P4 2.6 ghz running at half speed

[cstitt]

OK.  A science experiment!  I don't believe it's a solvable problem.  The motherboard that is supplied to Gateway has a very limited number of hardware variations.  If you can determine make & model of motherboard, you may be able to find someone who has "hacked the BIOS" successfully.  There is a chance that the mobo is supplied to several manufacturers that each have their own BIOS.  I have a computer in a similar situation but am not willing to flash the BIOS as an experiment.

I will look for MB info and post it if I find it.  I am beginning to think that I have a faulty CPU or motherboard that as you stated "is unsolvable".

[Computer_Commando]

I will look for MB info and post it if I find it.  I am beginning to think that I have a faulty CPU or motherboard that as you stated "is unsolvable".

No, it's not faulty.  It's performing just as it was designed to.

[cstitt]

Mother board is "Intel E210882"
There is some other numbers on white labels also which is:

4000811
ABRG32847628  AA  C29595-101

I don't know what the latter numbers are for!

[Computer_Commando]

Mother board is "Intel E210882"
There is some other numbers on white labels also which is:

4000811
ABRG32847628  AA  C29595-101

I don't know what the latter numbers are for!

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/cs-009009.htm

Is this your motherboard?  Your chipset P/N will identify which.  845GL or 865GV.
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/15203/eng/D865GVHZ_ProductGuide01_English.pdf
OR
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/15212/eng/D845GLVA_ProductGuide_English.pdf

[cstitt]

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/cs-009009.htm

Is this your motherboard?  Your chipset P/N will identify which.  845GL or 865GV.
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/15203/eng/D865GVHZ_ProductGuide01_English.pdf
OR
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/15212/eng/D845GLVA_ProductGuide_English.pdf

Finally caught on 
#845GE
couldn't find info with AA#

[recovering disk space - old attachment deleted by admin]

[Salmon Trout]

cpu bus speeds celeron 400 MHz, p4 800 MHz, therefore P4 runs at half speed.

[Computer_Commando]

cpu bus speeds celeron 400 MHz, p4 800 MHz, therefore P4 runs at half speed.

We know.  He wants to modify it, which is unlikely on a Gateway.

[Sodde]

From personal experience I can tell you that even if you achieve this (yes, it is possible on certain MB-CPU combinations), you will more than likely encouter intermittant issues with such things as USB, AGP, PCI Bus errors etc causing fatal errors and BSOD's.
If its purely a 'science project' then have at it but be warned, you could invest a lot of time getting the CPU running at the right speed, only to find its unusable.

[cstitt]

Thanks to Computer_Commando I was able to get the CPU's that are supported by MB from the manual which doesn't list 512/800.  Below is the list:

Table 2. Processors Supported by the Desktop Board
Type Designation FSB Frequency L2 Cache
Intel® Pentium® 4
processor
2.60, 2.50, 2.40, 2.20, 2A,
1.80A, and 1.60A GHz
400 MHz 512 KB
Intel® Celeron® processor 2.20, 2.0, 1.80 and 1.70 GHz 400 MHz 128 KB

If I can't get CPU to full speed would it be better with 512 cache at half speed or the 2.6 with 128 cache?

[cstitt]

From personal experience I can tell you that even if you achieve this (yes, it is possible on certain MB-CPU combinations), you will more than likely encouter intermittant issues with such things as USB, AGP, PCI Bus errors etc causing fatal errors and BSOD's.
If its purely a 'science project' then have at it but be warned, you could invest a lot of time getting the CPU running at the right speed, only to find its unusable.

Nothing is lost if things don't go right as I mention earlier I got the PC out of the throw away bin and it was trashed when I started puting it together.  Nothing worked on it.

[Salmon Trout]

A 2.6 Celeron at full speed is going to be MUCH faster than a P4 running at 1.3 GHz.

[cstitt]

A 2.6 Celeron at full speed is going to be MUCH faster than a P4 running at 1.3 GHz.

Thank you, what difference does a 512 cache make as to a 128 cache CPU in performance?

[Salmon Trout]

Thank you, what difference does a 512 cache make as to a 128 cache CPU in performance?

Not very much. And it would be completely swamped by the 50% speed reduction.