Folding program is ignoring my idle cpu...

[tallpall]

Hello...new user/donator here. I have a new HP Envy win 8.1 laptop with a whippy intel i7 4700MQ processor. Figured I wasn't working this enough playing spider solitaire and checking emails, so Downloaded the Fold program yesterday and ran my first work unit.
Being a new laptop and not ready to come even close to breaking it, was concerned to see (with use of the Open Hardware Monitor program mentioned in a prior post) that the core temps were being stepped up with increased speed and frequently hitting 99C. (People around me notice the increased fan noise.) That's pushing the limits too close from my standpoint. I have the slider at minimum. Haven't played with the cpu slot number as I do not understand what I'm doing.
So, being an old mainframe tech and familiar with the idea of prioritizing programs so that some got more processor time than others, switched to "run only when idle" button, thinking that ....OK, the proc is idle, so some work from the WU will slip in here and get processed.
Well, apparently it does not. Just sits there. The program never wakes up to the fact that there is plenty idle time (the four cores averaging 1%). Even let it sit overnight with all other programs closed...and no progress was made on my second work unit (the first, even with me playing around with it some, got done in about four hours).
So, I'd feel more comfortable seeing the temps stay below 80C. From what I've read on the forum so far this is going to be difficult considering the inherent quirks of processor engineering and program design.
But did I miss some adjustment? Or something to wake the program up when it waits for idle?

[bruce]

Welcome to foldingforum.org,. tallpall

Your screensaver (if you have one) runs only when the system is idle -- and in this context, it means keyboard/mouse idle, not processor idle. You'll never see it activate because your screen will normally be blanked. Let it run overnight and see if any progress has been made.

[P5-133XL]

Folding uses a very low priority, so when it is running it is effectively only using idle CPU cycles, since almost everything else has a higher priority. Clicking the run only when idle, means fold only when the display powers down or there is a screen-saver actively running.

If you want to limit the CPU temp or the fan speed, try manually changing the number of threads (CPU cores) used from 1-4 and monitor temps and fan noise till you have the setting that you feel comfortable with. The power bar/setting also works but it limits the number of choices you have. There are several free 3rd party applications that you can find using Google to get convenient real-time temp/fan monitoring in the systray. You can monitor how much CPU is used by using the Windows task manager.

You force change the number of threads used by folding with the advanced control then clicking configure and going to the slots tab then double-clicking the CPU slot.

[tallpall]

OK, your explanation of the cpu threads made sense. I was confused by the -1 but now see what it means.
Chging this to "1" kicks all four cores into action, some greatly differing at times but none seem to exceed 52%. The average CPU is 18%. The core temps don't exceed 77C averaging 75C. I may experiment with "2" here shortly.
This is what I was looking for and thank both of you gentlemen for your help!

[PantherX]

Since you are folding on the laptop, you could try raising the back of the laptop by a few centimeters (bottle caps works perfectly for this) to increase the air flow and help lower the temperature. You can also ensure that the air vents aren't being blocked and that the fans are clean. If you laptop is stationary for most of the time, you could consider removing the back panel of the laptop, if possible, since it can provide a significant reduction in the temperature.

Do note that if your laptop usage pattern is such that you can't meet the Deadline, you could try the Chrome Folding App (viewtopic.php?f=95&t=26171) which is currently in Open Public Beta.

[Rel25917]

I would give the Chrome app a try for a laptop. Unlike the current cores used with versions 6 and 7 of FAH that cannot throttle their usage except by using more or less cores the chrome app will run on all threads/core of a processor and will throttle all threads down to about 60% on medium or 30% on low. This has much greater control over the temp than using less cores from what I've seen on my laptops. I have a gaming laptop with that same processor and run the chrome app on medium while gaming, works great.

[tallpall]

I am bowing out of this. My laptop is not made for this sort of "crunch these numbers continually" while whipping up the processor speeds that drive the fan onward and upward trying to cool the parts.
My laptop, this is my plaything. Don't want to look forward to using dental tools to dig debris out of the legs of chips on what boards I can see when the backside of this is opened...blown there because of the overactive fan. And looking at stats on this board, I can see my possibly one unit a day is not that effective.
I'll leave it to you guys with 499 processors. You can probably keep those cleaner than I could mine.

[P5-133XL]

NP. Not all laptops have suitable cooling for folding.

[jason403]

Definitely recommend Chrome App. On my laptops, the Chrome NaCl client outputs 2x the points of the desktop client.