Hot CPU, Batman!
August 7, 2004 7:56 PM Subscribe
My processor gets really hot [MI].
I'm running a P4M in my laptop (WinXP Pro, all updated), and even during times of low usage, it's generating an awful lot of heat. What I'd like to do is be able to throttle down my CPU, and get rid of some of that heat. Unfortunately, most of the programs I've run across that do this (ex. Rain, Waterfall, etc.) seem to be designed for Win95/98/ME, and don't do anything for winXP. So my question is, what do all you WinXP users use to control your processor speed, and how can I get rid of some of this heat? I'm not all that much of a tech guy, but I'm capable of following complicated directions.
I'm running a P4M in my laptop (WinXP Pro, all updated), and even during times of low usage, it's generating an awful lot of heat. What I'd like to do is be able to throttle down my CPU, and get rid of some of that heat. Unfortunately, most of the programs I've run across that do this (ex. Rain, Waterfall, etc.) seem to be designed for Win95/98/ME, and don't do anything for winXP. So my question is, what do all you WinXP users use to control your processor speed, and how can I get rid of some of this heat? I'm not all that much of a tech guy, but I'm capable of following complicated directions.
Response by poster: Mine, btw, is a Gateway.
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 8:17 PM on August 7, 2004
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 8:17 PM on August 7, 2004
Blow an extra fan on it and if you leave your laptop on 24/7 like I do, be sure to leave it an a well-ventalated area. If the fan is on the borrom, rest it on a book so the fan is overhanging the book. My old laptop had a fan on the bottom and over-heated when I used it on my bed for more than 20 minutes causing auto-shutdown. Of course, I only learned this while writing a school paper and lost all my info. Why they put the entire fan on the bottom of laptops, I'll never know.
posted by jmd82 at 8:40 PM on August 7, 2004
posted by jmd82 at 8:40 PM on August 7, 2004
I have a Toshiba with a P4M, and there's an Intel SpeedStep icon in the task tray that lets me switch between "Performance" and "Battery Optimized" (which drops the speed by about 400 Mhz). Your Gateway probably comes with similar functionality.
posted by cmonkey at 8:50 PM on August 7, 2004
posted by cmonkey at 8:50 PM on August 7, 2004
I've had good luck with SpeedswitchXP. It seems to do a much better job of CPU throttling than whatever method Windows uses.
posted by yarmond at 9:20 PM on August 7, 2004
posted by yarmond at 9:20 PM on August 7, 2004
Response by poster: I'm playing around with SpeedswitchXP right now, and it seems to be what I was looking for. I'll try the thing with the books, too (although it doesn't help that my fan is in the middle of the bottom of the case.)
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 9:39 PM on August 7, 2004
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 9:39 PM on August 7, 2004
Ahh Yelling at Nothing, I have a Gateway 450X laptop and have noticed the exact same problem but was thinking I was semi-imagining it until now, since I don't know a ton about computers. What model do you have?
I guess I'll have to try out SpeedswitchXP
posted by puffin at 3:04 PM on August 8, 2004
I guess I'll have to try out SpeedswitchXP
posted by puffin at 3:04 PM on August 8, 2004
Response by poster: As I recall, mine is a 600X (whatever the largest one is, anyway.) It's always generated a lot of heat, but in the last few months I've been experiencing heat-related shutdowns. The heatsink was coming loose from the processor, so I opened it up and put some more thermal paste on, but that hasn't really fixed it. I'm getting to the point where I might just call gateway up and send it in to be fixed, but I'd prefer to avoid not having for as long as that'll take.
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 6:21 PM on August 8, 2004
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 6:21 PM on August 8, 2004
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by PrinceValium at 8:14 PM on August 7, 2004