Processor Misrepresented

[MG]

Basic info. All machines Norton AV 2003 up to date and Firewalled with
Norton as well. All scan disk, defrag, cookies cleard, etc done


Machine 1 instead of reading approx 1.7mHz shows up as 1.2mHz or Less in
System reporting and bios.
AMD XP 2000+
512MB RAM
Win XP Pro

Machine 2: instead of reading 996mHz(1GHz) reads as 486 mHz
Compaq Presario 705US Laptop
Athlon 4 1Ghz
256mb RAM
Win XP Pro

Both machines misrepresented in all system information. Machine 1 able to
be fixed by redoing the bios. MAchine 2 unable to find the Processor info
in the Bios. Both machines run real slow when system states lower processor
speed!

1. Why is this happening on 2 different machines. Owned by 2 different
people.

2. How can machine #2 be fixed?

Thanks.