Question

[NeoCloudstrife]

OK, i finally Fixed up my speed issues. PCSX2 will now run at a very nice 60+ Fps with the games i use, which is more than good. however, it will only run like this for about 20 seconds, at which point it seems to Half its performance, and i only get about 30FPS. i'm thinking this might be because It just stops using one of the CPU's for some reason, since i'm dual core. can anyone think of an explanation/fix for this?

[cottonvibes]

yeah you might have some power-saving or temp-monitoring CPU options on in your BIOS.
they basically underclock your CPU when it gets too hot (which would explain why speed decreases after 20 seconds of playing).

[NeoCloudstrife]

yeah you might have some power-saving or temp-monitoring CPU options on in your BIOS.
they basically underclock your CPU when it gets too hot (which would explain why speed decreases after 20 seconds of playing).

Right, thanks, well the heat would definately explain it, since it is very hot right now. but my Bios is VERY uneditable. i can just about change the time and date :/ i dont think i'll be able to turn off this temperature monitoring thing, which is fair enough, i suppose, being a laptop and all. well thanks a lot. so i guess i just shouldnt run PCSX2 when the laptop's hot?

[LuisR14]

you could buy a 3rd-party laptop cooler out there.

[cottonvibes]

Right, thanks, well the heat would definately explain it, since it is very hot right now. but my Bios is VERY uneditable. i can just about change the time and date :/ i dont think i'll be able to turn off this temperature monitoring thing, which is fair enough, i suppose, being a laptop and all. well thanks a lot. so i guess i just shouldnt run PCSX2 when the laptop's hot?

well just to be sure that's the real problem, try running a temp+cpu monitoring program like pc wizard.
http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

monitor your CPU speed before starting pcsx2, then run the game and keep an eye on your cpu speed + temps.
if the cpu speed gets slower after playing the game for a while, then you 'do' have some bios option to lower your cpu speed when temps are too high.

as LuisR14 mentioned, a laptop cooler *might* work for you. but theres also the possibility that your cpu will still get too-hot even with a laptop cooler ><

[redlof]

Laptop coolers don't make a big difference, if the basic internal cooling solution of the laptop is itself not meant to handle high temperatures. I've seen this on a Compaq CQ60 laptop which heated up so much that it wouldn't even run old PC games at decent playable speeds.

and @NeoCloudstrife your signature image is too big, reduce the dimensions before you get a warning

[Syberproxy]

This might help get your laptop cooler.

I dont know if your games use more than 50% of your CPU performance all the time but if it does not use it always you can set a different power option and set the maximum CPU speed to about 75% or even lower if you want. this way your CPU will only use 3/4 of its speed making your(while still giving you full speed in games) laptop cooler.

I use this when I play games in my laptop to save energy and make my laptop cooler.

[NeoCloudstrife]

This might help get your laptop cooler.

I dont know if your games use more than 50% of your CPU performance all the time but if it does not use it always you can set a different power option and set the maximum CPU speed to about 75% or even lower if you want. this way your CPU will only use 3/4 of its speed making your(while still giving you full speed in games) laptop cooler.

I use this when I play games in my laptop to save energy and make my laptop cooler.

thanks, that's a great idea! yeah i let it cool down and i got about 30 minutes from it, and then it did the same thing. but it was performing higher than i expected it to. only problem is, i can only set the CPU speed to "Very low" "High" or "Maximum". "High" will run it at a slightly slower speed than what i want. "Maximum" causes this overheating problem.
is there some sort of special configuration in vista that i can change a power setting to use exactly what percentage of CPU power i want it to use?

oh, and sorry about the signature thing! i deleted it

[echosierra]

This might help get your laptop cooler.

I dont know if your games use more than 50% of your CPU performance all the time but if it does not use it always you can set a different power option and set the maximum CPU speed to about 75% or even lower if you want. this way your CPU will only use 3/4 of its speed making your(while still giving you full speed in games) laptop cooler.

I use this when I play games in my laptop to save energy and make my laptop cooler.

thanks, that's a great idea! yeah i let it cool down and i got about 30 minutes from it, and then it did the same thing. but it was performing higher than i expected it to. only problem is, i can only set the CPU speed to "Very low" "High" or "Maximum". "High" will run it at a slightly slower speed than what i want. "Maximum" causes this overheating problem.
is there some sort of special configuration in vista that i can change a power setting to use exactly what percentage of CPU power i want it to use?

oh, and sorry about the signature thing! i deleted it

I believe so. I don't have time to turn on my laptop right now, but IIRC you right-click on the battery indicator and can get into the Power Options.

I vaguely remember an advanced option buried deep down that let you specify what percentage of the CPU's speed to use while plugged in or on battery. Will be more specific when I get the time.

[NeoCloudstrife]

This might help get your laptop cooler.

I dont know if your games use more than 50% of your CPU performance all the time but if it does not use it always you can set a different power option and set the maximum CPU speed to about 75% or even lower if you want. this way your CPU will only use 3/4 of its speed making your(while still giving you full speed in games) laptop cooler.

I use this when I play games in my laptop to save energy and make my laptop cooler.

thanks, that's a great idea! yeah i let it cool down and i got about 30 minutes from it, and then it did the same thing. but it was performing higher than i expected it to. only problem is, i can only set the CPU speed to "Very low" "High" or "Maximum". "High" will run it at a slightly slower speed than what i want. "Maximum" causes this overheating problem.
is there some sort of special configuration in vista that i can change a power setting to use exactly what percentage of CPU power i want it to use?

oh, and sorry about the signature thing! i deleted it

I believe so. I don't have time to turn on my laptop right now, but IIRC you right-click on the battery indicator and can get into the Power Options.

I vaguely remember an advanced option buried deep down that let you specify what percentage of the CPU's speed to use while plugged in or on battery. Will be more specific when I get the time.

Dont worry about it, i think i've found it!
yes, i can change the percentage in the advanced power options. thank you! it seems i can get roughly the speed i want at about 80% CPU power... so does this mean my CPU won't overheat now?