Dell’s Latitude series has this special feature, when the CPU becomes dangerously hot, it will downclock to nearly a tenth of it’s clock speed, and as you might imagine, you’re better off turning the laptop off then finishing your work; the speed becomes worse than an Intel Celeron.
Luckily, my issue wasn’t hardware failure, or software for that matter. The Latitude E series has a history with heat issues, but this time I was plauged with a bit of dust.
A few short breaths and a vacuum later (didn’t have compressed air…), I had a much cooler Latitude, and the clock speed was back to normal.
