Why is my processor slowing down?

[joebun]

I'm running a AMD 1900 processor on a gigabyte 7ZXE motherboard which I was led to believe shoul dbe able to handle a 1900 mhx processor. But it seems like recently my processor has slowed down to 1200mhz! I can't figure out what's wrong, even my motherboard utility identifies the chip as a max speed of 1400. Is this a heat issue? I tried removing the heatsink and thermal grease and reapplying it, but it still doesn't work. some one help please.

btw, how much thermal compound is supposed to go on a heatsink and processor?

[framecount]

If your CPU is running at 1200 that's what it would be set to if the FSB was at 200 instead of 266. Could be a BIOS option or a jumper (more than likely BIOS, though.)

As for the CPU grease, I put on a thin film just enough to cover the die (the 1cm^2 metal part in the middle). I usually spread it around with a piece of paper. You don't really need a whole lot, but just make sure there are no bare spots. When you put the heatsink/fan on it's going to squeeze it out to the edges, so you don't want a ton on there to just gush over the sides.

[joebun]

what's FSB? and if it's BIOS related, how would it have gotten switched? Can a virus do that? Thanks for the help.

[framecount]

FSB stands for Front Side Bus. The Front Side Bus of your processor must be set to 266 (133x2) to be seen as the 1900. Right now it's set to 200 (100x2). It's highly unlikely that a virus would change your FSB setting in your BIOS, but not unheard of. What you're going to need to do is go in to your BIOS (usually the delete key or F1 when it's posting), and then go in to Frequency Control and make sure your FSB is at 266 or 133 (if it's at 133 the machine automatically doubles it to 266, so it's effectively the same thing).

Some ways it may have been changed... power surge took out your BIOS battery... uh... something grounded on your motherboard... Not really a whole lot else could physically change it unless it's always been running at that speed and you just never noticed it.

Let me know if that helped out. If you're still having problems you can contact me via e-mail. vyyper@netscape.net I might be able to help more in-depthly if you're still having problems.

[edit]Also, a 1900 is only 1600MHz just so you know.[/edit]