Overheating CPU

[Ian]

Julia's Windows XP laptop (which I'm using to type this at the moment), running an AMD Turion MK36 CPU has a history of freezing for a few seconds and then continuing. This is usually accompanied by a brief surge in the cooling fan.

After installing various diagnostic tools, I'm pretty certain that certain Windows processes (individual programs or routines doing specific jobs for the OS or applications software) are the culprit, running the CPU at 100% for up to several minutes. This overheats the CPU and, I suspect, causes the freeze (which lasts about 5 seconds).

The question is, should the CPU be able to run non-stop at 100% without overheating?

I've managed to stop the freezing by disabling some non-essential processes, but one application that often maxes out the CPU and, indeed, freezes the application is Internet Explorer 7. It tends to happen when IE7 is first run or after a period of idle. It doesn't quite get to the point that the whole computer freezes, but IE7 itself will freeze for about half a minute.

Any comments or theories most welcome!

Ian

[Stephen]

Re: Overheating CPU

A neigbour of mine has recently had his PC in for repair, it had been behaving oddly for some time, and we were unable to pinpoint the culprit. Anyway the computer shop seemed to know the solution immediately, blaming a recent installation of ie7 I understand windows was reinstalled and ie6 was put on. His machine is now perfect again and 'flys' Having said all this, never had any problem with myself, though its not my default browser.

[coupekid]

Re: Overheating CPU

Julia's Windows XP laptop (which I'm using to type this at the moment), running an AMD Turion MK36 CPU has a history of freezing for a few seconds and then continuing. This is usually accompanied by a brief surge in the cooling fan.

After installing various diagnostic tools, I'm pretty certain that certain Windows processes (individual programs or routines doing specific jobs for the OS or applications software) are the culprit, running the CPU at 100% for up to several minutes. This overheats the CPU and, I suspect, causes the freeze (which lasts about 5 seconds).

The question is, should the CPU be able to run non-stop at 100% without overheating?

I've managed to stop the freezing by disabling some non-essential processes, but one application that often maxes out the CPU and, indeed, freezes the application is Internet Explorer 7. It tends to happen when IE7 is first run or after a period of idle. It doesn't quite get to the point that the whole computer freezes, but IE7 itself will freeze for about half a minute.

Any comments or theories most welcome!

Ian

Out of interest Ian, when was the last time you ran a spyware clean on it?

I would suggest running Spyware Search and Destroy, or similar, as sometimes when virus' are picked up this can happen, its unlikely of course, but worth eliminating just in case.

Also, and this is what I have just posted on Audreys Laptop thread, Laptops are notorious for picking up rubbish and dust, so you could give it a good clean out.

(The highly non recomended method I used, was to shove the nozzle of the cylinder hoover on the fan outlets to suck out all the dust and muck, and this stopped my laptop from overheating beautifully)

Failing both of those, try installing Firefox and running that, to see if it still overheats........... then finally a re-install of IE7 just to ensure no corruption took place in the uploading.

Let us know how it goes!

[rogleale]

Re: Overheating CPU

Good Morning Ian,

I'm pretty sure that you don't have an overheating problem, just an OS problem. Something is using the CPU to 100%, which instead of causing a heat surge causes all other processes to seize up. An overheat would take more than a few seconds to cool down, and would usually cause a shut-down of the machine.
My suggestion is to start the task manager as soon as you start the machine, then watch the CPU usage as you work. My bet is an IE problem!

Roger

[Ian]

Re: Overheating CPU

Out of interest Ian, when was the last time you ran a spyware clean on it?

I would suggest running Spyware Search and Destroy, or similar, as sometimes when virus' are picked up this can happen, its unlikely of course, but worth eliminating just in case.

Also, and this is what I have just posted on Audreys Laptop thread, Laptops are notorious for picking up rubbish and dust, so you could give it a good clean out.

(The highly non recomended method I used, was to shove the nozzle of the cylinder hoover on the fan outlets to suck out all the dust and muck, and this stopped my laptop from overheating beautifully)

Failing both of those, try installing Firefox and running that, to see if it still overheats........... then finally a re-install of IE7 just to ensure no corruption took place in the uploading.

Let us know how it goes!

I don't think it's dirt - the laptop has been doing this since brand new and we even sent it back and Acer informed us they changed the motherboard.

We use Firefox and IE7 all the time and FF doesn't cause any problems.

IE7 was pre-loaded from new (I'm pretty sure). I now have the Vista upgrade, but won't have time to run it for a couple of weeks.

Ian

[Ian]

Re: Overheating CPU

Good Morning Ian,

I'm pretty sure that you don't have an overheating problem, just an OS problem. Something is using the CPU to 100%, which instead of causing a heat surge causes all other processes to seize up. An overheat would take more than a few seconds to cool down, and would usually cause a shut-down of the machine.
My suggestion is to start the task manager as soon as you start the machine, then watch the CPU usage as you work. My bet is an IE problem!

Roger

I'm using RMClock to monitor the CPU. The CPU can reach almost 70C when it's run at 100% for a long period. Normal temp is about 58C. Outlook 2003 regularly crashes and IE7 will freeze intermittently and then recover. I've followed advice to turn off ant-phishing in IE7 and to turn off scanning on demand in Zone Alarm Security Suite 7, which has resulted in prevention of the system freezes, but IE7 still goes mad for a few minutes every now and again and Outlook still crashes.

Ben: Zone Alarm has a comprehensive anti-spyware system, as well as AV and firewall.

Ian

[rogleale]

[JSR]

Re: Overheating CPU

The question is, should the CPU be able to run non-stop at 100% without overheating?

I don't know if it helps, but I was working with a friend on her (newish) HP laptop on Saturday - it's only a 1.5GHz Celeron M (she bought it for Office work). Anyway, she wanted to do some video conversion and I was talking her through it. Being an underpowered laptop, the conversion took some considerable time.

The CPU was running 95%-100% for the majority of the afternoon (a good few hours) while we were doing different conversions. The laptop had no problem and it didn't freeze at any time. Based on this, I would say that the CPU should have no trouble running at 100% so long as all the cooling fans and heatsinks are working fine.

[Ian]

Re: Overheating CPU

I don't know if it helps, but I was working with a friend on her (newish) HP laptop on Saturday - it's only a 1.5GHz Celeron M (she bought it for Office work). Anyway, she wanted to do some video conversion and I was talking her through it. Being an underpowered laptop, the conversion took some considerable time.

The CPU was running 95%-100% for the majority of the afternoon (a good few hours) while we were doing different conversions. The laptop had no problem and it didn't freeze at any time. Based on this, I would say that the CPU should have no trouble running at 100% so long as all the cooling fans and heatsinks are working fine.

OK, thanks for that. Maybe a clean install with Vista will be the answer.

I notice my laptop runs most of the time at 70C, without freezing, so maybe heat isn't the issue.

Ian

[Ian]

Re: Overheating CPU

Julia's Windows XP laptop (which I'm using to type this at the moment), running an AMD Turion MK36 CPU has a history of freezing for a few seconds and then continuing. This is usually accompanied by a brief surge in the cooling fan.

After installing various diagnostic tools, I'm pretty certain that certain Windows processes (individual programs or routines doing specific jobs for the OS or applications software) are the culprit, running the CPU at 100% for up to several minutes. This overheats the CPU and, I suspect, causes the freeze (which lasts about 5 seconds).

The question is, should the CPU be able to run non-stop at 100% without overheating?

I've managed to stop the freezing by disabling some non-essential processes, but one application that often maxes out the CPU and, indeed, freezes the application is Internet Explorer 7. It tends to happen when IE7 is first run or after a period of idle. It doesn't quite get to the point that the whole computer freezes, but IE7 itself will freeze for about half a minute.

Any comments or theories most welcome!

Ian

Julia's notebook became progressively less usable throughout last week so I decided radical action was required and so I did a clean install of Vista to eradicate the original XP installation.

It's taken about 24 hours to install Vista and the apps Julia needs to use and it wasn't without its headaches - Acer's bundled software wouldn't let MSN Messenger work and it took ages to find this out. Eventually, uninstalling this software has resulted in a (fingers crossed) cool running and smooth running laptop.

Ian

[Stephen]

Re: Overheating CPU

Hi Ian, as you know I use an Acer and in recent months it has become progressively noisier from the fans. (mine has 3) I've often put it down to the fact P4 machines tend to run hot and I was asking it to do more than it was built for .

Anyway, last week, on the advice of a friend, I took the casing off over the heatsink, then removed the actual heatsink module itself. It was totally clogged with tightly packed dust. It was all cleaned out, carefully put back, and now I have a much quieter machine. Centrino laptops do seem much quieter though, and the next time I upgrade fan noise will be a consideration.

[Ian]

Re: Overheating CPU

Hi Ian, as you know I use an Acer and in recent months it has become progressively noisier from the fans. (mine has 3) I've often put it down to the fact P4 machines tend to run hot and I was asking it to do more than it was built for .

Anyway, last week, on the advice of a friend, I took the casing off over the heatsink, then removed the actual heatsink module itself. It was totally clogged with tightly packed dust. It was all cleaned out, carefully put back, and now I have a much quieter machine. Centrino laptops do seem much quieter though, and the next time I upgrade fan noise will be a consideration.

That's a good tip for older laptops (desktops too, even!), but Julia's PC has only been back from Acer to have its motherboard changed a few months back and is still only 9 months old. I don't think dust is an issue and, indeed, it's runnig at 48C at the moment - which absolutely normal.

Vista has quite advanced power management options and I've set it on 'Balanced' and this dynamically throttles the CPU up and down according to the load performance load requirement. It doesn't noticeably affect usability performance and it keeps the CPU cool as well Under XP the CPU was always creeping into the low 70s C.

Ian