Two things, here:

Running your computer fan continuously shouldn't do any harm. They are designed for this.

The World Community Grid default is to use 60% of your CPU. You can change this in your device profile: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ms/device/v...iguration.do?name=Default

You can also change the number of processors to use. I hope this helps you.

Phased out. The UD client is no longer available.

You may also check that there is not too much dust inside your computer and in your processor heat sink. After several months of daily usage that can make a difference.

Cheers. Jean.

18 months? How much of this can be blamed on Summer?

On most laptops, the keyboard will pop off. It probably sucks air through the keyboard as well as various other vents.

My laptop fan failed recently. The laptop slowed down to the point of being unusable, and its crunching performance was abysmal. I stopped crunching, and with light processor usage, the machine was just about usable.

Modern processors have inbuilt thermal protection - if the cooling system fails, they just start limiting their speed to produce less heat to avoid damage. There does not seem to be any indication that this is happening! A clue is that processes that normally only cause breif blips of processor usage (such as antivirus processes), start taking huge chunks, even continual usage. This is because the processor is now so slow.

The machine got worse. By not fixing the fan (I assume), the laptop's heat pipe processor cooler also failed! After fixing the fan, it just blew cold air out (because heatpipe not moving heat from processor). Then things REALLY slowed down. Fortunately, I got hold of a new cooler. Now the laptop is back to normal.

Points to note:

1 - Keep the fan and vents clean. 2 - If the fan fails, stop using the laptop and get it fixed. 3 - If you are crunching, the fan should probably run a lot - or even all the time. It should blow warm air out. 4- if the machine slows down for no apparent reason - go to 1.

I don't think that using a vacuum cleaner held against the air vent/intake would do any harm. Compressed air would be more effective, as long as it is OIL/WATER FREE. I am not sure we are allowed to use compressed air these days - Health and safety!

Laptops are murder to get apart! DON'T unless you have to! Dozens of screws, often ingeniously concealed. This Dell is not too bad. It is as Didactylos says, take the keyboard off. On the Dell, you put the screen right back. The plastic cover over the hinges, buttons and indicators is then carefully levered off with a flat blade - there is a little indent at the RH end to allow this. This reveals screws holding the keyboard. Once the keyboard is off (mind the ribbon cable), the processor cooler and fan is accessible. Other laptops are probably similar.