Why Is My Laptop Running at Half Speed?

Reader Rob writes: My Dell laptop is about two years old. When I  checked my system information through the Control Panel, it indicates that the computer is running at only 798MHz, which is significantly slower than the 1.6GHz it's rated for.  My current power setting is "Always On," and I'm on electrical power as opposed to the battery.  When I try other power settings, the processor only runs slower.  Is this slowing down the speed of the computer, and if so, how can I make my computer only run at or close to 1.6GHz?

That's good-old Dell just helping you out in ways you probably didn't know you needed. Check out the Dell QuickSet application, which you ought to find as a big Q in your system tray (bottom right of the screen) or in the control panel. QuickSet is Dell's proprietary way of managing power and other settings like display brightness and network connectivity. For some reason, Dell thinks QuickSet does these jobs better than those already built into Windows XP.

The real problem comes when you try to manage power settings directly in Windows. QuickSet will often override them (though sometimes not), leaving you with a hodgepodge of settings managed through two separate control panels. You may have Windows XP set for "Always On," but if QuickSet is set for "Maximum Battery Life," it may take priority over the XP setting. (I later spoke to Rob and indeed this was the issue.)

I'm only picking on Dell because Rob asked about them specifically. Many vendors have similar custom power control panel programs installed: Toshiba, Sony, and Lenovo/IBM all have programs like QuickSet, and that's just off the top of my head.

What can you do about it? If you don't feel like managing your power settings in two places, most of these applications can be easily uninstalled in the Add or Remove Programs control panel. If not, most let you turn them off via a setting. You might just have to dig around a bit to find it but it usually says something like ("Use Windows to manage my power options.") You're unlikely to notice any ill effects without the vendor's "bonus" software on your notebook.