Speedstep not working... how can I get the clocks back?

[acole1]

I have an Inspiron 5150 with a 2.8 P4 Mobile (Northwood) and it will not boot if I enable the speed management in the BIOS.

If I disable it though, then I can get the laptop to work perfectly fine, but only running at 1.6Ghz instead of 2.8.

I know there is the tool SpeedSwitchXP, but alas, I could not get XP loaded on here, and the only OS that would install w\o locking up, was Vista. So, I can't use SpeedSwitchXP to OC the machine to it's proper 2.8GHz.

Do you know of any fixes for the broken Speedstep, or tell me of a tool that I can use to OC the CPU a little higher than 1.6?

Thanks!

 

[Brainonska511]

If you disable Speedstep in the BIOS, the system automatically clocks down the lowest clock speed of the processor.

Do you have the latest BIOS running on your Inspiron 5150?

 

[acole1]

Yes, I have BIOS version A38. I updated it last week hoping that might fix the problem. But it didn't.


I saw there is a "BIOS speed patch" but it is only for use with XP they say.

Description: This utility is used to check & update the specific CMOS value for Inspiron 5150 in order to further improve the system performance.
Supported System: Inspiron 5150 only
Supported OS: Microsoft Windows XP only


I just talked to a Dell tech via chat, and they confirmed that it is a problem with the SpeedStep feature.

Is the feature tied to the motherboard? Or the CPU? Would replacing one of them fix it? (Not that I necessarily would.)

 

[Brainonska511]

Speedstep is tied into the BIOS (which is the motherboard). I don't think replacing the CPU would fix your problem as the BIOS is the controller of the clockspeed (through the speedstep settings).

As for the XP only thing, that could work, but who knows? The Inspiron 5150 is not supported under Windows Vista. Does that speed patch need to be installed in a Windows environment?

 

[acole1]

Originally posted by: Brainonska511
Speedstep is tied into the BIOS (which is the motherboard). I don't think replacing the CPU would fix your problem as the BIOS is the controller of the clockspeed (through the speedstep settings).

As for the XP only thing, that could work, but who knows? The Inspiron 5150 is not supported under Windows Vista. Does that speed patch need to be installed in a Windows environment?

It's an exe with some sort of GUI tied into it, but I'm not exactly sure how it's sposed to work since it throws error messages and crashes when run in Vista - even in compatability mode.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

This might help:
http://cpu.rightmark.org/products/rmclock.shtml

 

[acole1]

Originally posted by: Gonad the Barbarian
This might help:
http://cpu.rightmark.org/products/rmclock.shtml

Nah, didn't work.

I could change the multiplier with the program, but it never actually changed. I think that tool just manipulates SpeedStep, but since I have to disable it to get it to boot, it doesn't work.

It's a nice program though. Thanks!