False advertising of processor speeds

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I recently bought a factory re-furbished HP Pavillion. It was advertised on the box as having a 2.4 Ghz AMD 64 Athalon. When I fired the thing up, I clicked on "my computer", then properties and Lo and Behold!! It's a 1.81Ghz!! What's up with that?? Has anyone else bought a computer only to find out the same thing??

Marketing can be pretty deceptive but calling a 1.81Ghz processor a 2.4 is a blatant lie. Was it HP selling it or a reseller, retail outlet or something?
Don't stress, I bet you have onboard graphics sharing some RAM and processor time. Press pause when the hardware summary pops up just after turning it on or go into bios to check what it says about your processor.

Was it sold as an AMD64 2400? If so, its not actually a 2.4ghz processor as the name may lead you to believe, its just AMDs equivalent to the Intel 2.4ghz processor of the same lineup. It is correct that a 2400 should only be about 1.7ghz (my AMD64 3000+ is 1.8ghz).

If its actually supposed to be 2.4ghz (so a 4800+ probably?), then Windows should report it that way regardless of whatever onboard stuff is doing with processor time. I'd return it and buy straight from AMD if you can, or from a reputable dealer (ie, one where you know the owners).

Fooker

No, it's an AMD 3300. I bought it form Fry's Electronics. (Big retailer here in SoCal) The label on the box (HP) said it was a 2.4 Ghz processor.

Well that is disgusting. What AMD is doing isn't really lying, but giving you a slower processor than it's being advertised as having is wrong.

They better correct that mistake.

Hmmmm, with refurbished machines, there is always a chance all the internal components are not the original components fitted to the machine, in this case it may be possible that when they refurbished the machine they swapped the CPU (and maybe the motherboard) for the lower speed one.

Another possibility is that the CPU is underclocked, but why they would underclock the CPU in the first place is unknown, unless the machine was getting way too hot at the normal CPU speed and they reduced it on purpose

The minimum CPU speed for that CPU should be about 2 - 2.4 GHz

Check the markings on the CPU itself (if you are willing to open the computer up and remove the CPU)
One final possibility is that the box may have had the wrong label attached, it can happen

Are you sure its a 3300+?


I checked on Pricewatch, and the only AMD chip labeled as a 3300+ is a Sempron, and it runs at 2.0GHZ.

Frankly your a idiot for not taking the thing back as soon as you noticed. They would of accepted it was a mistake. Mistakes happen. They happen alot. If your sure its no the processing speed avertised take it back. Theres no messing around here.