View Full Version : Weird Pentium M (Dothan) Quirk

07-02-04, 08:00 PM
I recently bought an HP Pavilion Zt3000 notebook with a Pentium M (Dothan) 1.8GHz processor. I am very happy with it except for one strange thing that has been bothering me. If I right-click My Computer and click properties this comes up:


As you can see below the processor name it says 592MHz. That is way off and not nearly worth the money I paid for this notebook just to have a Dothan. That number also changes from time to time.

What is the deal with this? Is it a problem that needs to be taken care of?

By the way I use AC power when taking that screenshot. I know about SpeedStep technology and I doubt that is what is causing this becuase I haven't run off the battery yet.

Also when I run a computer analysis program from PCPitStop (http://pcpitstop.com) it reads the Dothan as a Pentium III, sometimes with a wrong clock frequency as well.

I apologize if this is a noob question. I have no idea what's going on.
I appreciate all your help and thank you in advance.

07-02-04, 08:19 PM

Id try to use WCPUID first, however the reason why windows is reporting a incorrect clockspeed could be because the dothans can save power when its idleling but not running at full speed.

Here is a direct link


07-02-04, 11:11 PM
My Pentium 4 mobile does this as well. I think it's normal. I have a Dell Latitude C840 and I swear it does the exact same thing. On the battery or not, it makes no difference.

Load up CPUZ or as glowstick mentioned WCPUID and see what it shows. I bet if you hit the refresh button w/cpuz you'll get a varying result, just like I do on my work laptop.

07-02-04, 11:27 PM
Yes, it cuts the cpu to save battery when its not needed.. load up a demanding application, then check it.

07-03-04, 12:54 AM
My Pentium M 1.8 in my Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop does the same thing.