i hope its not something like that...