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stupid BIOS default   ...   what i learned today
wed 2004-sep-08 15:13:16 pdt   ...   permalink


Turns out that my work laptop (an IBM ThinkPad T20), is supposed to run at 750 MHz, not the sluggish 200 MHz at which I've been using it for over three years now. Apparently, the default settings in the BIOS were to have it step down the CPU speed after some period of inactivity, and it never then steps it back up again (until reboot). Clever.

To be fair, I would guess that the failure to step back up is a linux kernel issue, not the BIOS' fault (and so presumably, the majority of ThinkPad users don't have this problem since they run Windows), and I haven't all that often maxed out the CPU anyway... But still, over three years, I've executed only about a quarter the number of clock cycles I could have had. That's a lot of missed cycles!


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wed 2004-sep-08 16:31:06 pdt
posted by leigh

DOH!

heh


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