dmesg showing wrong frequency (IBM T30)

[Tobias Roth]

On Fri, Jul 18, 2003 at 09:48:59PM +0100, Bruce Cran wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 18, 2003 at 07:24:20PM +0200, Tobias Roth wrote:
> > On Fri, Jul 18, 2003 at 06:22:27PM +0200, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
> > > What's "wrong" here is that the BIOS/ACPI firmware in your laptop
> > > runs your CPU at a reduced rate in order to make the battery last
> > > longer.
> > 
> > it should NOT do this. I set the bios to disable speedstep and to
> > 'max performance' while on AC. also, i run apm and not acpi.
> > 
> 
> That's probably the problem.   For some reason, certainly on my Dell, disabling
> SpeedStep throttles the CPU down to 1.2GHz on bootup, from its full 2.0GHz.
> Nothing the OS can do will change it.  Enabling SpeedStep means that FreeBSD
> sees the full 2.0GHz.   I've also heard about someone whose Dell had a broken
> BIOS, which meant that the CPU could never run at full speed, but was always
> running at 60%.   Upgrading the BIOS was the solution in that case.

interesting. i have cycled through all the different bios options, but it
is always the same 1.2 GHz. i recently upgraded to the latest bios, so i
probably will have to wait to try a new bios.

meanwhile, the laptop is going back to ibm anyway because of its overheating
problem and the broken second ram slot. i will tell them to check out the
cpu/bios as well.