Comment 14 for bug 92117

This happened to me...same powernowd errors etc, it turned out when I reset my BIOS a few months ago the default setting had INTEL EIST disabled. I found it in the overclocking section of my bios. It turns out EIST stands for speedstep:

Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology http://www.intel.com/cd/channel/reseller/asmo-na/eng/203838.htm

When I enabled it in BIOS then powernowd daemon starts properly and the CPU frequency scaling applets show that it has dropped to 66% as it should.. AND MOST IMPORTANT BLESSED PEACE FROM THE FAN lol