sluggish Duron - reboot fixes - why?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dale Davies
  • Start date Start date
D

Dale Davies

With Windows XP pro, AMD Duron 850 MHz 256MB RAM, I
notice that sometimes it just seems to "switch" for
reasons unknown to 425MHz (figure according to Windows'
own performance summary). Performance becomes extremely
sluggish to the point of virtually unusable. I switch the
machine off, then back on -- presto, processor reported
as running at 850MHz, performance respectable and machine
again usable.

This sort of inexplicable stuff makes me a nervous little
camper.

As both Duron and Windows XP have been around a while,
has anyone canvassed this before among the more
experienced people reading this newsgroup? I would prefer
to be able to prevent this "speed collapse" in the first
place.

Various suggestions I trawled from previous posts here --
disabling certain automatic processes etc -- seem to have
had little effect; only turn-it-off/turn-it-back-on seems
to get rid of the problem for a while.

TIA for any help...
 
Hi Dale,

Since its displayed correctly to start with, and the fact that you percieve
a drop in performance, may indicate it actually is halving.

If it was a laptop, I might guess it had gone into battery mode, and so the
cpu speed had dropped to conserve power.

On the otherhand, dropping cpu speed is also something the bios does, if it
thinks the processor is overheating. Check your power management settings in
the bios to see if this feature is turned on and at what temperature this
occurs at.

Some processors are also smart, and have an inbuilt guard against
overheating so it might be the duron itself, although I didn't think they
were that smart.

What sort of motherboard do you have. I would get onto the manufacturers web
site, and see it they have any motherboard monitoring software that lets you
watch the temperature while the system is up, or failing that, try using
"Motherboard Monitor"

http://mbm.livewiredev.com/

Check your system cooling which will be at the root of the problem, blocked
vents, fans wearing out.

Have you added any extra cards recently which will increase temperature, or
perhaps the powersupply is getting near its rated limit and acting like a
radiator

Obviously this an educated guess. These kinds of things are tricky unless
you have the system in front of you, but definitely worth checking before
you are the owner of an X duron :-)

Paul
 
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