i have a dell inspiron 2650 laptop that seems to be underclocked. This laptop has a previous owner and i am not sure what has been done to the laptop. (i gave it a fresh install when i got it) In the system properties general tab it says i have a "Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 - M CPU 1.80GHz" BUT on the nect line is says "1.18GHz, 256 MB of RAM" i've seen in other programs (mIRC script) that it also says i have a 1.18GHz cpu... i fear its underclocked and i don't exactly know how to get it to clock normally.

The speed of the CPU varies depending on load. This helps to conserve battery power & keep the CPU temp lower

Asus A7N8X-X
1800+ @ 8.5 x 200MHz
768MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7
Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB
WinME/WinXP Pro

on top of that, dell will sometimes underclock their processors. all the ones at my school are p4@2.4ghz clocked @2.2ghz. this helps make them last longer. if your case, you can probibly turn off speedstep in your bios, or turn off all power saving options.

p4 3.0ghz @ 222X15=3330mhz
512mb pc3200 dual channel @222mhz
80gb wd hdd/40gb maxtor when on linux
8x agp geforce 6200 @ 530/585can't unlock extra pipes. plz help if you can
Audigy 2 ZS<b

Tip: run something heavy on the background and check again. Make sure (with task manager or some other app) that the CPU load is 100% or near. You could for example enter 9999999999999999999999999 and then "!" in the Windows Calculator - that should keep it busy for a while (think of it - it will do 1×2×3×4×etc all the way till it's reached the 99999~ number). Open the windows calc by doing Start -> Run... and typing "calc" and hitting OK.