Why is my core 2 duo not running full speed?

[choppedliver]

I got this core 2 duo dell inspiron 1720 from my aunt, and it is slooooooow. Much slower than a dual core processor machine should be.

I took this snapshot of cpu-z running, and this is with prime95 running torture test in the background.

Is my processor really running at 600mhz?

I looked in the bios, and speedstep is enabled. Apparently if you disable speedstep it will always run at the slowest setting, so I left it enabled.

While also running prime95, I took this snapshot of "openhardwaremonitor" and it doesn't match cpu-z . I'm confused. I would like my laptop to run at 2.4ghz damnit!.

Any help would be appreciated, I'm sure I've overlooked something stupid.

 

[serpretetsky]

usually disabling speedstep leaves your CPU running at max performance, not min performance. You can test it out and see what happens.

Were both your CPU cores pegged @ 100% when you took both of those screenshots?

Another thing you can do to confirm your low cpu performance is run some standard cpu test like superpi or passmark and compare to other t7700 cpus. SuperPi performance should be directly proportional to your frequency.

 

[choppedliver]

thanks guys. I had it in balanced mode, but I had gone to advanced options and selected the minimum processor state 100%, apparently that didn't do squat.

So I changed to the "high performance" mode and it didn't kick in immediately. I unplugged the ac and plugged it back in so it would switch from ac to battery back to ac and the cooling fan came on and the cpu-z showed 2.4ghz working much better now.

What is the point of "balanced" if it doesn't let the cpu run at full speed when necessary, even after changing the "advanced options". In fact, it doesn't run at a sufficient speed to even allow a decent web browsing experience? 600 mhz doesn't cut the mustard. I would hate to see what power saver mode is like.

 

[Pylon]

Run something extremely intensive like Prime95 or folding@home to see if it's kicking into full speed when the CPU is fully loaded.

 

[choppedliver]

the original post showed pictures of it running 600mhz in "balanced" mode while running torture test of prime95.

 

[Pylon]

Apologies then, nvm.