did my cpu die?

[chopppy]

well i was using a celeron 420 oc'd to 325fsb (2.6ghz) on 1.26vcore. a couple days ago my computer slowed right down and i thought it was some sort of malware/adware or virus so i ran everything i could, i also dl'd spybot s&d but it wouldnt load yet consumed 100% cpu in task manager.
thats when i thought it maybe some sort of hardware prob, when i noticed in system properties that my cpu was recognised as running at 312mhz, cpu-z / everest / coretemp all reported 2.6ghz though

its not like my temps were too high speedfan showed under load was 35C and im using arctic cooling freezer 7 pro for the past month. bios also confirmed this temp

i reset bios defaults and then system properties showed 192mhz, so i took out the cpu and replaced it with a p4 530 which runs fine as expected!

so what i would like to know is what on earth is going on with my celly! i aint never come across anything liek this before, and if my cpu was dead why was it still running?!

[Lucio]

Sounds like the multiplier has dropped on the chip to x1, though quite frankly I have no idea what could cause that! Double check in the BIOS under the settings as to what the multiplier is, plus make sure any power saving features are turned off (e.g. EIST or Speedstep)

[Jay]

if it was dead or on its way out you would see BSOD but this is still an odd one!

[chopppy]

lucio - when i overclocked, i turned off all them features. i oc'd it a bit more in case 325 was a weird number for it (?) the OC'ing options in bios clearly showed 333 x 8 with a speed of 2664mhz, yet i load windows (which takes ages) and then system properties shows 319!

[chopppy]