[mythtv-users] CPU temperature while playing video files

[Daniel Kristjansson]

On Mon, 2010-02-22 at 20:17 +0000, 1.41421 at gmail.com wrote:
> My MythTV box consists of a Pentium 4 at 3GHz. My daughter is the main
> user of this box, playing things like Strawberry Shortcake,
> Backyardigans, etc. for hours. I noticed that in those cases the CPU
> temperature climbs to 75C. Is this what is to be expected from the
> kind of activity that MythTV induces in processors, or might this
> temperature be a bit too high?

Broadcast HDTV @ 1080i will run a P4 at 3Ghz at full throttle unless
you are using some kind of hardware decoding, but that temp is
too high.

At 75 C it is probably already stopping itself part of each second
in order not to exceed that temperature. Open the case and remove
all the built up crud with one of those can of air thingies and a
vacuum. Also make sure the heat sink is well affixed to the CPU.
Sometimes one of the four feet pops out of the motherboard, and
sometimes one of the feet just breaks. If one of the plastic feet
is broken, well _maybe_ they still carry those at newegg.

You want the temperature to be down around 60 C or less, but if you
only achieve 69.2 C on a 86 Watt P4 in 2010 it just means the CPU may
not outlast the other components.

-- Daniel