CPU Questions

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Tue May 06, 2008 8:05 pm

Hey guys. My laptop has a: Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 @ 1.50ghz (2 CPUs)

Question is: Is that two 750mhz CPUs that combine together to make ONE 1.50ghz

Or is it two 1.50ghz CPUs?

Thanks

lifeisbetterwithketchup · Tue May 06, 2008 8:09 pm

It is a single processor with two cores, each running at 1.5Ghz.

Aguiluz · Post by **Aguiluz** » Tue May 06, 2008 8:11 pm

Correct ketchup.

The reason for dual cores is to run two apps at the same time.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Tue May 06, 2008 8:20 pm

Each core is a fully functional CPU though. The operating system will show two logical processors.

Technically the above post should say "two threads". One application could use multiple threads (and hopefully they all will soon).

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Tue May 06, 2008 8:39 pm

I have a problem guys.

Alright: I've done a full reinstall and everything.

Problem is: When I do a graphical game, or like listen to music and go on a video chat, or videochat on aim and such, my laptop works fine for about 30 minutes. After that, I hear a "fan" speed up (Its like brummmm) and then my CPU performance DROPS. Like my Cpu usage sky rockets to 90% and stays there and makes the fan sound until I close the program. (The fan sound stops about 5 mins after I close it.)

Mind you, my fan runs all the time, but when Im doing something graphical, it goes into like super fan mode/super fan speed after like 20 minutes.

My bottom of the laptop also gets hot, and so does the right side of the touchpad and such. (Also gets hot near the screen)

And I have a great videocard with brand new drivers (Nvidia 8600M GT). So its not the videocard.

Whats causing this CPU Performance drop? It happens like RIGHT when the " fan" speeds up/the " loud brummm" sound happens.

Will a laptop fan pad (Which will make my laptop run cooler), fix this?

Could it be that its dropping the CPU performance because its too hot, and doesnt want to damage the CPU?

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Tue May 06, 2008 8:49 pm

My friend's dad's laptop overheats and shuts down when flat on a desk. The solution was propping up the back with one of those 3 sided rulers. Still sounds like a jet, but I don't think it overheats anymore. I'd try something like that before spending the money for a cooling pad. I personally set my laptop on the gutted case of another laptop, just to keep the ability to have children, I don't think it helps much with cooling.

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Tue May 06, 2008 8:58 pm

Hmm. I also forgot to mention. When it stays at 90% for a while, my PC shuts off.

So is that a heat issue?

Post by **Sparkfist** » Tue May 06, 2008 9:14 pm

HotDog-Cart wrote:Hmm. I also forgot to mention. When it stays at 90% for a while, my PC shuts off.

So is that a heat issue?

It might be. Intel has designed many of their chips since P4 to slow down if there is a heat increase. Example of this is that you can take a P4 in a desktop and remove the heat sink, it will still run, but slower as it is trying to keep heat from building to a dangerous level.

A solution for your problem would be to elevate the back of the laptop. Give it about 2 inches, and a lot of the heating issues should go away. I myself have two hex CD/DVD case supporting the back of my laptop. I don't have a loud fan, and the keyboard/touch pad stays relatively cool.

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Tue May 06, 2008 9:19 pm

I'm doing that, spark. I always do that. yet the problem persists.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Tue May 06, 2008 9:33 pm

Is the heatsink full of dust? Or maybe you could go to the power settings/BIOS and lower the cpu speed or have it go down automatically when not needed. My laptop runs at 400MHz most of the time, and jumps to 900MHz when it needs that much power.

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Tue May 06, 2008 10:01 pm

Its a laptop so I cant tell about the heatsink. Its a relativly new laptop though and has done this since day one. The store clerk told me I should buy a fan pad.

Post by **Sparkfist** » Wed May 07, 2008 6:38 am

HotDog-Cart wrote:Its a laptop so I cant tell about the heatsink. Its a relativly new laptop though and has done this since day one. The store clerk told me I should buy a fan pad.

If it's been doing it since day one, use the warranty to have them look at it. No point in banging your head against a wall, when you can have a tech do that for you. And beside this kind of stuff is what warranties are meant for.

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Wed May 07, 2008 1:16 pm

I don't have the warranty anymore. Thats why I'm asking xD.

And I don't feel like paying the, $100 to look at it and more money to get it fixed when it could be just a $20 cooling issue.

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Mon May 12, 2008 5:27 am

Take it apart, and clean out the dust that is likely inside. Then buy a "fan pad," as you call them. If that still doesn't work... I dunno... under-clock it?

Time for a couple of stories.

I have an AMD K6-II that runs at 333MHz, and before I was as tech-savvy as I am now (before I had ever opened up a computer and was afraid to do so), it started overheating at times, and would close certain programs that were more taxing (E.G. ZSNES) or sometimes shut down entirely after running for more than a half hour or so. We opened it up, and there was a massive amount of dust inside. It was indescribable. After we cleaned it out, everything ran perfectly.

A friend of mine had a laptop that was overheating as well. Same types of symptoms. Although, her laptop was so bad that it would crash just from idling for too long; she actually had to shut it down when she wasn't using it. It made torrenting anime kinda hard for her.

This, obviously, was unjust.

So, that Christmas, I bought her a cooling pad from NewEgg for... I think $17 or so, and it didn't have any problems after that.

Moral of the story? People tend to underestimate what dust and heat can really do to computers and electronics. It's easy to think that it'll be okay if you stack a few papers on top of your cable box's vent, because usually, it is. It's hard to remember that you have to dust the inside of your computer from time-to-time because it's not something you think about on a regular basis, since you can't normally see the dust.

But, it can cause problems, and more than people think.

So yeah, it's probably overheating, and yeah, invest in a cooling pad; it will probably do the job just fine.