CPU Slowing Down

Dozer

I'm just looking for some ideas. I have an elderly CPU, an Athlon XP 2500, Barton core. The processor is supposed to run at 1.8 Ghz. However, when I look at my system information, it says it's running at 1.1 Ghz. I have not attempted any overclocking but don't understand why it would suddenly slow down. I also ran that Vista compatibilty test and it shows the CPU running at 1.09 Ghz. Is there anything I could have done to cause the problem and is there a way to fix it, short of getting a modern CPU. Thanks for your help.

josh2thad

Well under your Start bar type "power Options"
Look to make sure its on the "high Performance" option because if its not then, when your system doesnt have a load it lowers the multiplier to run you cpu at about half speed. When you put a load on the system it should read full speed though 1.8Ghz.

This happend to me with my Core 2 and my Athlon 64.

- Josh

Dozer

Thanks Josh, I will try that tonight.

ChaosMinionX

Thats normal, its called throttling and the processor does this when it is idle to conserve power, and increase lifespan. Its either in Windows Power Scheme, or your BIOS to disable this option.

Dozer

Thanks everyone for your replies. I went into my bios settings tonight and found that the FSB was set to 100Mhz. It is supposed to be at 166. I'm not sure how I did that but I'm now back 1.8Ghz. Still slow by todays standards but it's a rocket compared to what it was. Thanks again.

ChaosMinionX

That will do it, glad you got your problem fixed.

H3X4D3C1M4L

For reference purposes, that power setting won't affect Athlon XP's because they don't support that kind of throttling (they all had locked multipliers and unless you unlocked them or had a mobile chip it won't work).

Simple math backs the FSB theory up anyway (seen this 10000's of times ), 100x11 = ~1.1GHz, 166x11 = ~1.8GHz