I just started to notice that the CPU in my main desktop machine was grossly underperforming, despite BIOS tools telling me it was running at nominal speed. It’s a (now old) Pentium 4 3.0 GHz HT single core which has been fine for what I need up to now, but lately I’ve been getting massive frame-rate problems with MS Flight Sim 9.
I should get around 20 FPS (I’m using some really detailed sceneries and aircraft) but it was topping out (!) at around 4. This is unplayable.
In the BIOS I found an option entitled “CPU Internal Temperature Control”, which apparently means that if the chip gets hot, it internally idles to prevent overheating. This occurs while the FSB and the internal clock gen operate at the same frequency (according to Gabriel Topola’s excellent SIW – System Information for Windows.)
I turned that off and started Flight Sim. Temperature shot up to 98°C (the last time I was able to check it) then the machine shut down – it didn’t halt, or hang, it turned off – completely.
Spring cleaning time. I took the CPU fan off, took the CPU out of its ZIF socket and cleaned all the thermal paste off both parts. The paste had totally broken down. I blew out the CPU fan (outside) and a very large quantity of dust came out. New paste, replace the fan assembly and voila – 20 FPS and the temp tops out at 55°C.
If you use Eclipse with lots of plugins, eventually you might get into a situation where the Software Updates ‘feature’ doesn’t work any more. It will find updates okay, but when you come to install them, you’ll get a message which reads something like “No repository could be found containing bundle…”. I think I’ve solved this problem.
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A programmer realised he had a problem which could be solved using threads.
Now he has two problems.
This isn’t going to be an anti-thread post, but I do want to sound a few words of caution about threads, and, specifically, synchronizers and monitors, and the order in which you acquire them.
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As the omnipotent Landon‘s already spotted, I switched over the DNS last night and barring any propagation errors, the site is effectively live. I’ve moved over all of the music too, and I’ll be keeping a keen eye on the bandwidth-o-meter to make sure I don’t get a nasty surprise when my ISP bills me ;-)
Hello everybody, welcome to the blog. Before we get cracking, let me establish what I’m doing here: technology, software engineering and music.
I want to post about technology, software engineering and the SE process. I work extensively in Java so you can expect a fair percentage of posts to pertain to that. That’s my day job. I’ll also be posting about music, in particular percussion and my collected knowledge in that field. I also write music so there will occasionally be plugs for that too.
Think of it as a Yin/Yang balance thing.
Comments will be initially open while I see how that pans out. Please feel free to comment and send mail – the address is in the footer.
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