There's 3 speeds in a cpu, 4 in a K version. Idle, base, turbo and OC.
Idle is EIST or Intel Speed Step etc. It's a power saving mode where the cpu decides its not doing any work and doesn't need to be running flat out. It's intentions are to reduce power usage and any resultant heat output, thereby adhering to 'Green' or European energy saving standards and hopefully prolonging the useful life of the cpu. In pre-haswell cpus speed step will drop the cpu frequency to 1600MHz.
Base speed is the actual rated speed of the cpu, as set by the cpu and Intel firmware. So for you, that'd be 3.4GHz. This info, the make, model, Lcache sizes and other firmware hardcode are on a list, not changeable or accessible other than for read purposes. Base speeds are guaranteed across all 4 cores at any load and not overheat the cpu with a stock cooler.
Turbo is a factory set OC. It's user enabled/disabled at will in bios. It's basically Intel way of saying the base speed is guaranteed, but we have enough faith in our cpu that the speed can be bumped higher. This may or may not be a viable speed as any OC will raise heat values, so turbo is pc/usage dependent. Turbo is also variable, you'll see 3.9GHz on 1 core, 2-3 will be 3.8GHz and 4 cores will be 3.6GHz as the cpu attempts to balance work loads and core heat output on the chip itself.
OC. Totally a hobby and as such it's upto the pc as to exactly what levels are or are not attainable. There's absolutely no guarantee of anything once you go past Base speeds. There's 2 ways to OC. Manually, by user manipulation of the bios or Software which is generally supplied by the mobo manufacturer. If the pc is capable of OC, limits will be set by 3 things. The cpu lottery, the motherboards capability and user knowledge. Failure of any of the 3 results in failed OC and/or instability. With software OC like the AISuite, a program is written to be applicable to the brands designs. Unfortunately it covers a wide variety of boards, it's not tailored specific to each board. My Asus p8z77-v LE uses the identical AISuite to a p8z77-v Pro, which has far better heatsinking, power control and OC ability. Software bumping the BCLK to 103.5 is no worries for either board, yet pushing the next level up at 105.7 will shut my 'light version' mobo down fast as everything goes beyond tolerances. Software will mess with any and all bios settings which a user will not know of or see changed, so unless you totally back out of the OC carefully, things will get missed and the bios will keep reverting to last known stable save.
The problems you currently face are exactly why manual OC is Always preferred, recommended vehemently etc. Software OC works, but it's more of a sales gimmick than a viable, stable platform for cpu speeds.
Cpu-z and most other programs are one-shot pictures. If you run cpu-z while at idle, you'll get back a speed of 1600MHz. If the pc is working on a load of @10-30% then it'll run at base speeds, so that's what cpu-z will show. Anything above @30% loads will show the full working speed, whether that's turbo or OC values. The only way around that is to either be under torture test when you picture, or in bios disable any and all eco settings such as speed step/EIST, cpu C-states, power phase control etc. This'll mean when the pc is on, it's always at maximum capability, no power savings, no slow down, no sleep states. There will be no idle, no load adjustment etc.
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