My CPU downclocked itself... why?

[TeamMyk]

My cpu which is a 1.83Ghz processor now boots up as a 1.1Ghz processor.

System Specs
2500+ Athlon XP Barton Core not mobile
Gigabyte nForce 2 7N400 Pro
1GB RAM Generic
MSI 6600GT AGP

Just before the problem occurred I was playing Oblivion and rebooted to defrag the ram. When the computer restarted it hung on the initial boot screen. After some fiddling I decided to remove the bios battery. When I put the battery back in place and powered it on my CPU read AMD Athlon XP 1100 Mhz. After rebooting it a couple of times and leaving the computer off for awhile it still reads AMD Athlon XP 1100 Mhz on the bios screen and under "properties" in the my computer icon.

- 2.5 years old
- The computer intermittently turned off for about a month before I cleaned the dust out.
- The fan on the south bridge has stopped for about 3 months.
- The CPU hasn't been over clocked for more than 10 hours.

I'm assuming the CPU is dying but it could be the motherboard. I'm really have no idea what the problem is though. Can anyone diagnosis the problem? Thanks in advance.

 

[the cobbler]

turn off PC
turn PSU power switch off
hit case power button several times, first time or two, fans will spin up
unplug PSU
take out battery
move CMOS jumper to "clear" position for a few minutes
replace CMOS jumper
replace battery
plug in PSU
turn on PSU power
boot PC

yanking out the battery without clearing CMOS screwed something up. above steps should completely clear CMOS and restore everything to normal

 

[Spikesoldier]

switch the FSB clock speed from 100 to 166 as it should be

it probably defaulted to 100 after you reset the CMOS.

because you didnt fiddle with jumpers on the board, id imagine that it is an option in the BIOS that got reset.

 

[TeamMyk]

Thank you both. I've taken the steps you gave me and it corrected the problem.

 

[the cobbler]

Originally posted by: TeamMyk
Thank you both. I've taken the steps you gave me and it corrected the problem.

awesome, glad to hear ...have a great weekend