Jason Muhammad wrote:

> I am working w/ very low current consumption restrictions (500uA or
> less).

  Have you a decent supply capacitor across it?  Seems to me, if your
supply is limited, it may droop significantly when the chip winds up to
do the EEPROM write.  If it does this slowly, more *time* to droop.

  Corollary:  CLocking slower does not necessarily save power, as you
have to use the full chip power for *longer*.  It may be as efficient to
clock fast, do the job fast and *then* shut down (fast)!
--
  Cheers,
        Paul B.