Why would one user account run hotter (cpu temp) than another? (Windows 7)

I’ve written about my laptop’s heating issues before.

I have checked for dust etc.

The account I usually use idles high, but not so high that it’s dangerous. This other user account, however, idles about thirteen degrees higher, and if I do much of anything, the temperature zooms way up to dangerous levels over the course of about fifteen minutes.

I have checked the startup processes on both accounts, and they’re the same. The process and service list on both accounts is identical. Any idea why one would cause the cpu to be generally much hotter than the other?

There’s nothing important about the existence of the hot account. I could just copy the “documents” and “downloads” folders to my other account and get rid of this one. But I’m a curious sort and I’d really like to know why one would run hotter than the other.

13 degrees higher is pretty significant - if your startup programs are all the same, then there may be some setting that is different in one account.

Does this other account run the Windows Aero interface, and your main account the basic interface? This might tax the GPU enough to generate that much heat.

Go to Power Options in each account and check if both have the same profile. Also check Advanced Power Settings, especially Minimum and Maximum Processor State.

They’re both running Aero.

Have you run a virus/malware scan?
Some malware/rootkits can hide from being listed with other processes.

One setting was different: Under the ATI Power Management section of hte advanced settings, the non-hot account said “maximize battery life” while the hot account said “maximize performance.”

I’ll change that and see if it makes a difference.

I use this notebook as a hybrid work/game computer–in other words, it’s specced for gaming, but not necessarily to max out all graphics options. So for example I play Skyrim, but with settings mostly on medium, in a window smaller than the full screen. I’m okay with turning down the performance a little if it will stop the overheating.

I am really thinking about taking this in somewhere to get it professionally cleaned and maybe have the various cooling elements inspected. It will cost some money, but I honestly can not imagine myself, in the house I live in especially (kids running around, a pet, etc), fiddling witht he dozens of screws involved in really opening the thing up.

With computers I usually think that once it starts crashing often, it’s more cost effective to just buy a new one. (This one doesn’t crash often, but very occasionally, and with the heating issues and the firewall problems described in a previous post I’m starting to feel it sliding over into the chunk-it category.)

But I really don’t want to spend $1200 on another “hybrid” notebook. Throw in the fact that my wife is starting to get into gaming lately, and I might have to buy two…

So a repair place may be the place to go this time…

Yes, I ran both Malwarebytes Antimalware and Windows Security Essentials. Both came up clean–however, I do have something hiding on my computer somewhere. MSE and MBAM both catch it every other day or so trying to start some shit with my computer. (I know it’s on my computer and not coming in from outside because Comodo firewall is not reporting anything.)*

But this affects both accounts, so I am not sure it accounts for the difference.

*I’ve done everything I can, based on various guides on the internet, to locate and get rid of this thing manually, but to no avail. It always pops back up after a couple days. But it never seems to actually be able to do anything, and I’m firewalled and doubly protected against malware execution so I feel okay. I do worry about the fact that I do my home banking on this computer. But… the firewall would keep a keylogger from getting info out, wouldn’t it?

Some laptops will simply run hot, especially a high end one geared towards gaming and there’s nothing you can do about it.

As long as the temps are not high enough to freeze the computer then you shouldn’t really give too much thought about it.

Also running games in windowed mode is worse than full screen mode CPU load wise.

Sure, but as the OP indicates, the mystery is why one account runs hotter than the other.

As indicated later in the thread, as well, the computer does occasionally freeze due to overheating issues.

Ha, I didn’t know that! Gamers in general (from what I read) seem to think otherwise…

That might very well make a lot of difference, particularly on modern processors which support CPU throttling (AMD Cool 'n Quiet, Intel SpeedStep, etc). What those mechanisms do is run the processor at a lower clock speed when idle, to conserve power / reduce heat. Whether or not the feature is activated is controlled by the power management settings - “maximize performance” means it’s shut off, and the CPU is at full speed all the time.

ETA:

Actually, the choices in that panel correspond to profiles that you can edit. Whether or not the throttling is turned on is one of the things you can change. The settings provided for “maximize performance” will likely have it shut off.

That’s because it’s only true in a technical sense. If you run both at the same resolution, then, yes, it’s true, AFAIK*. But the main reason for running a game in a window is to be able to lower the resolution without the game looking like crap. This very often offsets the slowdown of running something in an overlay instead of fullscreen.

*It’s possible that modern graphics cards have eliminated the difference, or that modern games work around the limitation somehow. I’m more of a retro gamer, so I don’t use the more modern stuff.

The difference is that if you run the game in full-screen mode, your GPU can swap-out all the various textures Aero uses to composite the desktop image together. The GPU memory manager is actually pretty smart. Whether or not this increase performance depends on whether the game tries to load more textures than your GPU has space for, but generally it’ll give you a small boost.

Of course, this only applies if you only have one monitor and the game isn’t smart enough to blank-out the second monitor. If you have two monitors (like I do), then you gain nothing for the vast, vast majority of games. I usually run them in windowed mode (or full-screen windowed mode, like some newer games offer) to make it easier to change my music or answer an IM or what-not.