Need help with Mom's crappy computer

[opuntia]

So, the pc that my mom uses for her business crashed the other day while I was out of town. My mom, because she needs a pc for her work, went out that day and bought a HP Pavilion at BB. To her credit, she got the one with the AMD 4200+ dual core.

Now, I've recently built my own system so I know a little, but I can't figure what's going on with hers...when I go to control panel --> System, the front page shows her running at 954Mhz. That to me seems awfully slow. I have a 4400+ and I'm at 2.21ghz (no OC).

Anybody have an idea what's going on?

Thanks!!

 

[SexyK]

Nothing to worry about, that's normal assuming the system has Cool'n'Quiet enabled. If you put the system under load, it'll report the full 2.2GHz.

 

[daveybrat]

Sexy is dead on. Not sure if her HP has the option in the bios as most OEM pc's are have a castrated bios, but usually you can disable cool'n'quiet technology and have it run at full speed all the time. That's what i would do to any pc i build, but it's your call.

 

[mechBgon]

Tangentially, now might be a good time to arrange some kind of backup routine for the future.

 

[opuntia]

Originally posted by: SexyK
Nothing to worry about, that's normal assuming the system has Cool'n'Quiet enabled. If you put the system under load, it'll report the full 2.2GHz.

That's right, I forgot about that. I have that diabled on my PC. Like mentioned above, I'll have to see if her "castrated" BIOS has that setting. I think AMD also has software that will disable it.

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Tangentially, now might be a good time to arrange some kind of backup routine for the future.

Oh, don't you know it. Though in her case, the controller on her MB went bad. Three brand new HD's also didn't work in her PC. One is now in an USB enclosure and is now her backup drive. I'm using syncback for the backup...I like it so far.