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Two new laptops that contain an INTEL CORE I7-2920XM CPU have a Windows Experience Index score of 3.8.

This laptop (a brand new Dell Precision 4600) responds very slow in various Office programs.

Diagnostics has been run, and it didn't uncover any errors.

What could be causing this low WPI score?

Update I called Dell and they said that it might've been caused by other components (memory for example). So I tested the memory, but it gave no errors, and they told me that it could be a faulty Windows installation or too many processes running in the background. Is that plausible?

Update II Here's a screenshot of CPU-Z:

CPU-Z

Dell called back today and advised a complete reinstall of Windows 7 (which has just been installed by them, as this is a new laptop). I'll look in the BIOS first to see if there's any powersaving setting that is acting weird.

Update III

The laptop temperature is around 60 degrees. The max CPU speed (tested with http://www.wizard-soft.com/cpuspeed/download/cpuspeed.exe) is according to Intel's specifications.

Temperatures

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Updated my answer. – AndrejaKo Oct 9 '11 at 10:04
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Too many processes in the background could definitely cause this, but you would've had to have installed something, or be running something at the time on both laptops when you ran the test to cause such a low CPU score. Something like a game, P2P software, video editing, or something very intensive would have to be running during the test. That's why I said to run the test with "all other applications closed". – bwall Oct 10 '11 at 17:45
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I was having a similar issue with a new M4600 that had an i7 2820.....was getting a 3.7 on the WEI processor score. Disabled Intel SpeedStep in the BIOS...re-ran the assessment...got a 7.4.

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Thanks. I thought it had to do with Speedstep. Will definately try that. – jao Oct 15 '11 at 11:13
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up vote 7 down vote

Check the temperatures before and when running some demanding program. The CPU may be throttling. I've seen laptops which were unusable due to too aggressive throttling settings.

Another option may be aggressive power saving modes. First plug the laptop in and make sure the battery is full. Then set it to highest performance and try again, just to be safe.

Anyway, it's a great CPU, so the behavior definitely isn't to be expected.

About the update: No, it is not plausible at all. WEI may be affected a bit by other applications, but not this much and unless you have say 1 GiB of RAM or less, RAM shouldn't be a major problem. Also I can't see how Windows installation could be faulty in such way to affect the speed of the processor that much. The only thing that could have such an effect other than BIOS and hardware would be various applications for performance control. I don't know what Dell ships so I can't give specific advice, but it could be that one of them sets the processor into a low power consumption state.

Just to be sure, restart the computer, close all background applications after computer boots and run the WEI again and see if there's any change. In my experience, the change is limited to ±0.1, but it might be different in your case.

Also, just to be safe, a virus scan may help, but I don't think that such behavior could be caused by infection.

Can you please post a screenshot of CPU-Z's CPU tab? It'll give us some more data about what is actually going on with the processor.

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Thanks, I will definitely check this – jao Oct 7 '11 at 13:36
What I want to try is disable the Intel speedstep in the bios, it puts the CPU in a lower state in certain circumstances. I'll post a screenshot soon – jao Oct 9 '11 at 10:10
@jao That seems like a good idea for now, if you have that option in BIOS. – AndrejaKo Oct 9 '11 at 10:11
Screenshot of CPU-Z CPU tab posted – jao Oct 12 '11 at 13:00
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@jao That is why I believe that the CPU is either overheating somehow or there's some other problem with hardware (which we might be able to see with HWinfo to which I linked to) or the system which dynamically controls the frequency is problematic. If the computer is in high performance mode and the CPU frequency isn't at it's normal rated frequency, then we have a problem for Dell to solve. – AndrejaKo Oct 13 '11 at 10:20
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up vote 6 down vote

Look at the scores of each component on the WPI report. The WPI total score is actually the lowest score from any of the components (Processor, Graphics, Hard Disk, etc.).

Whatever is giving you the lowest score, is where your problem is.

Make sure you are running it with the laptop plugged into AC power, and with all other applications closed. Running it on battery, will result in an artificially lower score.

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The scores are as follows: CPU: 3.8 RAM: 7 Graphics: 6.6 Graphics for gaming: 6.6 Hard Disk: 5.9 – jao Oct 7 '11 at 13:37
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That CPU score is far, far too low. – Nighthawk Oct 7 '11 at 14:08
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The CPU is definitely the problem. Have you called Dell? Having the heat sink come loose from the CPU could cause this, but it would be unlikely that it would happen twice. – bwall Oct 7 '11 at 14:09
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I'd say that this is a firmware issue and/or driver issue. Make sure that you get the latest chipsets and firmware – kobaltz Oct 7 '11 at 14:11
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It sounds like your CPU is running slower then 2.50Ghz. – Ramhound Oct 7 '11 at 17:04
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