Compaq Presario CPU Frequency Problem

Tide · 10-01-2005, 02:26 PM

Hello everyone. I'm new to linux, and since I installed Kubuntu I've been having a problem with my CPU clock speed on my Compaq Presario 2590US. Upon running cat /proc/cpuinfo I am told the following:

Code:

owner@box:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 15
model           : 2
model name      : Genuine Intel(R) CPU 2.30GHz
stepping        : 9
cpu MHz         : 1596.512
cache size      : 512 KB
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 2
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe cid xtpr
bogomips        : 3137.53

Yet lshw tells me the following:

Code:

 
     *-cpu
          description: CPU
          product: Genuine Intel(R) CPU 2.30GHz
          vendor: Intel Corp.
          physical id: 4
          version: 15.2.9
          slot: WMT478/NWD
          size: 1600MHz
          capacity: 2300MHz
          capabilities: fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe cid xtpr

So I ought to be running my CPU at 2.3 ghz, not at 1.6. Does anyone know how I can correct this problem? Thus far, cpuspeedy has not worked for me, and I'm pretty sure that this problem is not being caused by CPU throttling since I did not have that feature enabled and also due to the fact that that frequency never changes, even when programs are loading.

TigerOC · 10-01-2005, 02:58 PM

Are you sure the bios is configured to run it at it's spec'ed speed? Check the settings in the bios. Usually cpu info is coming drirectly from the bios.

Tide · 10-01-2005, 03:20 PM

I checked my bios, but there doesn't seem to be a place for me to edit/check my CPU frequency. It is able to run at 2.3 ghz in windows, however.

Dummy-in-Linux · 10-02-2005, 07:46 AM

Your notebook Pentium processor is capable of Intel stepping technology, which slows down the processor speed when you not need it or use it....If you open programs like OpenOffice Writer you can only work at the speed you can type, and not need 2300Mhz to do that.

Microsoft Windows uses nothing more then the CUP ID code to read the processor Mhz speed, the programs you now use tell you the processor ID and the current speed......which is almost always less then 2300 Mhz with normal use....

The funny part is that in fact you can see sometimes processor speeds of less then 200 Mhz.....I was shocked at that time

Tide · 10-02-2005, 05:40 PM

Yeah, I really don't think that's it though. The processor isn't supported by powernowd, and the speed of the processor never changes from 1.6ghz, regardless of what I do. Furthermore (now that I'm using my windows partition) I've noticed that windows xp just runs a lot faster than linux, which I think might be due, at least in part, to this problem. Before anyone asks, yes I have dma enabled.

Tide · 10-05-2005, 04:45 PM

/Bump.

I could really use some help with this.