I have an older laptop, a Dell D400, and prefer to use Vista but the problem is that EIST (SpeedStep) doesn't work for some reason. It's a 1.8GHz Pentium M and it works fine under Windows XP SP2 or any Linux distro (FC8 or PCLinuxOS).

I've looked around, obviously there's nothing from Dell's website with any driver that I can use and I don't see any Vista drivers from Intel for this chipset. I've seen alternatives to get it working, 3rd party software and such.

Anyone else with this problem at all? Thanks in advance for any help.

Have you tried changing the profile in the power settings ? Try different profiles such as "Laptop" or "Minimal power management".

Doesn't exist in Windows Vista. Not sure if you've ever seen it before.

There is High performance, Balanced and Power saver.



No matter what setting it is on it never uses SpeedStep. I have verified this using CPU-Z. From experience with my desktop (IP35-E) using Vista it is all controlled in the BIOS. On my desktop no matter what power setting I picked, SpeedStep is always enabled. I have to disable it in the BIOS to turn it off.

On my laptop, SpeedStep is enabled and still doesn't work. I have the latest BIOS from Dell on it as well.

It seems the power management settings are indeed different in Vista (I've used it a bit but not enough to know such things). I've found a guide showing how to enable SpeedStep/Cool'n'Quiet. I hope that can solve your problem.

Yeah, I found that in a Google search as well. It doesn't work. The Processor power management is an option but changing it to any setting does nothing.

I would've expected a company such as Intel to provide proper Vista drivers for its most popular parts but I guess that was too much to ask. There are some more tips in this thread, see if something works.

I've been contemplating an "upgrade" to Vista so this situation interests me quite a bit.

use the vista compatibility program before running vista on older systems. It will save you a headache.

I recommend downgrading to XP and use the vista emulator.

I've seen similar threads suggesting many crazy things and none of them worked. I wouldn't blame Intel as much as I would Dell. The BIOS, although the latest, is quite old. Being that the laptop came out in 2003 and was designed for Windows XP I don't suspect much support.

The good thing is that all devices were installed from the start. Vista supported everything. It runs great too as I have 2GB RAM installed. It just will never downclock the CPU ever. That makes the laptop hotter and the battery never lasts as long.

I run Vista on my primary desktop as well (see System specs) and it's great. SpeedStep does work on it but it's more modern with a Core 2 Duo and P35 motherboard.

Vista runs smooth as silk on the laptop (Pentium M 1.8GHz, 2GB RAM, 80GB 5400RPM HDD) to be honest. It's just that the D400 is quite smaller and normally doesn't run very warm at all.

I use Vista Business that I got from the VLA at work. No need to go back to Windows XP. I wouldn't even use Windows XP on it anyway, such a bad OS to use. I'd put PCLinuxOS back on it before I'd use Windows XP again. Thanks for the advice with that though.

I suppose that having the CPU run at full speed all the time must make the fans spin quite a bit more. Is it noisy after a while ?

Very true. The fan does spin all the time at full speed with the CPU at full speed. The bottom of the laptop becomes quite hot as well. The hot air coming out the side is extremely warm.

have you try installing notebook hardware control?
i have tried on my friends' acer 5920G but the processor remains at 2.00gHz aswell.

not sure whether the newer core 2 duo designed to be like that. but it's suppose to be able to speed down using NHC.

anyway site is= www.pbus-167.com
maybe works for you...

No, I haven't tried that particular one. I'll give it a try and let you know. Thanks for the link!