CPU Speed on Laptop

just trying out a laptop and it the thing's a 2800+M. When I right click on my computer it says the thing's running at 398 mhz or something. I know they throttle down when they're on the battery and trying to conserve energy but it's plugged into the wall and saying this. I've tried changing the power settings to "always on" and this changes the speed up to 798 mhz or something. I want it to go full power which was 1.6 or whatever. When it's set to 398 I'm pretty sure it's not going that speed, cause windows xp is doing stuff fine. Can anyone claraify how exactly this all work? In my old laptop I remmeber you could tell it what mhz and stuff to be at certain battery percentages. But, I haven't used one really in a long time, other than to repair windows. Sorry, for not knowing exact mhz, I don't even wanna touch it right now, I loathe laptop built in mice and I'm tired... heh. Thanks.

There should be "Power Schemes" in your Power Management. If its set to "Portable/Laptop", change it to "Home/Office Desk"

That speed is detected on start up. It may say it is running at a really low speed but that may not be the speed it is running at the present time, just the speed it was running when it started up. Download CPU-Z from www.cpuid.com and see what it says.

it might just be a windows reporting problem.

what kind of laptop? try the mobile meter to get accurate readings:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-Oakland/8259/

Thanks for the replies guys. It was just reporting it incorrectly in windows. I got cpuid and it said it correctly. Thanks again.