Need help with Dell Inspiron 6000 CPU speed

So I was in my BIOS trying to track down a problem with my power adapter and I noticed that it said my CPU minimum speed is 800MHz and the maximum is 1.7 GHz. It went on to say that I was running at 800MHz!

I downloaded Wizard Soft CPU speed checker, closed all open apps and ran a test. It came in at just under 800MHz. Windows reports that I have a 1.73 GHz CPU.

I couldn't see anywhere in the BIOS where I can bump up the speed. Does anyone know how I can do this? It's supposed to be a 1.7GHz processor. At least that's what I paid for.

I believe that uses Intel's Speedstep technology & XP runs the processor at slower speeds to conserve the battery if the demand is low.

david_42 said:

I believe that uses Intel's Speedstep technology & XP runs the processor at slower speeds to conserve the battery if the demand is low.

Click to expand...

Perhaps that it, David. I haven't really noticed that the computer is that slow, but at the same time I would expect that a program measuring clock speed would stress the system enough to throttle it back up. Every once in a while I get a 3d shooter game and it seems to perform okay. I guess I'm looking for a solution to a problem that I probably don't have.

Well, wouldn't you know it. I followed the link you gave me and it looks like I don't have the appropriate option in my power options window. I rebuilt my system with a disk other than the Dell disk (couldn't find the one that came with my computer) so the Dell specific menus aren't there. One of the selections is to throttle back the CPU. I wonder if I'm not stuck in 'minimum' CPU mode? Any suggestions as to how I can get the Dell specific add-ons to Windows XP?

Unfortunately, no. I'm more of a hardware person. You might try here http://www.techimo.com/forum/