Help - Pentium4 3.06GHz registers as 1.5GHz

[vulcanman]

Until last week I had a fairly speedy Dell Dimension 4550 box with 533MHz bus and a 2.8GHz CPU. It has the 845 chipset. I have PC2700 RAM

Last week, I purchased a 3.06GHz w/ HT CPU and swapped out the slower processor ... confirmed that it booted up and promptly auctioned off the 2.8GHz (non HT) CPU.

Last night to my utter horror I realized that my system was registering this CPU as a 1.5GHz processor and the RAM as 266MHz !!! I have the latest BIOS (A06) that is supposed to support this processor. The Intel Processor ID utility shows that the CPU is indeed a 3.06GHz CPU but has an effect speed of 1.5GHz !

I tried to put an older firmware but the utility will not allow it.

Please help !!!

 

[Gramps]

I'll subscribe to this thread as I'm curious about possible upgrades for the same machine. The slight difference is I have the 2.53Ghz. The primary reason I haven't upgraded mine at this point is because I haven't been sure what upgrades would work. I've been reluctant to even try a HT CPU since it wasn't an option at the time of purchase and I suspect the BIOS knows nothing about that. I think Dell BIOS upgrades are to address bugs, etc., not to allow the computer to be upgraded to a new platform. Even if a chip fits in the motherboard socket, I think there are things the BIOS needs to do to "support" the chip correctly.

I realize it's somewhat pointless to speculate since I don't have any answers, but it seems like the BIOS is inquiring something from the chip and getting an answer like "1.5mhz in one core, 1.5mhz in the 2nd", but only understands one core, so it's setting itself up for 1.5mhz. I assume you tested things and it's actually running that slow (as opposed to just a reporting error). What do you see in Task Manager, 1 core or 2? Can you load both cores?

Too bad I didn't get your 2.8Ghz processor as at least I would have known it works in the 4550. How much did you get for it?

 

[JWade]

whats the s-spec of the chip? is it a 3.06 northwood or a 3.06 mobile chip (which if i am not mistaken is not northwood).

the 4550 only supports up to 533mhz bus speed (which is 266mhz "double pumped")

i used to have two 4550's

 

[jonmcc33]

Have you tried Dell's support forum? http://www.dellcommunity.com

 

[Gramps]

I see the question on the Dell forum along with an answer, so hopefully that's him. As for me, Dell Forum is also answering my questions about which CPU upgrades will work with the computer as well as possible video card upgrades. The slot on the machine is AGP 2x/4x, so I've had doubts whether AGP 8x cards would work.

 

[jonmcc33]

AGP 8X cards will work in an AGP 4X slot, it will just run with the "limited" bandwidth that AGP 4X provides.

I got a Dell Precision 340 from my work that uses RDRAM and had a 2GHz 400FSB Northwood. I found out that the motherboard uses a Intel 850E chipset that supports 533FSB. I flashed the BIOS to the latest and put a 2.4GHz 533FSB Northwood in it and it worked fine and booted at 2.4GHz. So as long as it supports the FSB then it should be fine. He should really check out the Dell forums.