Hey guys, I know this deals with the processor but I believe the solution is software-based (or atleast I hope). I have a laptop and my processor is variable speed (to control battery usage). The problem is it's basically used as a desktop, and many times I'll be gaming or using engineering 3d apps and will experience more lag than I think should be necessary.

And to the problem: Is it possible for me to lock the speed at maximum? If so, where is this option located... I've looked everywhere and can't seem to find it. Thanks for your consideration.

Assuming you are using Windows XP, try this:

Start > Run > (type) powercfg.cpl > OK (see attached screenshot which was taken on an IBM Thinkpad T30 to give you a better idea).

I'm running windows xp... but I don't have the same power options properties window that you're showing in your screenshot. I'm missing the "Advanced Settings", "Beep/Alarms", and "Suspend/Hibernate" options, but I have all the others. Unfortunately none of the others have cpu management :(

I've also been having the problem of it running at full speed (which is rather noisy) whenever I have just music or even sometimes when nothing is running. I noticed this last night as I tried to sleep. Is it possible that it is not judging correctly what my processor speed should be?

I've looked into some programs that will control it (mainly SwitchSpeedXP) although when I installed it I had the same problems. SSXP has an option to detect maximum CPU speed and many times it would show me 800MHZ (on a 2GB machine). Is there a windows service or application that controls it normally that I should disable?

If you are running an AMD processor with PowerNow technology, go to power options in the Control Panel and set power scheme to "Always On". That will shut off the cpu throttling. If you are running an Intel chip with SpeedStep, you may have to look in the BIOS for "EIST" (Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology) and set that to disabled. Please note that the power scheme change for the AMD processor only works under Windows XP (As far as I know) but the Intel Speed Step fix will work under XP and Vista as it's a BIOS-level change and is independent of the operating system.