When the U230-040US first came out, it looked like the Asus 1201N had finally met it’s match. While it didn’t have the 1201N beat in the graphics department, it was selling for a lower price and the L335 processor in the U230-040US easily beats the Intel Atom 330 processor.

It turns out that everything isn’t good and that there are some troubles in paradise.

The issue is specifically around the PowerNow feature. This feature is the same as SpeedStep from Intel. The idea is that the processor can change clock speed depending on the situation. When plugged in, the L335 processor runs at full speed. The problem arises when you use it without the AC adapter and only using battery power. During this specific scenario the computer clocks down to 800MHz instead of running at 1600MHz.

There is no way to change this within Windows.  This has created a lot of issues with owners.  It isn’t unlikely to imagine that an owner of a portable computer would enjoy having to have their netbook plugged in to use it at full speed.  It’s even more disheartening to know that MSI isn’t planning on doing anything about it.  According to them it’s a feature of how the netbook performs.

If you want to avoid dealing with this, you can follow these instructions:

- Enter BIOS
- Go to “Advanced”
- Disable “Powernow”

It’s possible that MSI will reconsider and allow their customers to make sure their processor runs at full speed with a firmware update but it doesn’t look like that will be happening anytime soon.

[Source: MSI]

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