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!*
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"…
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
Ok, kind of a long story *Warning!*
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"…
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