Paul Hartman wrote:
On Fri, Mar 26, 2010 at 5:43 PM, Dale <rdalek1...@gmail.com> wrote:
Daniel Quinn wrote:
I don't know if this is a hardware issue or not, but I thought that maybe
I'd
configured my kernel incorrectly and that this might be a known issue
someone
here has run across in the past so here goes:
My computer is a pretty impressive AMD 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6400+ box
with 2GB of RAM and for the most part, I just use it to write code at
work.
However, whenever I'm doing something CPU-intensive, two things happen:
* The load on the box goes up to 4
* The box intermittently wobbles from running at full-speed and dropping
to
a crawl. This is best seen while watching Flash videos online,
compressing/encoding video, or compiling. Everything is fine for a
few
minutes, then suddenly the rate of compiling/compression/playback etc.
drops to a crawl for about 1-3minutes, then back up to full speed.
I don't know why it's happening. I've tried various kernel options with
no
change in behaviour. Outside of that though, I don't know what to try.
Suggestions welcome :-(
Shot in the dark here. Could it be that something is getting hot, or thinks
it is getting hot, and slows down processing in a effort to cool things down
a bit? I don't know if this is just laptops but I think there is a option
in the kernel to do this. I don't use it but it may be worth checking into.
Maybe it was turned on by default.
Sometimes in the BIOS this happens, too. At work a few years ago we
had a Dell laptop where it thought the temperature was 200C degrees
all the time, so it would run the fan at full speed and go into
lowest-power mode etc. Once we determined it wasn't really 200C, we
found out it was a buggy BIOS and upgrading it solved the problem.
Nobody knows why the laptop worked fine for 2 years and then suddenly
exhibited this problem, but I was glad to get it fixed so I would stop
hearing the fan blowing at max speed in the cubicle next to mine. :)
I have the very same problem with my GX700 msi laptop. I determined the
cause was a dirty cooler. Every time I blow the dust out of the fan
it can run hours without throttling itself.
If maybe your cpu-cooler is undersized and has collected a lot of dust,
cleaning it could solve your problem.
Johannes
