CPU underclocked for no reason..need help!!

[TroZant_79]

Hello everyone,

Well it seems I am missing something here. My old rig is not working as it should lately. As the title suggests my CPU (Intel P4 631,3.00GHz) is somehow running way below stock speed (ie, 2.4GHz) with no apparent reason. I suspected Speed Step Tech that my bios has, to be the culprit but it turned out the other way. I disabled it and still CPU-Z and the system properties shows only 2.4GHz. BUT the BIOS somehow is showing the correct value i.e, 200*15=3000MHz at 1.27v
I have tried everything from upping the FSB and Vcore But the more I increase the FSB the more I loose. I mean I increased the FSB from default 200 to 233 which is supposed to yield out 233*15=3495MHz but CPU-Z reads only 2.7Ghz and the BIOS shows 3.49GHz. This is freaking me out guys. Please help.

Here's spec just in case,

Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 32-Bit
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4 631, 2400 MHz (15 x 160)
Motherboard Name MSI 945G Platinum (MS-7176)
Motherboard Chipset Intel Lakeport-G i945G
System Memory 2048 MB (DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM)

DIMM1: Hynix 1 GB DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM (4-4-4-12 @ 266 MHz)
DIMM3: Samsung M3 78T2863RZS-CE6 1 GB DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM (4-4-4-12 @ 266 MHz)

Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT (1024 MB)
Disk Drive WDC WD3200AAJS-00L7A0 ATA Device (298 GB, IDE)
BIOS Type Award
Award BIOS Type Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG V1.3

 

[shovenose]

i have found system properties to display completley bizarre inaccurate readings. ie a pentium m 1.4 supposedly @523.4mhz but cpuz said it was 1.4 like it was supposed to be...

 

[jitpublisher]

How about heat? Your processor will also down clock it's self if it starts getting too hot. Did you check the BIOS settings for that as well, did you clean the heatsink, check the fan, and apply new thermal paste?
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/104
PS.....System properties does not mean a thing. But CPUz is usually golden.

 

[TroZant_79]

How about heat? Your processor will also down clock it's self if it starts getting too hot. Did you check the BIOS settings for that as well, did you clean the heatsink, check the fan, and apply new thermal paste?
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/104
PS.....System properties does not mean a thing. But CPUz is usually golden.

Heat's OK ..I have this everest desktop gadget running all the time so I would get alerts if my cpu temp exceeds 60 deg C
Its usually aroung 35-50 deg when I am doing regular stuffs and when I play games like Dragon Age it stays under 60 deg..is that OK?

Yea, i did check BIOS for cpu temp and its always under 40 according to the PC Health status. AND I did check my heatsink, fan and also reapplied thermal paste.

thanks

EDIT: Thanks for the link !! Now I am thinking MAY be IT IS because of heating problem and Thermal Management is lowering the cpu frequency to maintain the temp...I mean I am using the stock cooler that came with the cpu and I didnt buy a good one just because I thought p4 cpus dont need good cooling like the c2ds do.
AND most of the time CPU-Z show fluctuating multipliers like 15x and sometimes suddenly 12x...what does this mean? Is it because of the overheating as well?

Again thanks for the post

 

[TroZant_79]

i have found system properties to display completley bizarre inaccurate readings. ie a pentium m 1.4 supposedly @523.4mhz but cpuz said it was 1.4 like it was supposed to be...

I dont rely on system properties either so I have a couple of CPU IDing s/w like CPU-Z , speedfan and everest to do the job but they all give the same cpu speed unfortunately 🙁

Could this be related to my PSU by any chance? I know its not a good power supply but it hasnt shown any sign of problem yet.

 

[jitpublisher]

Are you certain that you have the power saving features disabled?
It has to be one of those 2 things, either speed step, or it is overheating!

 

[TroZant_79]

I looked up in the BIOS to disable the Thermal Management feature but it only gives me option to choose between TM1 and TM2 and not to disable it.

I have disabled speed step but no change in the CPU speed what so ever. The link you suggested lead me to RightMark CPU Clock utility which however shows I have TM and speed step disabled but the C1E is enabled.
I googled around and found out C1E refers to some kinda stepping in p4 cpus which also causes cpu to underclock in certain conditions. I dont have this option in BIOS though.
Is there anyway i can disable this in bios and recover my stock CPU speed?

 

[jitpublisher]

Well, for starters, there is no reason to disable all this stuff. Your CPU will respond and come up to speed instantly when the demand is placed, unless it is overheating.

 

[TroZant_79]

I replaced my stock cooler (that comes with the cpu) with a better one and the vendor said that it would solve the overheating problems. IT did decrease the normal working temp by an impressive amount and now everest shows 28deg C instead of 38 or something like that BUT the CPU's still underclocked at 2.4GHz with Speedstep disabled and TM disabled. Does this have something to do with my current OS ?

 

[shovenose]

is it winxp?

 

[saaiello]

Did you disable C1E in bios and also take the multiplier off AUTO and se it to the max multi.

 

[TroZant_79]

@ shovenose - no I am running Win 7 Ultimate 32-bit

@ SAAIELLO - the BIOS doesn't have the opt to disable C1E, just the Speed Step Tech and its disabled and there's no opt for multipliers as well...its just the CPU FSB, Vcore, DRAM Timing and Vdimm I can change 🙁

Guys I am running out of option now. I am thinking of reinstalling windows and see if that works. Somehow I think the BIOS is not agreeing with the current OS.

 

[saaiello]

I had same sort of the problem with an AMD system I was fixinfg for a freind where it would not give me full speed in windows 7 was stuck at 800mhz and was supposed to be 1.9ghz. No matter what I did wouldn't budge above it was stuck in cool n quiet which is same as speed step just different name. It ended up being the bios was too old and was incompatible with windows 7 all together I ended up having to go back to windows xp on it just for it to run at full speed.

After a month or so of researched I found out that windows 7 doesn't have the right drivers for certain motherboards and cannot control power setting correctly and since this is for older systems Microsoft don't care.

 

[shovenose]

take one of the ram sticks out. then try it aand see what happens

 

[TroZant_79]

I had same sort of the problem with an AMD system I was fixinfg for a freind where it would not give me full speed in windows 7 was stuck at 800mhz and was supposed to be 1.9ghz. No matter what I did wouldn't budge above it was stuck in cool n quiet which is same as speed step just different name. It ended up being the bios was too old and was incompatible with windows 7 all together I ended up having to go back to windows xp on it just for it to run at full speed.

After a month or so of researched I found out that windows 7 doesn't have the right drivers for certain motherboards and cannot control power setting correctly and since this is for older systems Microsoft don't care.

I suspected quite the same you know. I have done everything from disabling BIOS features like EIST, C1E, TM2 and what not but every time I boot up the freakin system and look at cpu-z I always get disappointed. So, everything points at my OS now and I also second you on this one. I'll try and clean install win7 (x64 this time) and see if that changes anything.
thanks for the post...its a relief in a way

 

[TroZant_79]

take one of the ram sticks out. then try it aand see what happens

Hmm..what has RAM to do with this. Well somethings better than nothing so I'll give it a try.
thanks

 

[shovenose]

well, i was looking at ur ororignal post, and looking at the fsb (2oo) and the 266mhz ram, i dont know it just seemed wierd. what does it say the psu has as an fsb in cpu-z? thanks.

 

[TroZant_79]

Actually I tampered with the DRAM timings a bit so that I could see what FSB😀RAM ratio would do to help me bring my CPU back to normal operating speed..the timing was actually 5-5-5-15 @ 333 MHz
but why do you think 200MHz and 266 MHz is weird anyway?
I am gonna try the 1 ram trick in a couple of minutes after I finish with my assignment so I will write you back about the result a lil later.

thanks for the reply

 

[saaiello]

Actually I tampered with the DRAM timings a bit so that I could see what FSB😀RAM ratio would do to help me bring my CPU back to normal operating speed..the timing was actually 5-5-5-15 @ 333 MHz
but why do you think 200MHz and 266 MHz is weird anyway?
I am gonna try the 1 ram trick in a couple of minutes after I finish with my assignment so I will write you back about the result a lil later.

thanks for the reply

Your ram Is not the problem it will have no effect on the cpu multiplier If your ram was the problem the system would be very unstable and you haven't mentioned nadda about your system being unstable. I am willing to bet If you install windows XP you will resolve the problem. Vista will most likely yield same results at least it did for me when I had this problem XP was the only OS that would allow the processor to run at full speed.

Your Bus speed should be 15 x 200 and your RAM should be 200 MHZ I assume your ram is 266MHZ because you are trying to overclock it to get your CPU to run faster.

 

[saaiello]

HMM I think I figured out your problem look at this CPU upgrade list.

http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-MSI/945G_Platinum_(MS-7176).html

It says you need bios 2.3 I see that you only have bios 1.3 I just remebered that when a CPU is not supported by the bios it will not clock any higher then 2.4 ghz I am willing to bet you get Bios 2.3 you will be fixed.


MSI update bios page
http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=bios&maincat_no=1&prod_no=194

 

[TroZant_79]

Your ram Is not the problem it will have no effect on the cpu multiplier If your ram was the problem the system would be very unstable and you haven't mentioned nadda about your system being unstable. I am willing to bet If you install windows XP you will resolve the problem. Vista will most likely yield same results at least it did for me when I had this problem XP was the only OS that would allow the processor to run at full speed.

Your Bus speed should be 15 x 200 and your RAM should be 200 MHZ I assume your ram is 266MHZ because you are trying to overclock it to get your CPU to run faster.

Actually, YES I was trying to overclock it thinking I would get my cpu running at least at 3GHz BUT every time I increased its frequency by some amount say 200 to 233 which should have yielded 233*15=3495 MHz but instead it gave me 26xx MHz (dont actually remember it) so..literally something's eating up my FSB The funny thing's that the BIOS still showed correct freq (233*15=3495). I had to increase the FSB to 267 to get CPU-Z to show me 3000MHz which actually would give me 267*15=4.00 GHz!!! wow

 

[saaiello]

Actually, YES I was trying to overclock it thinking I would get my cpu running at least at 3GHz BUT every time I increased its frequency by some amount say 200 to 233 which should have yielded 233*15=3495 MHz but instead it gave me 26xx MHz (dont actually remember it) so..literally something's eating up my FSB The funny thing's that the BIOS still showed correct freq (233*15=3495). I had to increase the FSB to 267 to get CPU-Z to show me 3000MHz which actually would give me 267*15=4.00 GHz!!! wow

Update the bios and you will be able to actually overclock it for real.

 

[TroZant_79]

HMM I think I figured out your problem look at this CPU upgrade list.

http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-MSI/945G_Platinum_(MS-7176).html

It says you need bios 2.3 I see that you only have bios 1.3 I just remebered that when a CPU is not supported by the bios it will not clock any higher then 2.4 ghz I am willing to bet you get Bios 2.3 you will be fixed.


MSI update bios page
http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=bios&maincat_no=1&prod_no=194

That's a new one..well thanks for the link. BUT the BIOS version WAS 2.3 when this problem started in the first place. I searched over the net like hell and there was something in a forum which mentioned about Award's bios being faulty and that it caused instability issues in some boards AND my BIOS was not showing CPU core voltage either so I reflashed it with older bios (v1.3) but the problem persisted 🙁 so...I dont think that may have caused the problem BUT I DO remember cpu-z showing me 3.00 GHz sometime before SO I'll try that too.

thanks

 

[TroZant_79]

What the heck!! MSI doesnt have BIOS v2.3 for my mobo anymore instead the MSI live update showed up v1.5...where the hell has v2.3 gone??? I remember installing it through Live update 3 but now it shows v1.5 is the latest one.

 

[saaiello]

What the heck!! MSI doesnt have BIOS v2.3 for my mobo anymore instead the MSI live update showed up v1.5...where the hell has v2.3 gone??? I remember installing it through Live update 3 but now it shows v1.5 is the latest one.

All I can say is give it a shot and hope for the best.

or try here
http://www.wimsbios.com/index.jsp