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Nov 30, 2002, 12:21am

I recently bought a new computer. AW ran just fine on all my previous
computers, many of which I built myself. Unfortunately, on my new one
(which has a Pentium 4 and is running Win XP Home), my CPU usage
shoots up to 100% a vast majority of the time when running AW (or any
other similar 3D AW type browser).

When the CPU usage peaks, of course my CPU temperature increases. I
typically run at around 50C when I am not using AW, and running an
assortment of various programs. Shortly after I start AW, not only
does my CPU usage hit 100%, but my temp rises to just above 70C.

The weird part is...while still running AW, when I bring any other
window to the forefront (be it my e-mail, IE6, Notepad, etc.), my CPU
usage immediately drops, and very quickly following, my CPU temp
drops. When I again click on my AW window, both the CPU and temp shoot
up.

Has anyone else had this problem? I searched through the message
boards here, but haven't come across anything like it.

BTW, my video drivers are the most recent version, as well as DirectX.

My video card is a Mobility Radeon 7500C. I am running a Dell Inspiron
laptop, model 4150.

My AW version is 3.3, build 419.

Any ideas?

Kimi

Nov 30, 2002, 12:56am

Hi everyone:

[View Quote] This says it all. Laptops aren't really very useful for such grahically
intense programs like AW as they just don't have the horsepower needed to
run them like many desktops do. A Desktop lacking horsepower, like mine,
does pretty much the same thing (Mine is also a P4 on XP Home, but it only
has 128 MB of RAM).

Laptops also lack the monitor resolution capabilities that desktops have as
well. So therefore, you've got a double-whammy working against ya.

I could be wrong though, but I do believe this *could* be your problem.....

Cheers for now & Happy Holidays :-)

PC Hamster

Nov 30, 2002, 1:16am

Horsepower, please this isn't a car.
How about some advice from someone who knows what he's talking about ;).

Anyway Brock here owns a Dell Inspiron 8200, the top of the line laptop from
Dell. I build all my desktops but with laptops I had to make an exception.
The 4150 is the best of the most mobile ones, your screen resolution is
probally 1400x1050 or 1024x768 (something like that, should be close on
them) What i'm trying to say is laptops can get some pretty nice
resolutions.
Now your problem is mainly the fact that this is a laptop. It uses Intel
SpeedStepping to slow the processor down if your operating on battery, and
it works at full capacity on that slower speed like if you had a 1.8GHZ
processor Intel Pentium Mobile Processor it would lower that down to a
1.2GHZ processor, then as you open more applications that require more cpu
usage, the cpu requirement will raise, and thus making the cpu operate at
100 percent at the lower speed, SpeedStepping then raises the processorspeed
to meet the demand, and that temperature problem of yours, what can you
expect it's a laptop. Lots of heat. Small space. High Temperature :).

Any other questions please ask. :)

--
Brock - 308723
AW 3.4 Build: 446
Brock at iceflare.net

From Newbie Guide to the Newsgroup (4th Edition):

"Brock - This dude with a 'tude isn't afraid to speak his mind,
especially when it concerns others in his own age range. In other words,
the perfect NG candidate."

Nov 30, 2002, 2:01am

Brock,

Yep, that about sums it up. I too build all my computers, with the
exception of laptops. Early on, I caught on to my 1.8 running at 1.2,
so I changed power management to "Always On" rather than "Laptop",
which allows me to run at the full 1.8 GHz (well, technically, on mine
it's running at 1.79 Ghz). My video card is 32mb, which has twice the
juice of my old video card. My screen resolution is 1024x768.

The weird thing is that AW 3.3 runs fine on my other laptop -- a
Latitude P3 500mhz, with an 8mb video card. That computer has Win 98,
which made me suspect some sort of conflict with the OS.

The other thing is that every other program I own (some being graphic
intensive) runs fine on this new machine. The only one that gives me
any grief are the AW type browsers.

Going back to my old desktop isn't really an option for me, as the
Inspiron 4150 is a desktop replacement, due to health reasons. I was
hoping that this CPU usage problem was a known issue, with a
workaround. =)

I wonder what's causing the CPU usage and temp to drop so dramatically
when AW is still running, but when a different window has the focus?
As soon as I bring the AW back to the foreground, the CPU usage and
temp go right back up again.

Thanks again for the help.

Kimi

Nov 30, 2002, 2:12am

On 29 Nov 2002 21:56:03 -0500, "pc hamster" <pchamster at attbi.com>
[View Quote] >
>This says it all. Laptops aren't really very useful for such grahically
>intense programs like AW as they just don't have the horsepower needed to
>run them like many desktops do. A Desktop lacking horsepower, like mine,
>does pretty much the same thing (Mine is also a P4 on XP Home, but it only
>has 128 MB of RAM).

This laptop has 256mb of DDR ram and my video card is 32mb, which is
twice that of my desktop video card. The graphics card in this laptop
isn't upgradable, so I made sure to get a good one when I ordered it.
If I had bought one model up (the Inspiron 8200), then I would have
had the option of later upgrading the video card....but that model
would have cost me an extra few hundred dollars. =)

>Laptops also lack the monitor resolution capabilities that desktops have as
>well. So therefore, you've got a double-whammy working against ya.

The monitor resolution on this laptop is set to 1024x768, which is the
same as my desktop computer, as well as my other laptop computer. The
monitor resolution on this laptop actually looks *better* than that on
my other two computers, and my desktop computer has a 19" monitor. :)

Ironically, AW runs fine on my older laptop, which is a Latitude P3
500mhz with a video card with only 8mb of ram.

Actually, buying a pre-built computer is sort of a novelty for me, as
I usually build my own systems -- but I can't build laptops. <VBG>

Thanks for your help.

Kimi

Nov 30, 2002, 2:13am

*wonders what PC was going on about*

--Bowen--

Nov 30, 2002, 2:23am

Older laptops didn't have Intel SpeedStepping SpeedStepping started in the
later p3's like 1GHZ and higher p3's

--
Brock - 308723
AW 3.4 Build: 446
Brock at iceflare.net

From Newbie Guide to the Newsgroup (4th Edition):

"Brock - This dude with a 'tude isn't afraid to speak his mind,
especially when it concerns others in his own age range. In other words,
the perfect NG candidate."
[View Quote]

Nov 30, 2002, 2:26am

About the CPU Temperature, yeah it does depend on the window currently up
because the priority is set more toward that window, like the window you
have open has the most importance in CPU process.

You can turn off SpeedStepping all together in the BIOS if you want. press
F2 at start up.
The Inspiron 8200 is the main desktop replacement the 4150 is like a half
desktop replacement half mobile machine

--
Brock - 308723
AW 3.4 Build: 446
Brock at iceflare.net

From Newbie Guide to the Newsgroup (4th Edition):

"Brock - This dude with a 'tude isn't afraid to speak his mind,
especially when it concerns others in his own age range. In other words,
the perfect NG candidate."

Nov 30, 2002, 3:34am

When you take focus off of the AW window AW stops rendering. Like the frame
rate goes down very low and you only recieve chat messages and tgram
messages but no updates to the 3d window.


[View Quote]

Nov 30, 2002, 5:22am

I have this same behavior on my desktop PC running Win2K. It seems to drop when AW is loading objects, but it does go all the way up to 100% usage.

[View Quote] >I recently bought a new computer. AW ran just fine on all my previous computers, many of which I built myself. Unfortunately, on my new one (which has a Pentium 4 and is running Win XP Home), my CPU usage shoots up to 100% a vast majority of the time when running AW (or any other similar 3D AW type browser).

Nov 30, 2002, 6:04am

[View Quote] >When you take focus off of the AW window AW stops rendering. Like the frame
>rate goes down very low and you only recieve chat messages and tgram
>messages but no updates to the 3d window.

Thanks. That certainly explains why the CPU usage and temp drops when
the AW window loses focus, but the program is still running. Now all I
need to do is find out how to keep the problem from happening in the
first place. =)

Kimi

Nov 30, 2002, 6:06am

On 30 Nov 2002 02:22:37 -0500, "tony m" <ag5v1u7001 at sneakemail.com>
[View Quote] >I have this same behavior on my desktop PC running Win2K.
>It seems to drop when AW is loading objects, but it does go all the way up to 100% usage.

I must admit, I'm kinda glad I'm not the only one (although I wouldn't
wish this annoying problem on anyone).

Thanks for the info.

Kimi

Nov 30, 2002, 7:08am

[View Quote] There's no way to do such a thing. All 3d rendering applications do the same thing
to get the fastest FPS they can.

--Bowen--

Nov 30, 2002, 7:39am

"kimi" <kim at nospam.here> wrote in
news:8iqguusg2lm7kn46jmf5qrekgek73j6lv6 at 4ax.com:

> On 30 Nov 2002 02:22:37 -0500, "tony m" <ag5v1u7001 at sneakemail.com>
[View Quote] i have the same (xp 2000 athlon desktop), added to that if AW runs long
time my computer slows down to a crawl. (i have gforce 3 ti 500+512 ddr)
i close and restart and it wil work again for a while.

Nov 30, 2002, 10:26am

There's a whole bunch of stuff you can do in the performance tab which
will probably make your computer run a bit faster, but it will also make AW
look worse.

Nov 30, 2002, 10:42am

my old sony viao 800mhz laptop had speedstepping so im sure it was abit
before 1ghz :)


[View Quote]

Nov 30, 2002, 3:29pm

The high CPU usage is perfectly normal. A *lot* of calculations go into rendering a real-time 3D environment both by the CPU and GPU. AW will use as many CPU cycles as are available in order to achieve the highest frame rate possible. So CPU cycle usage of AW would be the same on an Athlon XP 2800+ as it would be on a Pentium II. Just about any intense 3D application behaves in the same way.

The reason that CPU/memory usage drops when the AW browser isn't in focus is by design - AW doesn't need to hog resources when the 3D window isn't in view. It used to be that the browser would continue to hog resources when it wasn't in focus but not actually minimized, but a long while back Roland fixed this.

As for the temperature of your CPU, that is an inherent problem with laptops. Laptops don't have the room to provide the kind of cooling and ventilation that desktop cases can house. You shouldn't have to worry about the chip overheating, though. The Pentium IV chip has a self-protection mechanism (this is true with the non-mobile PIVs as well) to where it will lower its clock speed in order to compensate for cooling failure. You can actually remove the HSF setup during intense CPU activity and the CPU will continue to function, albeit very slowly. The Pentium III's and earlier mechanism was to simply cut power from the CPU immediately in the case of cooling failure, but this could result in data loss. Until recently, Athlon chips didn't have any cooling failure protection at all. Removing the HSF setup at all resulted in the chip being fried in a fraction of a second.

Unless you're having a problem with instability because of the high CPU temp, then you shouldn't need to worry about anything.

[View Quote]

Nov 30, 2002, 5:06pm

Well it was around that time it wasnt long between releases of P3M 800MHZ
and P3M1GHZ lol

--
Brock - 308723
AW 3.4 Build: 446
Brock at iceflare.net

From Newbie Guide to the Newsgroup (4th Edition):

"Brock - This dude with a 'tude isn't afraid to speak his mind,
especially when it concerns others in his own age range. In other words,
the perfect NG candidate."
[View Quote]

Nov 30, 2002, 5:10pm

[View Quote] >The high CPU usage is perfectly normal. A *lot* of calculations go into rendering a real-time 3D environment both by the CPU and GPU. AW will use as many CPU cycles as are available in order to achieve the highest frame rate possible. So CPU cycle usage of AW would be the same on an Athlon XP 2800+ as it would be on a Pentium II. Just about any intense 3D application behaves in the same way.
>
>The reason that CPU/memory usage drops when the AW browser isn't in focus is by design - AW doesn't need to hog resources when the 3D window isn't in view. It used to be that the browser would continue to hog resources when it wasn't in focus but not actually minimized, but a long while back Roland fixed this.
>
>As for the temperature of your CPU, that is an inherent problem with laptops. Laptops don't have the room to provide the kind of cooling and ventilation that desktop cases can house. You shouldn't have to worry about the chip overheating, though. The Pentium IV chip has a self-protection mechanism (this is true with the non-mobile PIVs as well) to where it will lower its clock speed in order to compensate for cooling failure. You can actually remove the HSF setup during intense CPU activity and the CPU will continue to function, albeit very slowly. The Pentium III's and earlier mechanism was to simply cut power from the CPU immediately in the case of cooling failure, but this could result in data loss. Until recently, Athlon chips didn't have any cooling failure protection at all. Removing the HSF setup at all resulted in the chip being fried in a fraction of a second.
>
>Unless you're having a problem with instability because of the high CPU temp, then you shouldn't need to worry about anything.
>

Shred,

Thanks for the very helpful information. I truly appreciate it.

I was testing out some different settings last night to see if I could
remedy the problem a little. I found that if I changed the video
setting from "software renderer" to "DirectX 7", I tended to run a
couple degrees cooler (I maxed out at 69C after several minutes). Not
much of an improvement, but better than nothing. :)

Kimi

Nov 30, 2002, 5:20pm

I noticed this too but it seemed to have no effect on preformance.

--
OS: Windows 2000 Prof.
Processor: AMD Athlon, 1.2GHz
Memory: 256MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 8.1 (4.08.01.0810)
Card: ATI Radeon 7000/VE 32MB (Driver Recent As of 10-14-02)
Video Mode: DX7 (w/o T&L)
Version: 3.4 Beta Build 446
[View Quote]

Nov 30, 2002, 10:03pm

The reason this happened is because now most of the rendering work has
been offloaded onto your video card instead of your CPU. Less CPU work,
less heat. Less heat equals cooler temperature. When in software mode,
most of rendering work is sent to your CPU and not your laptop's video
card. It also helps since your video card has built-in DirectX
instructions.

-Builderz

[View Quote]

Dec 1, 2002, 4:09am

I have a Dell laptop similar to yours, but with a P4M 1.8 GHz CPU and an
nVIDIA GeForce 4 Go video card. I use AW on it almost every day. A good
program to monitor your temperature (and to even set profiles for when
your laptop's fans should turn on and off and switch from high to low)
can be found at http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/ (it is called I8kfanGUI,
which works with the 4150). I had the exact same problem as you -- my
temps used to be very high and the laptop's fans would spin at their
highest setting after I was in AW for a few minutes. I even bought one
of those laptop cooling pads, which didn't help much.

Through a modification in the BIOS, I got the P4's SpeedStep technology
to go no higher than 1.2 GHz. I think I enabled the option "MAXIMUM
BATTERY" in the BIOS to achieve this (even when on AC power). This
helped a bit with the temps, but not much. Then I found out that Windows
XP looks at the "Power Options" in the Control Panel to help determine
the P4's SpeedStep "rating." After I set my power scheme to "Max
Battery" as well, my CPU speed (which was previously at 1.8 GHz and 1.2
GHz) was down to 789 MHz when idle and doing non-intensive tasks (such
as surfing the Web, reading e-mail, etc). With this setting, my fans
don't come on nearly as often as they did, and the time they are on is
much shorter. My CPU temperature still rises, but it takes much longer
now. The way things are now, my temp is less than 50C when I boot up and
gradually reaches 60C. Once it hits 60C, I8KfanGUI kicks in and brings
the temp back down to 50C. This temp cycle repeats until I turn the
system off or use an extremely CPU intensive program.

However, this still didn't help my problem with AW. Whenever I start AW,
SpeedStep ramps the CPU back up to 1.2 GHz. I couldn't find any other
ways to lower it (or keep it lowered). I even went so far as to buy a
small portable desk fan and aim at the CPU's grill/vent on the laptop
(there is a heat pipe type thing inside of there). With AW running and
the fan blowing in the vent, my temps were stable at around 45C (usually
less than what I idle at). In less than a week, the desktop fan broke.
*sigh* I doubt you'd want to go to this extreme, but it is an option.

Although not the exact solution you are looking for, I do have an idea.
Minimize any and all running programs, load AW, and go to the area you
want to go to. With AW open (but not maximized), you should be able to
see a portion of your Windows desktop. Well, as you've said, when the AW
window isn't in focus, it doesn't use as many CPU cycles. What I do is
click on the AW window (when I need to use it) and just click off
anywhere on my desktop. This takes the focus off of AW and does indeed
lower my CPU temps a tiny bit. The nice is, is that AW allows telegram
notices and chat to appear, even when AW is not the main focus. So you
could stand still in any world and still be able to see chat scrolling
on the screen. When you want to type something, click on AW, type
whatever it is, and click back onto your desktop. It works for me. ;)

The only other suggestions I have are the following: 1) muck around with
AW's video settings and the Display settings in Control Panel (for
example, I noticed that when antialiasing is on, my temps were a bit
higher), 2) resize AW's "rendering window" to make it smaller, 3)
decrease AW's thread/process priority using the Task Manager.

-Builderz

[View Quote] *snip*

Dec 1, 2002, 3:06pm

[View Quote] >I have a Dell laptop similar to yours, but with a P4M 1.8 GHz CPU and an
>nVIDIA GeForce 4 Go video card. I use AW on it almost every day. A good
>program to monitor your temperature (and to even set profiles for when
>your laptop's fans should turn on and off and switch from high to low)
>can be found at http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/ (it is called I8kfanGUI,
>which works with the 4150).

Wow, your system is very similar to mine. I nearly went with the
GeForce4 Go card, and instead decided to upgrade to this one. In
retrospect, I couldn't help but wonder if my choice in video cards had
made a difference in the running of AW, and the heat generated. After
hearing your specs, now I know it probably wouldn't have made a big
difference which one I'd gone with, in that regard.

As for l8kfanGUI, I started using that program two days ago, after I
saw it mentioned on the Dell message boards. I still use it just for
monitoring, and haven't set it to alter the time the fans come on --
not on a permanent basis, anyway. I guess I was concerned with
affecting the Dell warranty if I did so, since it would change the
original fan settings (and I saw some reference to this somewhere).
However, when I called Dell on Friday to ask about using such a
utility, the Dell tech I spoke to said it shouldn't hurt if I set the
fan to come on more often, at lower temps. So this I am definitely
giving consideration. In fact, I did give it a try once, on Friday
night, for about an hour, but I found that with the fangui set to run
the fan, I ran somewhere between 53-57C nearly constantly (not
counting AW). When I reset it to run the fans at the original factory
settings (instead of fangui), for most tasks I was running between
45-47C. Weird, I know.

Also, did you find that with l8kfanGUI, when it took over the fans,
the RPM of the fans (on slow speed) sounded different than the
original settings? I think they run at a bit slower RPM than the
original "slow" setting, which would account for the sound difference.
Normally this wouldn't bother me, but the slower RPM makes a sound at
a pitch that is unpleasant to my ears...especially if I'm going to
hear it for several minutes at a stretch. Did you notice anything like
this?

>I even bought one of those laptop cooling pads, which didn't help much.
>

Was looking at one last night, but the one I found was around $30
(which was a bit of a deluxe model, I'm sure). I know I could find
them cheaper, but I was wondering how much it would help. Thanks.

>Through a modification in the BIOS, I got the P4's SpeedStep technology
>to go no higher than 1.2 GHz. I think I enabled the option "MAXIMUM
>BATTERY" in the BIOS to achieve this (even when on AC power). This
>helped a bit with the temps, but not much. Then I found out that Windows
>XP looks at the "Power Options" in the Control Panel to help determine
>the P4's SpeedStep "rating." After I set my power scheme to "Max
>Battery" as well, my CPU speed (which was previously at 1.8 GHz and 1.2
>GHz) was down to 789 MHz when idle and doing non-intensive tasks (such
>as surfing the Web, reading e-mail, etc). With this setting, my fans
>don't come on nearly as often as they did, and the time they are on is
>much shorter. My CPU temperature still rises, but it takes much longer
>now.

Did that too. In the first week I had the laptop, I noticed that XP
was reporting that I was running at 1.2 GHz, even though my processor
is a 1.8. I visited the Dell message boards to do a little research. I
found that I could alter the SpeedStep settings one of two ways --
either in the BIOS, or in the Power Management settings. If Power
Management is set to "Laptop", my max speed is 1.2 GHz. However, if I
set it to "Always On", my laptop runs at 1.79 GHz. It's the same
setting I used to use on my desktop, so I set it there. I haven't
tried the "Max Battery" setting as of yet though.

>The way things are now, my temp is less than 50C when I boot up and
>gradually reaches 60C. Once it hits 60C, I8KfanGUI kicks in and brings
>the temp back down to 50C. This temp cycle repeats until I turn the
>system off or use an extremely CPU intensive program.

I turned on my computer just over an hour ago, and am currently
running at 44C. I tend to run in the mid 40's a lot of the time, and
in the low to mid 50's if I'm running several programs, including some
graphic intensive ones (not counting AW). I was running CNW yesterday
(which is similar to the AW browser), and my temp kept gradually
rising as high as 72C, until I took the CNW window out of focus. To be
honest, I was a bit surprised that it went over 70C, since I'd changed
all my AW type browser settings to "Direct X7" instead of Software
Renderer. I did a bit of research on Friday night and found that the
"Software Renderer" setting uses your CPU to get it's power, and that
"DirectX 7" uses the power of your video card. In initial tests I
found my temp dropped by a few degrees with the latter setting,
however, yesterday, with CNW, this didn't seem to make as big a
difference.

>However, this still didn't help my problem with AW. Whenever I start AW,
>SpeedStep ramps the CPU back up to 1.2 GHz. I couldn't find any other
>ways to lower it (or keep it lowered). I even went so far as to buy a
>small portable desk fan and aim at the CPU's grill/vent on the laptop
>(there is a heat pipe type thing inside of there). With AW running and
>the fan blowing in the vent, my temps were stable at around 45C (usually
>less than what I idle at). In less than a week, the desktop fan broke.
>*sigh* I doubt you'd want to go to this extreme, but it is an option.

Hehehe....had actually considered this too, although from my work
building other PC's, I found that too many fans is often overkill, and
depending on the direction of the air flow, can actually cause the
temperature to *rise* higher than using just one or two fans. Weird, I
know.

>Although not the exact solution you are looking for, I do have an idea.
>Minimize any and all running programs, load AW, and go to the area you
>want to go to. With AW open (but not maximized), you should be able to
>see a portion of your Windows desktop. Well, as you've said, when the AW
>window isn't in focus, it doesn't use as many CPU cycles. What I do is
>click on the AW window (when I need to use it) and just click off
>anywhere on my desktop. This takes the focus off of AW and does indeed
>lower my CPU temps a tiny bit. The nice is, is that AW allows telegram
>notices and chat to appear, even when AW is not the main focus. So you
>could stand still in any world and still be able to see chat scrolling
>on the screen. When you want to type something, click on AW, type
>whatever it is, and click back onto your desktop. It works for me. ;)

Funny that you mention this, as this is very similar to the
"workaround" that I've been using. The big difference is that I didn't
turn all other programs off first. When I go to AW (or CNW, etc), I
navigate to the place I want to be, and then bring the AW window into
focus only when I want to type a comment. I can still read the other
conversation going by, which works pretty well, but I know it'll
become a problem when I want to do some building. :)

I even tried another idea, only to find out that it really didn't
work. I got to thinking about how when another window was on top and
the one in focus, caused the temps to drop. So I thought...what about
the programs like Winamp and the like, which had a mini-mode that
would allow for a thin version of the program to run at the top of my
screen? If I set it to be "Always on Top", would it keep the focus so
that AW would never cause the temps to shoot up? I actually tried it
with 2 similar programs, and as hopeful as I was, it didn't work. Nice
concept though. :)

>The only other suggestions I have are the following: 1) muck around with
>AW's video settings and the Display settings in Control Panel (for
>example, I noticed that when antialiasing is on, my temps were a bit
>higher), 2) resize AW's "rendering window" to make it smaller, 3)
>decrease AW's thread/process priority using the Task Manager.

I hesitate at suggestion #1 a little, as I'm not crazy about the
"jaggies" on some text, when anti aliasing is off, as well as it
affects my perception of the looks of some of the text on the websites
I build. So basically, I'd like to avoid that one if possible.
Couldn't hurt to change it temporarily for testing purposes though.
:)

I'll definitely look into suggestions #2 and #3.

Thanks for all your help, Builderz. :)

Kimi

Dec 1, 2002, 3:07pm

[View Quote] >The reason this happened is because now most of the rendering work has
>been offloaded onto your video card instead of your CPU. Less CPU work,
>less heat. Less heat equals cooler temperature. When in software mode,
>most of rendering work is sent to your CPU and not your laptop's video
>card. It also helps since your video card has built-in DirectX
>instructions.

Yep, you're right. I discovered this a couple of days ago, when doing
some research. Good to know. Thanks. :)

Kimi

Dec 1, 2002, 3:46pm

Kimi.... This isn't exactly the same thing, but I find aw slows my computer down like that even when it's not on top.... not sure
why, since theoretically it shouldn't.. Anyways, Thinking along the lines of your CPU power getting sucked down..... I find when I'm
not actually doing anything but chatting, it helps a lot to stand outside of any buildings, and "look" straight up at the sky.......
my framerates shoot way up, since there's nothing TO render but the skybox and things ease up some..... can still chat and so on,
with less of an impact on other programs I have running, like modeling stuff, etc. Not sure that'll make much of a difference on
the laptop as far as CPU temps are concerned, but who knows :O)

JB

[View Quote]

Dec 1, 2002, 3:47pm

[View Quote] >The only other suggestions I have are the following: 1) muck around with
>AW's video settings and the Display settings in Control Panel (for
>example, I noticed that when antialiasing is on, my temps were a bit
>higher), 2) resize AW's "rendering window" to make it smaller, 3)
>decrease AW's thread/process priority using the Task Manager.

Hehehe....Now I see that in suggestion #1, unchecking anti aliasing
was only part of your suggestion...Sorry. Mucking around with my AW
video settings I'm doing. I'll see if I can come up with a combination
that works.

I did try suggestion #2 today, as you suggested. It seemed like a
great idea too. Unfortunately, the smaller rendering window isn't
making an impact on the temperature...and I would have thought for
sure it would have. Good idea though!

Thanks,
Kimi

Dec 1, 2002, 3:48pm

[View Quote] >Kimi.... This isn't exactly the same thing, but I find aw slows my computer down like that even when it's not on top.... not sure
>why, since theoretically it shouldn't.. Anyways, Thinking along the lines of your CPU power getting sucked down..... I find when I'm
>not actually doing anything but chatting, it helps a lot to stand outside of any buildings, and "look" straight up at the sky.......
>my framerates shoot way up, since there's nothing TO render but the skybox and things ease up some..... can still chat and so on,
>with less of an impact on other programs I have running, like modeling stuff, etc. Not sure that'll make much of a difference on
>the laptop as far as CPU temps are concerned, but who knows :O)
>
>JB

Thanks, JB. :)

Kimi

Dec 1, 2002, 6:48pm

[View Quote] >The only other suggestions I have are the following: 1) muck around with
>AW's video settings and the Display settings in Control Panel (for
>example, I noticed that when antialiasing is on, my temps were a bit
>higher), 2) resize AW's "rendering window" to make it smaller, 3)
>decrease AW's thread/process priority using the Task Manager.

Changing AW's priority doesn't effect CPU usage.

Dec 1, 2002, 9:24pm

[View Quote] Actually it does, but you can't set a certain level of CPU usage that a program can't surpass. Windows will allocate more CPU cycles to programs that have a higher priority than lower ones.

Example:

SETI at home set to "above normal"
AW set to "normal"

(Task manager window is not active because AW is in focus)

http://zionworld.virtualave.net/cpuusage.png (15KB)

Dec 2, 2002, 1:44am

Please see my reply below:

[View Quote] Yes, I noticed this too. The pitch was a bit different and I could see
from I8KfanGUI that the fans were spinning at a slower RPM speed. When I
changed the power scheme in Power Options (in the Control Panel) to "Max
Battery," the RPM of the fans actually increased (again, verified by
I8KfanGUI and my ears). The fans now spin a bit faster and sound a
little louder, but they also shut off sooner.

> Hehehe....had actually considered this too, although from my work
> building other PC's, I found that too many fans is often overkill, and
> depending on the direction of the air flow, can actually cause the
> temperature to *rise* higher than using just one or two fans. Weird, I
> know.

Yep, I know what you mean. I installed a PCI slot cooler/blower into one
of my systems (placing it as high as I could so that it would help
exhaust hot air out of the case). Turns out it actually made the case
temperature a bit higher instead of lower. I removed it and put it in
another system and the case temperature went down. Each system is
different. ;)

> I even tried another idea, only to find out that it really didn't
> work. I got to thinking about how when another window was on top and
> the one in focus, caused the temps to drop. So I thought...what about
> the programs like Winamp and the like, which had a mini-mode that
> would allow for a thin version of the program to run at the top of my
> screen? If I set it to be "Always on Top", would it keep the focus so
> that AW would never cause the temps to shoot up? I actually tried it
> with 2 similar programs, and as hopeful as I was, it didn't work. Nice
> concept though. :)

Ah yes, that *is* an interesting idea that didn't occur to me before.
Too bad it didn't work. =(

> Thanks for all your help, Builderz. :)

No problem, Kimi. Hmm...maybe Dell or Intel needs to release a CPU
throttling program (separate from SpeedStep) so that we can
underclock/overclock our laptops at will.

-Builderz

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