[gentoo-user] Core i7 M620 power management problem

[Bill Longman]

I have a nagging problem that is driving me batty.

I have a Dell Precision M4500:
Linux m4500 2.6.36-gentoo-r6 #1 SMP Wed Dec 29 07:57:47 PST 2010 x86_64
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU M 620 @ 2.67GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU       M 620  @ 2.67GHz
and it even has these fancy capabilities:
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca
cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx
rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good xtopology nonstop_tsc
aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16
xtpr pdcm sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt aes lahf_lm ida arat dts tpr_shadow vnmi
flexpriority ept vpid

however, I cannot get the thing to change speeds. It is adamantly stuck at
its pokey molasses slow 1.2GHz:

blongman@m4500 /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq $ cat scaling_*
2667000 2666000 2533000 2399000 2266000 2133000 1999000 1866000 1733000
1599000 1466000 1333000 1199000
conservative ondemand userspace powersave performance
1199000
acpi-cpufreq
performance
1199000
1199000
<unsupported>

A strangeness I have noted is that /proc/cpuinfo has this for its power
capabilities:
power management:
Nothing.

I don't recall what it was on the other i7, but my AMDs have this sort of
thing:
power management: ts ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps hwpstate

Why this is driving me batty is that I just this summer set up a similar
M4500, but with a fancier i7 in it, *specifically* to enable and manage its
power capabilities and I was completely successful. If I swap my disk and
boot Windows 7, it behaves like a champ, so I don't think it's a BIOS issue.
What else could I look at since I've been through all versions of kernels
from 2.6.32 to today's 2.6.36?
-- 
Bill Longman