What do you do about laptops? My fan has been running constantly since I installed this program. I have an IBM Thinkpad with Windows XP professional, and I don't know too much about computers.

I have a 3.06Ghz P4 that I ended up having to water cool as well. I hated to do it but the fans were making me crazy(er). I am hoping that the new dual core processors will actually run cooler and produce more work as advertised. I am saving all my pennys for when they are available.

YogiY,

This warranty void if product is used. That is the line that worries you, I presume?

Try searching the forum for temperature, heat, overheating and fan. You will turn up all sorts of threads. Added: such as http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=1928

This is really a personality issue. Some people carefully turn off their computer when they leave the desk. Others leave it running. The manufacturers have to build and sell computers that will stand up to both kinds of use. Otherwise they get overwhelmed with returns and have to merge with a better manufacturer on unfavorable terms.

Lawrence

For years, Intel has been building heat-control into its processors. The hotter they get, the slower they run (generating less heat) until they go into emergency shutdown. AMD is getting into this design philosophy and Intel is responding with ever finer slow-down granularity. The exact specifics are the responsibility of the mother-board manufacturer, who designs around the speed controls the processor manufacturer builds into the CPU.

For people who are not content to leave this to the manufacturer, there are various 3rd-party software utilities.

Motherboard Monitor: This returns the temperature of the CPU and the case (ambient) temperature. Yes, temperature-controlled speed requires ways to sense temperature. All built in to modern motherboards.

ThrottleWatch: This is more pro-active than Motherboard Monitor. It tells you when the processor is slowing down because of temperature and lets you see how much it is slowing down (well, sort of). But it includes some slow down controls on its own. If you do not trust Dell [Dell, you are letting the processor get too hot! Slow it DOWN!!] then you can use these to slow down the processor before the temperatures set by Dell are reached. [Grin. ThrottleWatch could be called Backseat Driver.]

ThreadMaster: This lets you set a maximum processor utilization percentage for a thread. This can be a method of temperature control. You probably should also use Motherboard Monitor while deciding how to use ThreadMaster.

You ought to be able to find a description of the firmware temperature settings that Dell has built into your motherboard. Just a matter of reading specs and using Google once you know the terminology.

Hope this helps,
Lawrence

Thanks for the info - will try these tools and limit my use.

By the way - we have 4 months of 40C+ (104F) days here over Nov - Feb (PC room is air-conditioned 24 hrs).

Come on down - the weather's great !

YogiY
Alice Springs NT