Curse

VegJed · May 06, 2007, 08:35 PM // 20:35

My computer has an overheating problem, which I am looking into getting fixed. However, until I can get it fixed, playing Guild Wars or any game is a pain in the neck. Here's a typical GW session for me:

(1) 3-5 minutes of me playing the game with 30 FPS(actually, recently I've gotten 40+ FPS)
(2) My GPU heats up from 80 degrees(what it's at when idle, way to hot for that) to 99(the slowdown threshold).
(3) The temperature goes down from 99 to 80-85
(4) When it gets to that 80-85 range, massive CPU spike for 1-2 minutes, FPS gets reduced to 1(really, it's less than that, but when the frame resets itself, it tells me it's at 1 FPS).
Rinse and repeat, until I decide I'm more annoyed than entertained and give up.

What I've always found really odd is that the CPU spikes happen after my GPU temp has gone down, since it seems to me that the computer would slow down when the emergency procedures were being taken to cool it down, not afterwards. Anyway, I recently played a few minutes where the FPS was between 15-20, and my GPU core temp didn't go up. I'd prefer playing with a constant 15-20 FPS rather than a few minutes of 30 (or 40+, who needs that?) followed by huge CPU spikes. Is there any way to set it so the FPS doesn't go above 20?

Yanman.be · May 07, 2007, 07:24 AM // 07:24

GW will always use 100% ( or 50% or 25% on multicore ) CPU power. You might be able to lower that by lowering the priority with taskmanager( NOT RECOMMENDED, DO NOT TRY, I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE )
Can you list your hardware? I hope you have intell..AMD would just melt down....
To limit the fps (I don't think this prevent the GPU from overheating ): "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\gw.exe" -fps xx
(where xx is a numeric value such as 30 that specifies the frame rate limit.)
(guildwiki FTW )

Dust out your pc, open the case...make sure all fans are working...

eremos · May 07, 2007, 11:28 AM // 11:28

80 is way too hot, methinks you need to get some proper thermal paste.

That said, you may be able to underclock your GPU, but fiddling with clocks can cause lockups or even damage to your card.

Mineria · May 07, 2007, 07:12 PM // 19:12

As already mentioned, blow the dust out of your case, check cpu, chipset and case fans.
If they don't work like they should get new ones before turning your pc on again! (its like driving a car with the oil lamp alerting)
I suppose that your system isn't overclocked?

PS. AMD getting hot belongs to the old Athlons, not the case with newer AMD cpu's.

Yanman.be · May 07, 2007, 08:06 PM // 20:06

Mineria, do the new AMD's have cpu temp throttle?

VegJed · May 07, 2007, 08:28 PM // 20:28

Thanks for the helpful replies, this overheating thing is way too annoying now, I'm getting it fixed as soon as possible.

My comp is a Latitude D620, Intel Core Duo, 998 MHz, 2 gig ram, with a Nvidia Quadro NVS 110M video card, Guild Wars and every other game played great on it until recently. My computer's got dust, but I'm kinda wary about opening my laptop up myself to check the fans.

FlameoutAlchemist · May 07, 2007, 08:37 PM // 20:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by VegJed

Thanks for the helpful replies, this overheating thing is way too annoying now, I'm getting it fixed as soon as possible.

My comp is a Latitude D620, Intel Core Duo, 998 MHz, 2 gig ram, with a Nvidia Quadro NVS 110M video card, Guild Wars and every other game played great on it until recently. My computer's got dust, but I'm kinda wary about opening my laptop up myself to check the fans.

Eesh. With a laptop, you're kinda stuck then. You'll have to contact Dell and send it in to have it fixed. When it comes to laptops, NEVER OPEN THE CASE UNLESS INSTRUCTED TO BY THE MANUFACTURER TO AVOID VIOLATING ANY WARRANTIES ON IT!

VegJed · May 07, 2007, 09:53 PM // 21:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlameoutAlchemist

Eesh. With a laptop, you're kinda stuck then. You'll have to contact Dell and send it in to have it fixed. When it comes to laptops, NEVER OPEN THE CASE UNLESS INSTRUCTED TO BY THE MANUFACTURER TO AVOID VIOLATING ANY WARRANTIES ON IT!

Yeah, that's what I figured. Fortunately, I probably won't have to send it to Dell, since I'm still at school and my campus has a computer repair shop which is Dell affiliated. I'm getting it looked at tomorrow.

Yukito Kunisaki · May 07, 2007, 10:13 PM // 22:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yanman.be

Mineria, do the new AMD's have cpu temp throttle?

I'm the proud owner of an Opteron Dual Core 165 [939] cpu and though it's not new [curse your uselessness AM2], it does have thermal throttling and is NEVER a hot runner.

One time, I forgot to plug in my cooling cpu fan [doh], and the system shutdown after attempting to install windows xp MCE. A fine catch...

Smelled liked burnt Arctic Silver 5, but after plugging it back in, everything worked fine.

bhavv · May 07, 2007, 11:37 PM // 23:37

Get one of these

http://www.amazon.co.uk/EW-Link-FANS.../dp/B000O5U6SC

FlameoutAlchemist · May 08, 2007, 12:20 AM // 00:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by VegJed

Yeah, that's what I figured. Fortunately, I probably won't have to send it to Dell, since I'm still at school and my campus has a computer repair shop which is Dell affiliated. I'm getting it looked at tomorrow.

Back up everything that you'd want saved in case of a disaster before you turn it over. You wouldn't want anything that you need for school to be stuck only on that computer incase there's a problem or you can't get to it.

cebalrai · May 08, 2007, 04:58 AM // 04:58

Why are you even forcing your sick computer to do this? Even if it's under full warranty, you're probably really reducing the life of your machine.

Mineria · May 08, 2007, 04:29 PM // 16:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yanman.be

Mineria, do the new AMD's have cpu temp throttle?

AMD Cool & Quiet
My X2 as example doesn't get near as hot as my old P4.
I'm running a passive cooled system (got some big slow case fans though), and it never gets real hot.
If your Intel starts to throttle because of to much heat, you got a cooling problem anyway.

But like I said, "AMD gets to hot" is a myth for some years now.
Donit forget Intel had a P4 overheat problem as well (NB 800HT socket 478), but with some proper cooling it just runs fine as well.

VegJed · May 08, 2007, 05:28 PM // 17:28

Well, as I said before, I had dust.
30 seconds with some compressed air, the guy runs a few diagnostics then hands it back to me, telling me to come back if it still overheats, but it doesn't anymore. I probably should improve upon the ventilation for this thing, but I ordered an XPad, which supposedly increases air flow to the fans (if this XPad thing is a scam, tell me so I can take advantage of it's 30 day guarantee).

FlameoutAlchemist · May 08, 2007, 05:39 PM // 17:39

Go figure, I suppose.
You could also try a notebook stand. I use one whenever I game on my notebook to help the fans get rid of the mad amount of heat this thing can generate.

Ozric · May 08, 2007, 06:12 PM // 18:12

I could fry eggs over my old Athlon XP 2000+ if I didn't keep things clean under the hood, so when I got my Opteron 170 last year I bought a Thermalright XP-120 heatsink to top it off, but it turned out it didn't need it at all even though I overclock it to 2.6Ghz. Doesn't need the 'Cool-n-Quiet' on as the thing always stays barely above room temperature. The nVidia GPU's, however, are another matter!

Kudos on the 30-second resolution! Compressed air FTW!!

Dex · May 08, 2007, 11:16 PM // 23:16

Glad you got the problem fixed. On a side-note, if you know that your computer is overheating it's best not to use it at all until the problem is fixed. The heat will eventually damage your components, and a few hours of GW fun isn't worth that IMHO.