Sweet relief! Finally found solution to constant super high temps on my laptop cpu

Arkadia7

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I can't believe it. I found the answer to an issue I have been having with my laptop. I'm kind of stunned, to be honest, that I found this, because it is super obscure to someone like me. I am no computer whiz, far from it! But I do have good research skills.

Ok, kind of a long story *Warning!* :p

The problem was I noticed the computer was slowing down recently, and I was trying to figure out why. Then I did some testing and one thing I realized is Firefox starts sucking memory up if you have a lot of windows and tabs open. I don't know what the deal is, I have heard maybe firefox had memory leak problems, but by closing Firefox completely, I was able to get a significant improvement.

However, then I decided to investigate other possibilities. I thought maybe I was missing something. I loaded up a great little program, HWMonitor, and this nifty program shows all the internal temps of your computer, including CPU.

I was floored by how hot my computer was running!

I was looking at readings of 90 plus degrees Celsius on all four cores at times! Not even kidding. One max was 99 degrees, the other 3 maxed at 98 degrees (these are under the category "Max" which signifies the hottest temps recorded for a given period of time by the monitor program) I then started investigating my intel processor, and heat. I learned that this particular processor - made for gaming laptops - is meant to be run hot, and that Intel actually gives a specification that it can work even at 100 degrees celcius! But that is absolute tops and the limit.

I further read that these particular processors are very sophisticated when it comes to dealing with heat, and that in one technical persons expert opinion, they could run a stress test on all four cores running at 100 degrees Celsius each, and the performance would remain stable, because of the design.

However, running this hot, well, this can't be healthy for a long life of the computer. I get that. My computer is 3 years old, and I would like to keep it for a few more years if possible.

I then started monitoring my computer cpu temperature at all times. Get this, even at idle, the computer was running at 70s to 80s!! Sometimes even brief flashes into the high 80s! I repeat, when the computer was just sitting there, idle, doing absolutely nothing!

So, I now knew something was wrong. No way in heck should I get these kinds of temps, especially at idle. I ran a virus check, nothing. Same result with malware, none found.

I started to worry I may have to take it into the shop, and look like a total idiot when they clean my computer vents out, something so simple like that and it fixes it.

What is weird is I always use a cooling pad with separate fans built into it underneath my computer. I try to take good care of my computer, and so I am faced with a conundrum of what the hell is going on!

I then look at a process monitor and see this weird program - "presentationfontcache.exe" running constantly. I wonder what the heck is that?? It is taking 13% of my CPU constantly! I look it up, and it is a Microsoft service - a legit thing - and usually connected to "visual studio".

So I then do a search on that. Then after a time, I finally found it. It was like hitting gold. A guy had the same problem I had, but his was worse, the presentationfontcache was using 50% of his CPU all the time! A guy responded, who obviously was some sort of expert, I think he was a Microsoft employee, and said to first stop the service, then delete a certain file, and then restart the service.

It worked! My cpu temps are now back to a much more normal range. We are talking 40s to around 50 degrees at idle. I even hit some lows of 38 and 39 degrees. Ok, I know that still isn't the most optimal temps, and some computers can run colder, but it is a world of difference from 80 degrees plus!

I still can't believe how this silly service somehow exploded my cpu temperatures to damn near overheating. But here is an explanation I found, that sounds like they know what they are talking about, just in case you are curious as to the nitty gritty details of this:

"The Presentation Font Cache is part of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) feature, which allows programmers to develop graphically richer applications. It’s part of the .NET Framework (3.0, 3.5, 3.5 SP1 and 4.0), which, in turn, is part of Windows Vista (3.0) and Windows 7 (3.5).

Some of your installed applications may require WPF and make use of the Presentation Font Cache. This service loads font glyph information into memory and helps share these fonts with all of the installed WPF applications. As such, applications that use the WPF framework start a bit quicker, and font pickers (such as this one) might see a slight performance increase.

Why is it burning my CPU? The Presentation Font Cache loads all fonts into its font cache (which is stored on your hard disk, but more on that later). However, at some point, this cache may become corrupted and unreadable due to a specific font. Then, the Presentation Font Cache will start to become unresponsive and get caught in a “I try to launch, but I’m stuck, so I will try it again” loop. That’s what causes the incredibly high CPU usage, and what may even result in a sudden shutdown due to overheating. Luckily, there are a few solutions to this problem!"

So that is my little saga and story of, well let's call it -- the "investigation into the mysterious computer overheating problem"…:biggrin:

Links to this and other good info on this issue that I found:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/The-Case-of-the-Mysterious-Presentation-Font-Cache-CPU-Hog-m2632016.aspx

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/F...536a64ebe3c/presentationfontcache-hogging-cpu
 
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Another pisspoor and unoptimized Microsoft's code that can't ditch corrupted cache but is hammering resources over it.
Nice find, I'm definetly gonna remember it for cases where only creating a new user profile helped.
 
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It isn't that the code isn't optmized it is that the whole thing is buggy as hell. Btw your laptop will run hot anytime all 4 cpu are used; it means that the thermals are weakly implemented for that model (laptop not cpu). That is besides the point to a degree but i find ms as well below standard despite raking in billions and billions of dollars.
 
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Also good to remember to clean it from dust.. They can look absolutely terrible inside. My cousin had a laptop that was running hot.. i looked at the underside, there were 2 lids that could be unscrewed, the first one was the HDD, the second one was an air intake, the inside looked like when you open your vacuum cleaner.. cleaned it and the computer could start like normal (it died within seconds before).
 
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Yes, laptops get pretty mucky inside. They can be very awkward to clean, too. The quality of the interior build is often very cheap and nasty, with pathetically fragile connectors, and things held in place with bits of glue and tape. Not much fun to work with.
 
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Yeah, they're not great for gaming since they get so hot and its not like you can ever fit decent cooling inside them, they will always be hotter than a stationary. I've had one gaming laptop, never again.
 
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Well, my laptop has worked great for gaming for three years now. I play all my games on either ultra high or high settings and it is smooth as butter.

This isn't just some cheap, off-the-shelf- gaming laptop. I bought it from a well known computer maker/dealer and they have a great reputation. It is custom built by professionals. One of those online specialized shops that you can designate exactly each part in the laptop, and go higher or lower end on each individual component. And it cost a pretty penny but my attitude is always - "you get what you pay for".

I will always use gaming laptops from now on after this great experience owning one, I just don't like desktop computers anymore. The future is very bright for gaming laptops by the way. They keep improving the tech and making the parts smaller and smaller and more powerful, more heat efficient and more power efficient with every generation.

My laptop GPU was top of the line when I bought it, by the way. And it still is fantastic for gaming, at least, for the games I play. (first person shooters, and crpgs)
 
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I'm really only interested in performance, portability is nice but i don't need that at all for gaming, i have my phone and ipad for portability and i find them better for that than a laptop. When it comes to pure performance laptops can never compete unfortunately. My current PC is running at 5GHz, 1080ti is heavily overclocked too, something you can never do on a laptop.
 
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I'm really only interested in performance, portability is nice but i don't need that at all for gaming, i have my phone and ipad for portability and i find them better for that than a laptop. When it comes to pure performance laptops can never compete unfortunately. My current PC is running at 5GHz, 1080ti is heavily overclocked too, something you can never do on a laptop.

Fine. Personally I don't like desktops anymore. They are (generally) so big and bulky and take up a lot of space. I prefer a slim, sleek laptop, that I can take with me wherever I go, no problemo.

Yea, I get that laptops can't compete as the very top level performance wise, but the gap keeps ever narrowing, as the tech improves. Anyway, I don't care about playing on some gigantic monitor either, which is another major difference with many of those who play on desktops, with crazy high resolutions. That does nothing for me. I play on my 17" screen, 1920 x 1080. And feel very satisfied with that, and enjoy the eye candy just as well.

My friend plays on one of those gigantic tvs/monitors and when I look at it, my question always in my head is, why???
 
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I find it more immersive when most of my field of view is the game and not my surroundings. My biggest screen here is 124" (projector), but it's mostly used for 3D movies where it makes a huge impact compared to watching on a TV. I rarely use it for games. For games i either use my 34" or i watch on a smaller projector screen (for 3D Vision gaming). But eh, it really depends on the game, for strategy or 2D RPG's i can play on any size, it doesn't really matter, doesn't impact on the immersion.
 
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