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My laptop is a Dell Latitude D600, 1600 MGHz Pentium-M processor. Only in the last month or so it keeps changing. Right now it's clocking at 599MHz, and so of course everything is slowed way down (and now, I'm not just underutilizing the CPU, it's at 100% usage). I think it started when I began to use it on battery and changed the power scheme. Only I've changed that to every possible setting and it deosn't seem to help at all. Any ideas? Any place I should look to fix this?
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Sorry, I have no idea how to help you. But to anyone else out there who's thinking of buying a laptop, at the moment, I'd say don't buy a Dell. Mine broke when it was four months old and I had to completely reformat the blasted thing.
Posts: 119 | Registered: Nov 2003
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I don't know how to fix it, but many laptops purposely lower the CPU speed when on battery power in order to reduce power drain. Some also lower the CPU speed when it gets hot (like when you are running at 100% CPU).
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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If you go into the control panel, look for power management, and it'll be controlled under the "speed-step technology" tab, normally your laptop will cut the processor speed in half when it's on battery power, and put it back up when it is plugged in, this is to conserve power so you laptop lasts longer because usually the two largest drains of power on a laptop is the processor and the LCD (not including having an optical drive spinning all the time). However, seemingly some dells have a minor problem where they won't ever run at full processor...though I've only seen it happen with one, and that was a model that always had overheating problems anyways. Diagnosis: no problem at all, your laptop is probably running just as it should. Satyagraha
Posts: 1986 | Registered: Apr 2001
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SS - I'm wondering - how did your Dell break? Did the programs not work right (since you mention a reformat), or did you end up losing your drive and had to replace the drive and reinstall everything?
I've had my Dell 1100 for almost a year now, and with the exception of some crappy Linksys software (which is thankfully gone), it's been perfect so far. Then again, I'll never buy a Toshiba due to all the display adapter problems that they have been known to have.
Posts: 851 | Registered: Oct 2001
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Hobbes, be sure to download the latest drivers, firmware, and BIOS updates for your laptop from the Dell site. Several Dell laptops have a known problem with Intel SpeedStep; they misbehave and clock down to around half speed even when plugged in and/or at full charge.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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If you are going to buy a computer of any kind don't buy a Dell. Hell, if you insist on getting a prefab. comp. your only good choice is IBM.
They are the only ones that I know of that give you an actual XP/[opperatingsystemhere] disc. Every other company gives you that Not-Quite-XP-Disc.
Further more, they don't load your system down with garbage that you are just going to take off anyway, and when you use that Not-Quite-XP-Disc after a problem, all of the crap comes back!
Two reasons you should go with IBM. I am sure there are more, but that is all I have at this point. When I buy my first laptop, I will have more. So, make the planet a better place, choose IBM.
Oh, and Hobbes, I say sell it on e-bay, get a decent turn around, and get a decent laptop.
quote:Originally posted by Hobbes: Maybe, but at least the me that owned that laptop didn't have Trump as president. Now which one of us looks like the idiot?
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I think rogger007 is really onto something here. I feel incredibly reassured that iphonesupport.net/i-cloud-customer-support/ is available to help with all my potential Laptop CPU speed problems.
Posts: 2926 | Registered: Sep 2005
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