CPU running at half the speed?

[]SK[]

BIOS advertises the CPU as a 2.2Ghz which is correct.
Linux looks to be also doing the same

[palma@localhost palma]$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 15
model           : 2
model name      : Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 - M CPU 2.20GHz
stepping        : 9
cpu MHz         : 2193.209
cache size      : 512 KB
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 2
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe cid
bogomips        : 4341.76

[palma@localhost palma]$

But Windows XP says in System Properties its a 2.2Ghz with 1.2Ghz underneith that.

As far as I know I have all the drivers loaded (Its an install from a HP Recover CD.)

Ideas?

 

[mookie]

p4m? laptop?

i know some laptops slow down the cpu when theyre running on battery to save on battery life, its probably that.

check the power save settings in wondows contol panel see if you can change it. its usually set to 'automatic' or something

 

[]SK[]

I changed to the Power Scheme to Home/Office Desk and that fixed it!

I didnt think it would make any difference other than turning off after a certain time etc. Means for the past year ive had teh laptop its been running at half speed. Bah!

 

[Xavier]

Not true.

SpeedStep, which is the feature responsible for the aggressive clock-gating on your CPU (and one of the main differentiators between the Desktop P4 and the Pentium4-m) only lowers the operating frequency when the CPU isn't under load. Which is actually rather clever.

There's a teeny tiny performance hit when speedstepping (which generally only kicks in when on battery anyhow) at the moment when the CPU switches back up to the higher speed, on-demand, the rest of the time when it's idling (or you're typing in MSWord) it runs at the slower speed, eats less battery and means your laptop runs for longer on a single charge.

By turning your laptops mobile mode to home/office desk all you succeeded in doing is chewing through your laptop battery faster.

 

[mookie]

i thought i might be wrong, somehow.

 

[]SK[]

Well ive never seen it run at the full 2ghz. I dont often use the laptop without power anyway. Im quite happy to sacrifice battery for speed.

 

[Xavier]

The point is that when your laptop is using much CPU, it IS clocked up to full speed, it's just when it's idling that it sits at the lower clock. So you're not getting any extra speed, just more heat and less battery