Noisy QPC2 machine

[pjw]

I run QPC2 on a 2009 model Macbook Pro running Window 7 Ultimate (mainly when Im on the move). I dont know exactly when it started - perhaps 5 months ago - but it appears to me that when I run QPC2 nowadays it uses much more CPU power than previously, which leads to that annoying fan running continuously! ( It uses one of the two cores 100% all the time when Im in QPC2 full screen, even if its just idling. The only time it did that before (I seem to recall) was when I was running some heavy duty stuff, like my my Matrix screen saver, which would produce the same kind of heat and noise, whether QPC2 was running in the foreground or background. Im sure it never was like this before..

I cant put up with that in the long run. Did something change? Is this Micro$oft doing an Apple stunt? Could it have to do with the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities, the cure for which, I understand, could be worse than the disease? Any ideas, any one? Anyone noticed similar problems on their setup?

[Dave]

My suspicion, as a user of the same package, is that you have changed the emulated machine's speed from a slower clock to a much higher speed. This is the main factor deciding CPU load.

I tried different emulation speeds, with TOP running in a terminal window so I could examine the load and see what I found the best compromise. I have a quad core i7 6700K at 4.2K, so my figures will be quite different to yours.

Hope this is what it is. Having it go flat out and sounding like a hurricane would get old quickly.

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi Per,

The noise will be the CPU Fan running.

There maybe a blockage in the fan duct or heat sink clogged with dust. Causing overheating and the fans running.

I have many Mac Book service manuals can email you a copy.

[Dave]

You mean people don't routinely blow canned air through the ducts every 3 months as routine maintenance? *boggles*

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

Blowing air into a laptop CPU Fan exhuast will not clear the duct completly. But the best solution to remove the CPU fan and clean the heat sink, fan, and exhaust duct.

But sine it is a Apple Laptop, it is very hard to remove the top case to expose the CPU.

Per, please give the Model of Macbook.

[pjw]

Thanks for suggestions so far. Regarding the fan noise, I intend to open up the machine and give it some TLC, as I do occasionally, but this is unlikely to be the cause of the problem. As stated, one of the cores runs at 100% as long as QPC2 is in focus in full screen, and the second core spins up to about 10%, which I also find rather high as it too drops to negligible once Im out of QPC2. Im pretty sure this behaviour was not always the case. My QPC2 settings have not changed, nor has there been a new version since I started noticing the problem. There have been some upgrades to SMSQ/E, but that shouldnt have any effect. It seems to me that something is going on Windows side. The matter is OT if it only affects my setup: Im trying to determine whether this is a wider problem..

[pjw]

Hi,

Blowing air into a laptop CPU Fan exhuast will not clear the duct completly. But the best solution to remove the CPU fan and clean the heat sink, fan, and exhaust duct.

But sine it is a Apple Laptop, it is very hard to remove the top case to expose the CPU.

Per, please give the Model of Macbook.

Thanks Derek No need for that. Ive had the machine to pieces on numerous occasions;
to add memory, to change the hard disk (most recently to a 500GiB solid state affair) and,
of course to clean.

In one hot country I visited, some tiny ants decided to make their home in the machine. I
couldnt risk opening her up so far from home, but in the end I could no longer use the
mouse, as the the cursor jumped around erratically as if the ants were fooling around with
it! Talk of bugs! They died, presumably of cold, as soon as I arrived home and the problem
with the mouse died with them. I dismantled every component possible in the clean-out
after that episode. Still have some spare screws and bits and bobs. It seems they were
unnecessary, as I never had a problem with it - until now ..

[pjw]

My suspicion, as a user of the same package, is that you have changed the emulated machine's speed from a slower clock to a much higher speed.

How do you do that?

[janbredenbeek]

When you start up QPC2, there is a dialog box with a setting 'Power Management'. When I set this to 'off', QPC2 almost constantly uses 100% of one CPU core. When set to 'on', I noticed no significant increase in CPU utilisation when idle. There's also a setting 'suspend'; I don't know off-hand what this means. Marcel?

regards, Jan.

[Dave]

....one of the cores runs at 100% as long as QPC2 is in focus in full screen, and the second core spins up to about 10%, which I also find rather high as it too drops to negligible once Im out of QPC2....

That does sound like an emulation speed/power management issue.

An i5 macbook at idle will typically have 2-4% load on each CPU as it just cycles through all its tasks to maintain them and see if there's any actions... If you run a task that uses 100% of a single, core, it pushes those previously distributed tasks onto the second core. Two 3% loads on two cores do not make a 6% load on one core, because now there's enough tasks that the cache is being used fully and content is being retired from the cache due to the number of tasks. As this point, instructions take longer to fetch from main memory, so the CPU utilization climbs. Two 3% loads should, in theory, make around a 10-12% load if run on a single core.