IWD2 and Overheating

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Hello everyone. I am happy to see that there is still a forum for this game still alive.

I recently installed IWD2 and the first thing I immediately noticed was that the game makes my processor overheat.

This came as a surpise to me because I had problems with heat the month before and I put in an extra fan and ever since the computer had been running cool. Any other game I play it works fine. Games that should be 'more' intensive but IWD2 the heatskyrockets until I get the bios warning. (Ironically enough BG2 runs fine which makes me all the more confused!)

My question is what is the game doing to make so much heat? Is it doing excessive processing? Is a setting on a new computer make it go nuts? Has anyone else had this problem? What could be done to solve it? I really want to play IWD2 but can't

 

Never had this problem with IWD, but I get a very similar issue with NWN. I can understand that more, though, because of all the 3D bells and whistles. Do you have the 2.01 patch installed? It's available here for download. I don't know if it will help, but it's probably the best place to start.

 

I've reinstalled the game three times now with Full/Recommened and Minimum but still no good. I have the 2.01 installed.

I am getting a bit disheartened as a search online doesn't give me many answers. Does anyone know of a way of limiting an application's CPU use or has heard of this problem with IWD before?

 

You could maybe clock down the CPU in the BIOS, but I don't know if it can be done for a separate application.

 

I have a similar problem. I am actually not sure if the processor overheats, or the hard drive is to blame, all I know is that the fan starts to make a lot of noise (after about half-hour of play). I played both BGII and NWN on the same computer, and did not have such problems.

I do not think it matters if the instalation is full/recommened or minimum. That would just affect how much hard disk / CD-Rom drive access is needed. What I did is, I turned some of the graphic options off (like translucent shadows, etc). It seems to have worked to some degree.

 

First reply here...

Areoch, go here.

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=70943&highlight=undervolting

Do exactly as instructed in the post, ignoring the fact that it is regarding laptops. Those exact steps will work on practically any processor in existence. This will reduce your power consumption and heat 24/7 on your pc, and may be the only way to run certain programs that really put a fire in your processor in a stable fashion. It takes a little time to setup, but will protect your hardware. I do this on all the PCs I build (I sell PCs from time to time) to help reduce power costs and increase component life.

Short of carrying out these semi-long instructions, I don't know of any way to avoid an overheating problem without new hardware. Simply opening your case or angling an external fan in there is somewhat of a band-aid fix that, even if it works, still pretty much assumes that your components are running too hot and will fail before their proper lifespan has elapsed.

Edit: FYI Prime 95 is a real beast of a machine stressor. If you are having these significant overheating problems, make sure you either don't let the program run a stress (torture) test for too long, or make sure to adjust your voltages (CPU FID, iirc) down significantly (.1v or more) before you begin testing. Alternatively, you can use Motherboard Monitor 5 (google it) to monitor your temperatures or provide overheating-prevention via auto-shutdown at a certain temperature.

Also, Khaavern is right in that the more options you turn off in the menu, the cooler you should theoretically run. However, if you are having these problems, that is probably not enough. Anyway, most options you can dial down in the options menu are video related which won't help you at all if the CPU is your problem. You could try dialing back options that require CPU logic, such as that option that increases pathfinding AI (nodes?). I would not doubt that that one is a huge CPU drain.

 

might try this utility:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/CPU_Eat_n_Cool_d3898.html

although it sounds to me like there might be some kind of conflict with some other software and IWD2 causing the CPU to work too hard? I don't think undervolting will help you because it's only happening when IWD2 is running so it must be triggered by that somehow

BTW ... posting your specs would be REALLY REALLY helpful ... if you're overclocking then that is why

[ August 18, 2005, 00:34: Message edited by: hedron ]