Pentium 4 2.8 GHz running at 1.4...WHY?? G-mail for answerer!

[David Prahl]

I'll give away a G-mail invite to the person who can resolve this. I'm not kidding - I really need help. :cry:

I just built a system with a new P4 2.8 GHz CPU. Windows recognizes it as 2.8 in "system" but lists "1.4" right below that. The BIOS isn't much help either. It POSTS at 1.4.

It IS a hyperthreading CPU, but the motherboard (Shuttle) is only 533. The mobo should be able to run it at 2.8 with a 533 FSB, right?

[ADBrown]

I'll give away a G-mail invite to the person who can resolve this. I'm not kidding - I really need help. :cry:

I just built a system with a new P4 2.8 GHz CPU. Windows recognizes it as 2.8 in "system" but lists "1.4" right below that. The BIOS isn't much help either. It POSTS at 1.4.

It IS a hyperthreading CPU, but the motherboard (Shuttle) is only 533. The mobo should be able to run it at 2.8 with a 533 FSB, right?

If I recall correctly, the newer P4 CPUs are multiplier-locked, forcing the CPU to run at a set multiple of the FSB. Chances are, your non-HT motherboard is running the P4 using only one of its two 400 MHz FSBs, thus resulting in half the rated speed. My advice would be to replace the motherboard with something that natively supports 800 MHz HT. Wish I could give you a simpler and less painful answer.

[Janak Parekh]

It IS a hyperthreading CPU, but the motherboard (Shuttle) is only 533. The mobo should be able to run it at 2.8 with a 533 FSB, right?
ADBrown is right on the money. There are three editions of 2.8GHz chips (http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/processors/pentium4/). The HT ones absolutely need a 800MHz FSB-capable mainboard to run at full speed. That's because the multiplier is locked at 3.5. 400 * 3.5 = 1400, so your MB is running it at 400MHz.

Time to buy a new mainboard. ;)

--janak

[Darius Wey]

When you say it reports 1.4, are you referring to the page that appears when you right-click My Computer and select Properties?

The information listed there is localised in the registry, so if you think you're CPU is running at 2.8, it may well be, and it just may be your registry has been messed around with.

[Janak Parekh]

When you say it reports 1.4, are you referring to the page that appears when you right-click My Computer and select Properties?
POSTs at 1.4 strongly implies at boot time. ;)

The information listed there is localised in the registry, so if you think you're CPU is running at 2.8, it may well be, and it just may be your registry has been messed around with.
Are you sure about that? All of my PCs correctly display the speed of their CPU without any registry tweaking. I'm pretty sure 2k and XP actually query the CPU speed.

--janak

[dmacburry2003]

HEAPS of Gmail invites were sent out today/yesterday! If you don't know go looking and you will most likely find one!

[mrkablooey]

HEAPS of Gmail invites were sent out today/yesterday! If you don't know go looking and you will most likely find one!

:bawl:

[Darius Wey]

POSTs at 1.4 strongly implies at boot time. ;)

Oh whoops. I didn't see POSTs. My mistake. And yes it does imply that.


Are you sure about that? All of my PCs correctly display the speed of their CPU without any registry tweaking. I'm pretty sure 2k and XP actually query the CPU speed.

--janak

I'll use my one as an example. On that page, it says: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.60GHz, 2.61GHz, 1.00GB of RAM.
The Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.60GHz part is highly modifiable within the registry. The second part (2.61GHz) is what the system reports.

When I was referring to the "registry", I was merely talking about the baseline information that is kept in there so that the "average-joe" user knows that he/she is using a P4. This is modifiable. However, the computer does query the CPU speed as you suggested. Hope that clarifies things. :D

[JustinGTP]

HEAPS of Gmail invites were sent out today/yesterday! If you don't know go looking and you will most likely find one!

:bawl:

Why the :bawl:?

[Janak Parekh]

I'll use my one as an example. On that page, it says: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.60GHz, 2.61GHz, 1.00GB of RAM.
The Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.60GHz part is highly modifiable within the registry. The second part (2.61GHz) is what the system reports.
Interesting -- I didn't realize the first number was changeable -- I thought it was whatever the processor/BIOS "reported" to Windows. Thanks for the heads-up. 8)

--janak

[Darius Wey]

Why the :bawl:?

Someone in shock? 8)

[JustinGTP]

No one is making very much sense on this thread regarding the smileys. They are dead confusing today. :?

[mrkablooey]

HEAPS of Gmail invites were sent out today/yesterday! If you don't know go looking and you will most likely find one!

:bawl:

Why the :bawl:?

don't have any to give out :)

[Darius Wey]

don't have any to give out

You will soon. Google are randomly giving them out like hot cakes.

[PetiteFlower]

Ok, well while I have all the super-techie people's attention, can anyone tell me if it's possible to stop windows messenger from automatically loading every time I start OE? It started when I installed SP2 of course. I don't use it(AIM and Yahoo are enough, thanks!) and it's starting to seriously annoy me.

[Darius Wey]

Load Windows Messenger. Go to Tools-Options, then click the Preferences tab, and deselect the "Run Windows Messenger when Windows starts" to solve all your Windows Messenger problems. I still hate the program and prefer Trillian to it any day. :D

[PetiteFlower]

Nope that doesn't work, that was the first thing I tried. Messenger doesn't start when Windows starts(now), it starts when I load OE. And there doesn't seem to be a way to disable it.

[Jeff Rutledge]

Have you deleted the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\MSMSGS

[PetiteFlower]

No but I'll try that tonight :) I don't mess around in my registry without specific instructions, too risky!

[Roosterman]

Nope that doesn't work, that was the first thing I tried. Messenger doesn't start when Windows starts(now), it starts when I load OE. And there doesn't seem to be a way to disable it.

I know OE and WIM have been closely coupled but I have stopped it from starting except when I want it to. I know one option is to go to go to tools on the menu bar you will find an option for windows messenger. Then select options. There is a box that may be checked for start messenger when windows starts. Uncheck that. It seemed like there was some other option involving contacts that used the WIM contacts also, however, at this time I can't find this. Sorry but I hope this was of some help.

[Janak Parekh]

No but I'll try that tonight :) I don't mess around in my registry without specific instructions, too risky!
Windows Messenger 4.7 is very pesky. Best way to get rid of it is to use an uninstaller. This (http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_messenger_remove.htm) works great for me. (Microsoft is being incredibly stupid about this, incidentally; if you download and install MSN Messenger, both programs run on your machine at the same time. :|)

--janak

[PetiteFlower]

What kind of uninstaller? It doesn't show up on my Add/Remove programs menu.

[PetiteFlower]

Have you deleted the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\MSMSGS

This key doesn't exist :(

[Darius Wey]

If it doesn't pop up in Add/Remove Programs, you probably do not have SP1 / SP2 installed. But removing it only removes the link and not the actual program.

[Janak Parekh]

What kind of uninstaller? It doesn't show up on my Add/Remove programs menu.
That's because Microsoft hides the uninstall functionality -- even the Add/Remove programs thing (located in Add/Remove Windows Components, IIRC) doesn't truly uninstall it, it removes it from the Start Menu, and the damn thing still runs. I spent days playing with it on my laptop (removing it from the Start Menu, HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run from the registry, etc.) but it would still start up. I gave up and tried the aforementioned tweak. I wish I had done it before. 8)

Anyway, that link in the post above just runs an uninstallation process in Windows Messenger and tweaks OE so that it doesn't freak out at the lack of Windows Messenger. In fact, if you prefer you don't need to use the VBS script -- that page details the manual command. I've had zero problems with it, personally.

--janak

[Palmguy]

Not sure if OE is the sameas Outlook but on my machine running Outlook XP if you go to Tools -> Options -> Other, there is a MSN option at the bottom. After unchecking that I haven't had to deal with Messenger at all.

[Janak Parekh]

Not sure if OE is the sameas Outlook but on my machine running Outlook XP if you go to Tools -> Options -> Other, there is a MSN option at the bottom. After unchecking that I haven't had to deal with Messenger at all.
Yes - actually - there is. In Tools => Options, on the General tab ("Automatically log on to Windows Messenger"). I should probably have mentioned that earlier. :P In my case, though, the msmsgs.exe appeared in my task list (and interfered with Trillian) even though I turned all those things off... might not matter for PF, though.

--janak

[PetiteFlower]

OE = Outlook Express. Not the same as Outlook. I don't use Outlook. And there is no such option in the tools/options menu in OE.

I'm actually not entirely sure if I had installed SP1, my computer might have come with it already installed but I'm not sure. I'm POSITIVE that I installed SP2 though, that's what caused the problem!

Janak--THANK YOU!!! I will try that as soon as I get home tonight. I hate microsoft!!!!!!!

[Roosterman]

One last attempt to help. This may have been how I did it way back when. Go to Start and click run. Type in msconfig. A box will appear that is the System Configuration Utility. Click on the Startup tab. This shows everything that starts at boot up. You may be suprised by how many things are set to begin at start up. You should see a box that is checked in front of msmsgs. This is followed by "C:\Program files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe" /background. Uncheck it, click ok. You will get a message box that says for the change to take effect you need to reboot. If you want to do it now say yes or do it later.

Now, when the system comes back up, a rather ominous message comes up saying you messed with the settings and this message will continue to come up until it is undone (or something to that effect). However, there is a checkbox that says something about check this is you don't want to see this again. Check it and all should be good.

Hope this takes care of the problem for you.

[PetiteFlower]

*sigh* it wasn't running at startup. It was running when I started Outlook Express. I already managed to stop it from running at bootup, I don't need to do that again.

Well I ran the script just to be on the safe side, but it appears that deleting the messenger folder from C:\Program Files did the trick beforehand. Thanks everyone for your help :)

[Janak Parekh]

I'm POSITIVE that I installed SP2 though, that's what caused the problem!
It's not SP2's fault per se. The problem is that SP2 upgrades Windows Messenger to 4.7, and I've found it in turn to be pesky. It's strange you didn't have that OE option, but sounds like you're set. :) BTW, if you ever really do set up an MSN Messenger account, just use the MSN Messenger (http://messenger.msn.com) client -- it's more powerful in the first place, and is a bit more polite about what it does. Therefore, I don't consider uninstalling Windows Messenger 4.7 a loss at all.

--janak

[maximus]

Time to buy a new mainboard. ;)

--janak

David, can you trade in the motherboard ? You just recently purchased the motherboard, right ?