XP SP2 slows down notebook processors

[Piet van der Plas]

I have a notebook with a 1.20 GHz PIII Intel Tualatin processor which has
worked fine with XP and XP SP1.
This type of processor, amongst others, uses Speedstep technology which
allow the Operating System to adjust its frequency to conserve battery
power.

After upgrading to SP2 I noticed a dramatic slowdown.
I found out (right-clicking My Computer - Properties) that he processor only
worked at 68 MHz, about 20 times slower than normal!
Changing the Power Scheme to "Always On" or "Home/Office Desk" did not make
a difference.
Rolling back the processor driver to the original 2002 driver of SP1 did not
make a difference

I downloaded the freeware program SpeedswitchXP, which supposedly allows you
to read and set the processor frequency directly
Interestingly, this did not improve the situation. I did set the frequency
at 1.20 GHz in the program, it showed the frequency to be 1199 MHz, but the
computer still was as slow as before, and My Computer still showed a
frequency of 68 MHz.

Finally and desparately I removed SP2 and everything was fine again. My
Computer showed a frequency of 1.2 GHz.

Also Dell and HP computers appear to have these problems with other
Speedstep processors (search Google with XP SP2 Speedstep)

Anybody knows which part of SP2 is responsible for Speedstep? Is it
something I could roll-back with a SP1 driver?

Thanks,

Piet van der Plas

[Andre Da Costa]

Restart in Safe Mode, do disk clean up and also defrag the disk. Also Click
Start > Run > type in: "msconfig" without quotes > startup (tab), uncheck
any unnecessary programs that might be starting up with the system and
restart.

"Piet van der Plas" <Piet_at_itr.nl> wrote in message
. nl...
>I have a notebook with a 1.20 GHz PIII Intel Tualatin processor which has
> worked fine with XP and XP SP1.
> This type of processor, amongst others, uses Speedstep technology which
> allow the Operating System to adjust its frequency to conserve battery
> power.
>
> After upgrading to SP2 I noticed a dramatic slowdown.
> I found out (right-clicking My Computer - Properties) that he processor
> only
> worked at 68 MHz, about 20 times slower than normal!
> Changing the Power Scheme to "Always On" or "Home/Office Desk" did not
> make
> a difference.
> Rolling back the processor driver to the original 2002 driver of SP1 did
> not
> make a difference
>
> I downloaded the freeware program SpeedswitchXP, which supposedly allows
> you
> to read and set the processor frequency directly
> Interestingly, this did not improve the situation. I did set the frequency
> at 1.20 GHz in the program, it showed the frequency to be 1199 MHz, but
> the
> computer still was as slow as before, and My Computer still showed a
> frequency of 68 MHz.
>
> Finally and desparately I removed SP2 and everything was fine again. My
> Computer showed a frequency of 1.2 GHz.
>
> Also Dell and HP computers appear to have these problems with other
> Speedstep processors (search Google with XP SP2 Speedstep)
>
> Anybody knows which part of SP2 is responsible for Speedstep? Is it
> something I could roll-back with a SP1 driver?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Piet van der Plas
>
>
>
>

[Dave]

I have an Asus notebook with a 1Ghz PIII running at 1Ghz under Sp2 so it is
not a generalised problem. Given that removing sp2 restored things this does
seem to be a problem on your machine. Have you seen other postings similar?


"Piet van der Plas" <Piet_at_itr.nl> wrote in message
. nl...
>I have a notebook with a 1.20 GHz PIII Intel Tualatin processor which has
> worked fine with XP and XP SP1.
> This type of processor, amongst others, uses Speedstep technology which
> allow the Operating System to adjust its frequency to conserve battery
> power.
>
> After upgrading to SP2 I noticed a dramatic slowdown.
> I found out (right-clicking My Computer - Properties) that he processor
> only
> worked at 68 MHz, about 20 times slower than normal!
> Changing the Power Scheme to "Always On" or "Home/Office Desk" did not
> make
> a difference.
> Rolling back the processor driver to the original 2002 driver of SP1 did
> not
> make a difference
>
> I downloaded the freeware program SpeedswitchXP, which supposedly allows
> you
> to read and set the processor frequency directly
> Interestingly, this did not improve the situation. I did set the frequency
> at 1.20 GHz in the program, it showed the frequency to be 1199 MHz, but
> the
> computer still was as slow as before, and My Computer still showed a
> frequency of 68 MHz.
>
> Finally and desparately I removed SP2 and everything was fine again. My
> Computer showed a frequency of 1.2 GHz.
>
> Also Dell and HP computers appear to have these problems with other
> Speedstep processors (search Google with XP SP2 Speedstep)
>
> Anybody knows which part of SP2 is responsible for Speedstep? Is it
> something I could roll-back with a SP1 driver?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Piet van der Plas
>
>
>
>

[r]

How to successfully install Windows XP Service Pack 2:
http://www.fixyourwindows.com/winxpsp2install.htm

Good Luck!
---
How to optimize Windows XP, 2000, ME
for the best performance (Step-by-step Visual Guide):
http://www.fixyourwindows.com

Spyware/Virus Removal and Prevention:
http://www.fixyourwindows.com/windowsxpsolutions.htm
(Links to online virus scans on the same page)