Overheating in CS 1.6
25/04/2017 22:19I have a fairly good laptop, i7-4710hq / gtx 850m and it works fine with any of the latest games, but it can't handle good old cs 1.6 since a while ago. First i thought my win 7 got messed up so i reinstalled win 10 but the problem still happens.
Basically after a while of playing the fan goes all the way up, temps go over 85C and the laptop shuts down. It happens on both integrated Intel GPU and Nvidia, so i think that the CPU is responsible, but in task manager history it doesn't even reach half CPU usage while i play cs...
Any ideea what can I do to fix this?
Is it only in CS? If it overheats in other CPU demanding games it might be the thermal paste. Also I'd check for malware.
25/04/2017 23:12I already said it happens only in cs... other much more demanding games are fine. Malware i don't think it is because it's a fresh windows install...
26/04/2017 12:50I did a Prime95 test today, no restart with this one, ran it for about 30 min, max temp was 90C, which is fine for a laptop since the max temp is 100C or 105C.
Don't know what else to do...
Back when I had a pentium 4, the cooler was loud while playing games. The only solution that I found to it, was a cpu throttle application that limits the amount of power the CPU will use. Also maybe you can decrease the cpu clock ratio from bios. Counter-Strike doesn't need many MHz to run at 100 fps.
26/04/2017 21:41I set "Maximum processor state" in Power Options to 90% and it seems to do the trick. Tried also a program called BES that limits the processor power only on specific programs, but with that one i got massive stutters in game.
"[...]but it can't handle good old cs 1.6 since a while ago." - you mean that at some point before this, same laptop was running well the game without overheating/restarting?
if yes - have you installed any newer drivers(gpu,cpu) between "running good" and "got ruined" stages? if so then you should try some older drivers and see if there is any difference.
try clean reinstall of cs(do not add addons, cfgs, parameters etc.) and see if problem persists.
if you have other goldsource engine game in steam library(like hl1) try playing that and see if the same issue appears; that would (90%) indicate that the problem you are having is a driver issue(probably a gameengine incompatibility).
you can try what darkside said but since cs became "overdemanding" on your laptop it will probably run with stuttering(i'm really curious about this (: ).
oh, i posted a bit too late :)
so what about trying with older drivers?
26/04/2017 23:01@ cahz0r
It kind of does this since i got the laptop, but it rarely happened before and didn't gave it much thought, maybe because i didn't played cs that much until a few months ago..
I don't think is driver issue, CPU has no driver, and GPU doesn't break a sweat when i play cs.
I have hl1, gonna install it tomorrow and see if it's the same...
My guess is this new i7 CPUs are not very compatible/optimized with old games like cs 1.6
Anyway played like 1h 30m now with 90% cpu power and max temp was 67C, and the fan was very quiet the whole time.
27/04/2017 16:33If you want to look further into this issue then I have couple thoughts and suggestions for you.
First of all most overheating issues in laptops are indeed caused by cpu, i7 47xx however should not have such issues with cs1.6, but there may be some system or game configuration that causes cpu stress. Also it is enough to overload a single cpu core to overheat it all, so it doesn't have to reach even 25% load sometimes. I would suggest testing other games (not just benchmarks), updating drivers and verifying game cache (backup liblist.gam and custom gui if any). Running vanilla cs without addons and gui also may narrow it down.
From a physical perspective overheating is often caused by dust between fan and heatsink, Usually it is easily accessible by just removing bottom lid and can be cleaned using vacuum cleaner without removing fan/heatsink.
Another important aspect is overall ventilation design in a laptop, cheaper and older ones may not be constructed to withstand constant workloads. This is commonly solved (or just improved) by elevating laptop about half an inch from the surface or using cooling pads.
I have fixed a number of laptops, so thats the general tips to ease or avoid overheating from my experience. Since capping cpu worked for you, then I'm afraid its more likely to do with cpu profiling in windows or system incompatibilities as the main reason of cpu stress (haven't used Windows in a long while so can't be more detailed, could be drivers, could be some system cpu profile settings etc.). However it seems your laptop is also prone to an easier physical overheating as well, if it reaches such high temperatures easily.
28/04/2017 18:12Thanks for the suggestions, i'll do them if I have the time and motivation, for now it works quite well with cpu set to 90%, and in other games it works fine.
And since max cpu temp for laptops are around 100-105C, 85C is quite fine for a laptop unde load...
Press alt-control-delete
"Show all tasks"
Close down the one that is over a million. I cant remember the name of the task, but there will be like 8-9 with same name. Try it 10 minutes after you opened your computer, because they take a while to "start".
(You might have to close it twice, every time you want to play)
I'll write if I remember the name of the task.
This only works if you are over 70 % CPU usage after 10-15 minutes of uptime.
The name of these tasks are called
"svchosts.exe"
Find the one that is using 60 % of your CPU and just close it. (You'll have to do it once or twice every time you restart your PC.)
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