Speedstep not working after sp2?

[AzNKiD]

i got dell 600m, ran xp pro sp1 for awhile. after installing sp2, i notice that the cpu is constantly at 1500mhz dothan. before sp2, speeds vary from 600mhz - 1500mhz, which is normal for speedstep. but now its stuck at 1500mhz all the time. using i8kfangui to read temps and cpu speed. power options under CP is portable/laptop. even when its running on batt, it remains at full speed. another thing i notice is sometimes when i am playing games, the cpu speed would drop to 600mhz for like 2mins, then back up. this only started to occur after sp2, before, it never done that while playing games. any suggestions?

 

[AzNKiD]

okay, just to update this. i found the problem. the processor driver that came with sp2 is causing the cpu to remain constant at full speed. i roll back the driver to sp1 dated 7/2002, and the speed is dynamic agian. once i upgraded the driver to sp2 dated 4/2004, the cpu became constant.

should i worry about using the older driver instead of the new one on sp2? i check dells and intels site, cant find any other drivers. installed dells chipset drivers already. also, the older driver is not digitally signed. :/

 

[VirtualLarry]

Interesting. You case is the opposite of another that I've read about, that after installed SP2, their CPU won't run at full speed. My gut feeling is, roll back to the SP1 CPU driver, and just go with what you know works. Then, if MS or Intel releases an update to the SP2 driver to fix the "full speed always" problem, then try that one when it appears.

 

[AzNKiD]

bump, there has to be more people with laptop and sp2

anyways, i get random BSOD now somtimes. got it once while playing game and the other when i closed my lid to stand by. once i open the lid back, it BSOD on me with some process errror and rebooted. interesting indeed. its sorta random i guess. how do i get windows to check their site for updated drivers just for this item? when i goto processor properties, and click on updated driver, it ask me if i want to check online for updates, but it never does no alerts by my firewall.

 

[boran]

Do you have any reliable monitoring tool for the centrino CPU that is not propretary dell ? I've got an acer 2012 WlCi but no other way to monitor my CPU other than system properties. and I do not know how reliable that information is.

 

[Tummy]

Anybody figure out a fix for this? I just installed SP2 and I seem to be suffering from the same problem.

 

[doodler85]

Semi off-topic...

I'm running XP Home with SP1, and I don't even HAVE options for speedstep. What's the deal there? Is it an XP Home thing? Is the speedstep driver specific to one's notebook, or can I get it somewhere?

Thanks,

-David

 

[fbrdphreak]

Let's see if we can answer several questions in one. The BEST utility I have found for monitoring CPU speed is easily Tom's Hardware Clock Utility. It stays on top of all apps and is small enough not to get in the way.
Speedstep is not so much of an "option" as it is a hardware function that has to be supported by software built into Windows. Basically, the processor will underclock itself during periods of inactivity; saving great amounts of battery life. For most manufacturer's PCs, you manage the Power Settings through the control panel. Basically I believe in that case you want to make sure your profile is set to "Battery" or something along those lines (i.e. not a FULL POWER or MINIMAL POWER MANAGEMENT profile) to ensure the CPU underclocks itself. Use the above util to check that.
When I went to SP2 on my IBM, I had no problems. However, I did a fresh RESTORE to SP1, updated all of IBM's drivers/apps, and then loaded SP2. I might suggest you do this to ensure it is not a software problem. However, if rolling back the driver causes the CPU to underclock correctly and everything else is fine, then rock on!
And of course google this for your specific model, you will prolly find laptop specific forums dealing with these issues. GL

 

[spyordie007]

All of my laptops w/ speedstep appear to be working fine after SP2. Most of them are 1.7 or 1.8Ghz Pentium Ms (which run the same drivers ala. 4-1-04 as yours). Ours are Dell D600s.

-Erik

 

[doodler85]

Rad, I didn't realize that speedstep was automatic like that.

My Mom's IBM laptop had CPU speed settings, and I had to tweak it through that... was it her IBM software that over-rided intel's, or does my Dothan just function differently?

Thanks again,

-David

 

[fbrdphreak]

IBM is great with their software, you can tweak whatever you want. Intel doesn't include "software" as much as it is just a driver that allows Window to vary the CPU clockspeed with whatever you may or may not be doing at a given moment. Honestly I don't know "exactly" how IBM's software differs, but I would imagine it just takes over CPU control from Windows; just like a neat little program called SpeedSwitchXP does. If you are one of the unfortunate ones NOT to have an IBM laptop then check out SpeedSwitchXP. It offers almost the same functionality as the IBM software and might even clock your CPU lower during less intensive tasks than Windows will (When I used it on my IBM I believe it took it down to ~200MHz, whle Windows I believe stops @ ~600MHz & the IBM software goes to sub ~100MHz).

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: AzNKiD
bump, there has to be more people with laptop and sp2<BR><BR>anyways, i get random BSOD now somtimes. got it once while playing game and the other when i closed my lid to stand by. once i open the lid back, it BSOD on me with some process errror and rebooted. interesting indeed. its sorta random i guess. how do i get windows to check their site for updated drivers just for this item? when i goto processor properties, and click on updated driver, it ask me if i want to check online for updates, but it never does no alerts by my firewall.

Read my .sig's URL and then send me the dump and the MPS reports from your laptop. I'd like to see what's going on with the BSOD.

 

[Tummy]

Hey fbrdphreak.. thanks for the link on SpeedSwitchXP. I tried that 'cause I was still having problems and this solved the problem beautifully. It seems that even tho I had set the BIOS to dynamic speed on battery power, it was somehow reading max performance (a bios bug I guess?). This software let me change to dynamic on both ac and DC and now it seems to work perfectly. Speeds up when necessary otherwise runs 600mhz. Definitely gonna remember this piece of software