CPU Overheating: Slower Operation?

[(PeteCresswell)]

Just finished troubleshooting the neighbor's PC.

Luckily I found the CPU heat sink about 90% clogged with dust.

"Luckily" bc I don't know diddly about anything else in there....

Cleaned it out, and Windows stopped abending after 20-30 minutes
of operation, so I guess that was the problem.

But now the neighbor says that the PC is much faster than it was
before.

Could this be true? i.e. could overheating, but not so much
overheating that the system crashes, make for slower operation?

 

[SC Tom]

Just finished troubleshooting the neighbor's PC.

Luckily I found the CPU heat sink about 90% clogged with dust.

"Luckily" bc I don't know diddly about anything else in there....

Cleaned it out, and Windows stopped abending after 20-30 minutes
of operation, so I guess that was the problem.

But now the neighbor says that the PC is much faster than it was
before.

Could this be true? i.e. could overheating, but not so much
overheating that the system crashes, make for slower operation?

In extreme cases, and depending on the CPU, software being used at the time,
other installed hardware, etc., overheating can slow the system down because
the CPU will slow itself down to try to alleviate the overheating condition.
Fewer MHz=lower temp. After the heatsink and fan have been cleared of
obstructions, the CPU is allowed to throttle up to full (or near full) speed
when needed.

 

[Bob F]

Just finished troubleshooting the neighbor's PC.

Luckily I found the CPU heat sink about 90% clogged with dust.

"Luckily" bc I don't know diddly about anything else in there....

Cleaned it out, and Windows stopped abending after 20-30 minutes
of operation, so I guess that was the problem.

But now the neighbor says that the PC is much faster than it was
before.

Could this be true? i.e. could overheating, but not so much
overheating that the system crashes, make for slower operation?

Modern processors are designed to slow down if they overheat to prevent burning
out the processor.

 

[mm]

Just finished troubleshooting the neighbor's PC.

Luckily I found the CPU heat sink about 90% clogged with dust.

"Luckily" bc I don't know diddly about anything else in there....

Cleaned it out, and Windows stopped abending after 20-30 minutes
of operation, so I guess that was the problem.

But now the neighbor says that the PC is much faster than it was
before.

Could this be true? i.e. could overheating, but not so much
overheating that the system crashes, make for slower operation?

I think so. The electrons have to keep stopping for water when it's
really hot.

 

[boatman312]

I think so. The electrons have to keep stopping for water when it's
really hot.

That's just an Old Wives tale. They're actually standing in front of
the air conditioner.

 

[Paul]

Just finished troubleshooting the neighbor's PC.

Luckily I found the CPU heat sink about 90% clogged with dust.

"Luckily" bc I don't know diddly about anything else in there....

Cleaned it out, and Windows stopped abending after 20-30 minutes
of operation, so I guess that was the problem.

But now the neighbor says that the PC is much faster than it was
before.

Could this be true? i.e. could overheating, but not so much
overheating that the system crashes, make for slower operation?

The feature is called "Throttling" or "Thermal Throttling". On
some processors, it cuts in at around 65C case temperature on
the CPU. Other processors measure core temperature instead, and
the equivalent trip point in terms of core temperature is higher
than that. (You can't compare processor temperatures between
CPU generations, because the method was changed along the way.)

You can actually read out the "Throttle bit" using RMClock. There
have been a couple web articles, where they slow down or disconnect
the CPU fan, and watch what happens. RMClcck draws a nice graph for
you, and allows you to see when the system will be running slower
than normal.

http://ixbtlabs.com/articles2/cpu/intel-thermal-features-core2.html

There are a couple Dell computing products, where they got rather
carried away with that stuff. The debacle was called "Throttlegate",
and there was a nice PDF document you could download, giving details
on measuring the effects. The Dell product, could slow the processor
to the point it was about as fast as a 100MHz Pentium. If the capabilities
inside the processor are used to their maximal extent (which seldom
happens), the processor can become like molasses. If you owned one
of the few Dell products affected, you'd definitely know about it.

Paul