MacBook running at constant 2.0GHz

[Stadsport]

My Core 2 Duo MacBook has been running at 2GHz nearly all the time lately, rather than dropping to lower clock speeds when I'm not doing any intense computing. I'm pretty much just sitting here right now; CPU load is under 10% (usually around 3%), but my processor is running at 2ghz keeping it over 60ºC and making my fans run constantly. The higher clock and fan running is killing my battery life.

Anything I can do about this? If not I'll take it to the Apple Store.

Edit: Just tried zapping the PRAM, didn't help.

 

[kolax]

You don't have any schedules running at all? Updates/disk utilities that might be going in the background?

Sometimes mine goes away on a wonder at full steam when I'm browsing the net, and after a few minutes it's fine.

 

[Stadsport]

You don't have any schedules running at all? Updates/disk utilities that might be going in the background?

Sometimes mine goes away on a wonder at full steam when I'm browsing the net, and after a few minutes it's fine.

Nothing as far as I know. Any way to check?

 

[samh004]

Under energy saver/ the battery menu bar icon, are you set to best performance ?

 

[darkcurse]

Activity Monitor -> Show all processes

Btw, how do you check your processor speed?

 

[Stadsport]

Activity Monitor -> Show all processes

Btw, how do you check your processor speed?

Nothing seems to stand out; also I use Core Duo Temp's widget to check, but I have the actual app as well.

 

[Stadsport]

Under energy saver/ the battery menu bar icon, are you set to best performance ?

It's set to Custom settings, but it says "Your energy settings are optimized for best performance." I'll play with this.

Edit: I played with the settings here, but nothing got the CPU clock to drop. It blinked at 1.5ghz for an instant, but that's it.

 

[darkcurse]

Ah try restarting? My proc is currently running at 51C with fan speed at 4k rpm while amibient temperature is 30C. Thats normal for me. I only ever hit 60C if I'm doing heavy video encoding or playing games.

 

[synth3tik]

the image you posted shows that you have 2G of RAM, if you go over to the CPU tab you can see what is being used. Also you are only using half your RAM when the screen shot was taken.

If you go into sys. prefs like others have suggested you can change your power settings.