Hiya!
I have an old computer...Win 98, AMD K6-2 500mhz, 128mb ram, Amptron
motherboard...which is puzzling me with a CPU slowdown. I first
noticed it when I bought a new HP 4160 printer a couple weeks ago, and
the CD install stopped due to an insufficient CPU speed error. Sure
enough, the power on self test is reporting it as being 166mhz. The
CPU PnP setup page of the BIOS is reporting a CPU speed of 166mhz, CPU
base freq. of 66mhz, and a CPU multiplication factor of 2.5. The CPU
fan is running (verified), and the BIOS page is reporting temp's of
122F 58C, and 5191 rpm. Voltages appear normal. What da heck might be
causing it to throttle back like this? I've already bought an Intel
3.2 Celeron/Asrock 775 barebones kit to transfer my goodies to, but
I'm curious what might be causing this? ...the POST always said 500mhz
whenever I noticed it in the past. Thanks in advance!

Hey WangHu,

Welcome to PCHF, we have a wonderful team of techs here, and I feel certain that we will be able to help you figure out why this PC has slowed down.

But I do have to start out by saying that it is amazing that it is still working at all. You must take very good care of your computers M8.

OK, there are a lot of reasons this could be happening. Have you checked to see if malware could be involved? Are your temps consistent with what they have typically been? Did you notice a slowdown before the printer install failed?

You may just need to acknowledge that it is old and tired, and ready to give up the ghost. I would definitely build that kit soon, and slave the current HDD into your system.

Looking forward to your reply,

TTFN

LGW