Did Lenovo cripple my processor to fix an overheating problem? Screenshots included.

Question

I have an X61s which was suffering from a hot right palmrest and an overheating issue where the system would shut itself off after a few minutes of high CPU load. I sent the system in for depot repair. According to one of the Lenovo techs I spoke with today, they replaced the wireless card (known source of right palmrest heat) and a fan - but I'm beginning to think that's not all they did to solve the overheating problem, at least as far as it pertained to the CPU and the system shutting off.
The CPU is a 1.6GHz processor. After the system was returned to me, I sensed that it was running slower than before. I performed a test using Orthos and the Intel Thermal Analysis Tool to monitor CPU frequency. Sure enough, as the attached image shows, even with the Power Profile set at High performance, the processor was maxing out at 1200MHz under full load, 75% of it's 1600MHz maximum.
Screenshot
I installed RightMark CPU Clock Utility, which includes a CPU frequency monitoring function. It too reported the CPU frequency at 1200MHz. HOWEVER, when I changed the RightMark profile to Maximal Performance, the CPU frequency did hit 1600MHz as shown by RightMark's monitor and Intel's Thermal Analysis Tool. Suspecting maybe this was just a reporting error and my CPU was actually running at 1600MHz despite Intel's tool saying 1200MHz, I tested each with Prime95's benchmark function.
CPU Benchmark without RightMark (1.2GHz) - 1792K FFT length best time = 65.751
CPU Benchmark with RightMark (1.6GHZ) - 1792K FFT length best time = 106.146 ms
Clearly there is a real difference in speed here, not just a CPU frequency reporting discrepancy.
Given the fact that RightMark is able to bypass the default processor settings, which is what allows you to use it to undervolt a processor, it's not a surprise to me that it would be able to run the processor at it's native maximum speed of 1.6Ghz, where otherwise my processor seems to be somehow limited to 1.2GHz regardless of which power profile I've selected: I've tried High Performance, Maximum Performance and others, and have verified that the maximum processor state in each is set to 100%, yet still the CPU frequency is at 1.2GHz.
When I sent this machine in for repair, I removed the hard drive - so whatever the Lenovo Depot did (assuming that they did do something to my processor) could not have affected the OS or other software on my system. I did notice that RightMark seems to have "lost" it's previous settings, which may suggest that Lenovo replaced the CPU or motherboard and RightMark reset itself having detected a new processor.
Note that BIOS settings are all set to enable Maximum Performance (though I believe Windows bypasses these settings anyway), SpeedStep enabled and the other key CPU setting enabled (which I forget right now and don't want to reboot to check my BIOS for the name).
I've called and spoken with 3 different people at Lenovo about this and none were of any help other than suggesting I start a new case and have my laptop shipped back in - but before I do that, I want to get to the bottom of this. If Lenovo intentionally crippled my machine to "solve" a hardware problem - and without notifying me, no less, then I am far from a happy customer.
So, please provide any input if you have any. Is it possible that Lenovo did something to either the CPU or the BIOS to limit the CPU speed to 1.2GHz? Or is this just a crazy conspiracy theory? Has anyone else had overheating issues and noticed their laptop running more slowly after it's been fixed?

Answer 1

Hello kctopitz,
please install your battery and plug in AC. Without battery, plugged into the wall, you´ll never reveive the full power.
I would then suggest to measure the CPU clock with Everest, you can download it as a trial.
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