Hello, and thanks in advance.. My dell inspiron laptop 8200 (2.4ghz) in the last few months has started working slower... i've applied all th updates in the official site, BIOS are at a11 and tried changing them any way possible, but no results. Sometimes as soon as i turn it on it starts at full speed (2.4 ghz) but after a while it goes down to 1.2 ghz or sometimes even 600 mhz...at first i thought it was smart cpu not working well and the cpu just wuoldn't boost up when it had to, but i think the problem is another one... i downloaded CPU-Z and got information of when it's running full speed and when it's running at half speed... AT FULL SPEED Processor 1 (ID = 0) Number of cores 1 (max 1) Number of threads 1 (max 1) Name Intel Pentium 4 Codename Northwood Specification Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 - M CPU 2.40GHz Package Socket 478 mPGA (platform ID = 3h) CPUID F.2.7 Extended CPUID F.2 Brand ID 14 Core Stepping C1 Technology 0.13 um Core Speed 2392.3 MHz (24.0 x 99.7 MHz) Rated Bus speed 398.7 MHz Stock frequency 2400 MHz Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2 L1 Data cache 8 KBytes, 4-way set associative, 64-byte line size Trace cache 12 Kuops, 8-way set associative L2 cache 512 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size FID/VID Control no Features AT HALF SPEED Processor 1 (ID = 0) Number of cores 1 (max 1) Number of threads 1 (max 1) Name Intel Pentium 4 Codename Northwood Specification Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 - M CPU 2.40GHz Package Socket 478 mPGA (platform ID = 3h) CPUID F.2.7 Extended CPUID F.2 Brand ID 14 Core Stepping C1 Technology 0.13 um Core Speed 1196.2 MHz (12.0 x 99.7 MHz) Rated Bus speed 398.7 MHz Stock frequency 2400 MHz Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2 L1 Data cache 8 KBytes, 4-way set associative, 64-byte line size Trace cache 12 Kuops, 8-way set associative L2 cache 512 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size FID/VID Control no Features THANKS, JOHNNY

It's called "SpeedStep". The CPU speed varies depending on load. If it ran at full speed all the time, you'd run out of battery power MUCH quicker. Also, varying the CPU speed helps the CPU to run cooler. If your system is running noticably slower, it's most likely because you've got a lot of accumlated internet garbage, or a lot of useless programs loading at startup, or spyware/malware infection, or any combination of the 3. "If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions" - Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction

yea it is a speed step cpu, unfortunately its not jumping into action when it should. When they get to hot they will auto decrease. I would try cleaning out ur fans with caned air.

Thanks for the answers, ok, the malware or startup programs is not the cause its clean and of that im sure... and anyways even if it were cause of that, the cpu wuold be running at fll speed but the system wuold be going slow... one of my fans is'nt working, but how can that affect the cpu speed from the startup...does it really overheat that fast?

i'm not saying this is your problem, but yes - CPUs heat up incredibly fast, and laptop enclosures allow for next to no airflow. If you've got a fan out, you could be doing damage to your components and shortening their lifespan. i've heard laptop fans can sometimes get stuck, but can be easily unstuck with a toothpick or something.