Laptop stuck in low-power state

[The_Other_One]

Been a while... Just since I started work, I've had my fill of computer problems and not really felt much like doing stuff here. Maybe I'll try to get back in the swing of things

At any rate, I have a problem maybe someone else has run into. Basically, I have this Dell Inspiron D531. It came in with a bad virus on it so I didnt think much of the very poor performance, but once a clean install of Windows was on it, I began to realize the problem...

The system runs a Sempron but I noticed it was much slower than it should be. Upon farther inspection I realize it's only running at 800MHz. I tested this inside Windows Vista and Windows PE, updated the bios (from A00 to A10), disabled all power saving options in the bios...nothing. The bios does say it can go up to 1800MHz.

My final thought is maybe it has something to do with the battery/charger. Both say they can't be detected so maybe for some reason it won't run full speed? Aside from that or a possible mobo issue, I'm stumped. If I had more time, I'd probably throw in another CPU just to see what it runs at.

 

[The_Other_One]

I guess no ideas? I broke down and ripped the thing apart right before I left work today and found something rather interesting... The darn thing had a massive buildup of dust and crap around the fan. I can't ever recall seeing so much built up; I'm surprised it didn't overheat during my tests. Unfortunately, even after a good cleanup, the system still stuck at 800MHz. Either it was still too hot, it had overheated and was now stuck at 800MHz, or this had nothing to do with the problem