CPU usage seems to stay at 100 but the noises its making make me think somethings wrong. It didnt used to do this, is something wrong or is it normal?

CPU usage seems to stay at 100 but the noises its making make me think somethings wrong. It didnt used to do this, is something wrong or is it normal?

Rosetta (or any CPU intensive program) will cause the CPU to get hot, so the fan running at a relatively high speed is to be expected, but if you used to run Rosetta or another CPU based project then it shouldn't have changed noticeably.

Could your heatsink be clogged up with dust?

I guess the first question should be is this a laptop or a desktop computer?

---

its a dektop but it didnt use to make the sounds, i just found how popular world community grid is and it doesnt do the same thing to my cpu, also folding@home doesnt do it either.

on my amd 4400 it rosetta doesnt have any problems, this is an 920 2.6 ghz

Most BOINC projects, including the WCG subprojects, are CPU intensive. There are fans mounted directly on the CPU that only run at the speed required to keep the chip cool. So with low CPU usage, the fan runs slowly or not at all. But with any BOINC project, I'd expect it to run more frequently and at a higher speed.

The one thing I personally learned the hard way was that when they talk about "dust bunnies in the heat sink", they can be in between the CPU and the fan (which, well, I guess that's really where the heat sink ends and the fan begins). So I actually had to remove the screws holding the CPU fan on to see that it was all fouled up with years of dust under it. This impaired the airflow and forced the fan to run at higher speeds to achieve the same level of cooling.

So, in a nutshell, yes it can be normal... but double check that you don't have other problems (dust, bearings, etc.). ...and you can set the BOINC preferences to use less then 100% of the CPU, which will lower the overall heat level and reduce the fan noise. This will reduce the amount of work you complete per day, but perhaps help you be more comfortable with how your machine is running. You might find 70 or 80% is a good compromise between noise and performance.

---

Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense

on my amd 4400 it rosetta doesnt have any problems, this is an 920 2.6 ghz

That's odd - I wouldn't expect Rosetta to increase the CPU temperature much more than either Folding or WCG...

---

You could try to open up the case and clean it up with a hair dryer. Dust takes a huge toll on refrigeration. One of my laptops, for instance, dust made temps go from 60C to a dangerous 100C.

It's a good habit to clean your PCs 2-3 times a year.

The nehalem and sandy bridge architectures, run pretty cool considering their processing power.

---

You could try to open up the case and clean it up with a hair dryer. Dust takes a huge toll on refrigeration. One of my laptops, for instance, dust made temps go from 60C to a dangerous 100C.

It's a good habit to clean your PCs 2-3 times a year.

The nehalem and sandy bridge architectures, run pretty cool considering their processing power.

I use a shop vac myself. I'd suggest you download a temperature monitoring app (I use RealTemp) and keep an eye on things if you think you're having heat issues. Running your CPU at 100% indefinitely can significantly shorten your CPU's lifetime if it's always on the verge of overheating - make sure you give adequate consideration to cooling. Keeping your case clean is an easy preventive measure and usually all that's necessary for an off-the-shelf prebuilt computer.

---

You could try to open up the case and clean it up with a hair dryer. Dust takes a huge toll on refrigeration. One of my laptops, for instance, dust made temps go from 60C to a dangerous 100C.

It's a good habit to clean your PCs 2-3 times a year.

The nehalem and sandy bridge architectures, run pretty cool considering their processing power.

I use a shop vac myself. I'd suggest you download a temperature monitoring app (I use RealTemp) and keep an eye on things if you think you're having heat issues. Running your CPU at 100% indefinitely can significantly shorten your CPU's lifetime if it's always on the verge of overheating - make sure you give adequate consideration to cooling. Keeping your case clean is an easy preventive measure and usually all that's necessary for an off-the-shelf prebuilt computer.

Be careful with that shop vac on the vacuum side! They can create static electricity and short things out. I use either canned air or a small electric air compressor I bought on sale.