I will agree with some guys here, is is a little unnatural for a program to drive the CPU crazy like that and overheat it, especially if it doesnt strain the CPU with complex istructions (like 3d calculations) which I suppose encore does not have.

You said about monitoring temperature. Is these measurements provided by a little program supplied by the motherboard manufacturer and usually residing in the system tray? (usually lower right corner, along with the system clock etc).

Phil is right, sometimes these programs do not behave well. So there is a fair chance this program does not behave well.

BUT, On the other hand:

1) DO NOT oil anything, and certainly NOT with oil. The fat substance that Jose describes is silicone based lubricant, but better to change a suspect fan than to oil it and have it fail later, and take the cpu to the grave with it.

2) Do NOT ADD thermal compound "grease". The LESS you have, the better. This stuff is there so it fills up tiny scratches or not perfectly milled surfaces so the contact between 2 surfaces (CPU and heatsink) is more even. If you add more, it will actually have the reverse effect and act as an insulator, PREVENTING heat from transferring from the CPU to the heatsink. If anything I would recommend chacking if you have more than needed and scrape away some!!!

Best thing is to buy compressed air, and spray it inside the PC trying to wipe off some of the dust. Don't overdo it. A little dust is no problem at all. To be honest, this will only make you feel better, not the PC, IMHO.

If you don't know what you are doing, better have someone do it for you, because even removing and reinstalling the heatsink may break the CPU, depending on the model.

That said, It seems like a software problem to me. If the temp goes to the "red zone" and does not return to normal quickly, you can push it to the red, and quickly restart and enter the BIOS and check tha BIOS temp. If it is normal (40-50) you are ok. If it is still high, reistall encore and see if it solves it. Maybe encore is not behaving very well and causes problems with that particular program. Along with patching encore, try to find an updated version of the motherboard monitor utility.

I hope it helps a little.

PS, as for fans, the less you have (with no heating problems of course) the better....you are a musician, you want to avoid noise, right?

[This message has been edited by trident (edited 06-02-2005).]

Well, I have my doubts in this point because you said that Encore is a notator software. I know that Cakewalk is a studio software so, for me it seems to be locical that they are NOT using the same interfaces/routines. I didn't mean anything like USB, midi or other hardware interfaces - I was talking about software interfaces.

Those interfaces are also known as drivers (for example .dll files in Windows), modules or subroutines. They are coming with the OS or in many cases with the software developers of the many programs on market. These drivers provide the ability that a program can communicate with the hardware. And the CPU is a part of the hardware.

There will be another possibility: You could have a virus on your system which is linked to this program. I don't know if anyone remembers the link viruses in earlier days.

Like others said here it's really unusual for a notator program to use so much CPU power. Informing the developers is a really good idea because those reflections will give them the chance to solve the problem IF IT WAS created by them.

...et cetero censeo, microsoftem esse delendam...

[This message has been edited by Sheriff (edited 06-02-2005).]

Hey Chico,

And you're sure it's the encore.exe process that's eating up the CPU and not something else (like your virus program goin' bonkers whenever you start Encore)?

You start Encore, start Task Manager (it'll come to the foreground, it always does), click on the Processes tab at the top, you should see some columns with boxes at the top. Click on the CPU box that tells the display to sort by the process using the most CPUs and what percentage it's using.

Do you see Encore.exe at the top of the list (or something else)?

I just downloaded a demo version of 4.5 here at work on a W2K Pro workstation. It's fine, no CPU hogging. You can try to patch your current version, do a uninstall / reinstall, or try to contact Encore's tech support department (maybe all of the above).

You gotta a weird one here!

-mike

Hi Chico.

Strangely, with Encore open (with the anti-virus program disabled), my CPU usage goes to 100% and the temperature have a increase of 15ºC, very close to the acceptable value of CPU temperature.
This problem only happens with Encore!!!
I´m still investigating what is the problem with this specific program.

Abraços.
Armando

Hmm, that reminds me on earlier years...
The old PC systems of the 80's with Intel's 80286 CPU had a similar problem. There were viruses that caused a calculation cycle inside the CPU. So, the CPU overheated and died. I've thought that modern Intel CPUs can't do so anymore but that might could be an error...

Oh, by the way, I've never heard about a Motorola CPU which died in the same way...

Maybe one of the communication pathes between operating system and notator program isn't working. Such things can cause a flood of requestion commands.
But that's true speculation. Better write to the developers!
If this problem didn't appear in any FAQs then it's definively a new one. Also, you can downgrade to an older version of Encore with which you are sure.

At this moment I have no more ideas. Good luck, Chico!
Danny

Hi Brothers

Some news about the problem.

The high temperature and great amount of CPU usage just occurs with Encore running.
My old PC (Pentium3/800MHz) has the same problem, never detected because the machine do not have system alert for overheat.
I made some experiences with this results :
CPU temperature running Encore: 67°C
CPU usage:70%.
So, the problem is Encore software.
I tryed unistall and install once more the software without success.
Tomorrow I will have a different edition of Encore with other serial number and I will try.

Cheers
Chico

Good luck Chico

Hi,

(Re)Installing softwares doesn't change anything.

Load the charge CPU like this :

Use a software (cakewalk) where you can put a lot of audio tracks with a lot of fx. (use huge fx like reverbs).

In the main time, if you have an Internet connexion, do some download file, about 3 or 4.

Does the same thing occure ?

Hello Brothers.

The problem is solved.
I installed another version of Encore software that is perfect.
Now, running Encore , CPU usage is 2% and temperature below 100°F.
I want to thank each member that was involved with my problem.
This is SZone
Cheers
Chico

Thats very interesting that re-installing the program would change the temp so drastically. Well im glad your problem is solved, and it didnt cost ya nuttin!

Phil