Windows 7: New laptop periods of high heat

I just bought a remanufactured Dell D630 laptop with Windows 7 home 64.

I’m using this computer solely for audio recording and it seems to run fine on Windows 7. I choose this computer because my audio interface is an Echo Mona and requires a pcmcia slot, no brand new computers have it and adapters have a high rate of failure.

When I’m recording I only have Vegas 9.0, Echo sound panel and Speed fan for temp monitoring running. Most of the time the CPU anywhere from 5 to 18% and a 46c temp. About every 10-15 min the CPU usage jumps up as high as 60% and temps as high as 80c in a min or 2 it drops back down to the mid 40s.

I turned off the wifi and nothing else is running. Windows 7 must be doing something for a short period of time causing these jumps in CPU usage. I used to have some links to things you can turn of in XP that are not needed for audio recording.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to set up Windows 7 for audio recording?

I never monitored the temps in my laptops before but have determined that laptops can run 20 30 deg hotter than a desktop. My desktops run BD rebuilder and all cores are maxed at 100% and never gets above 60c.

Is it sitting on a flat surface?
If you're not moving it much, I suggest you invest in a laptop stand.
I use one of these:
NotePal ErgoStand Basic - Cooler Master
Which is amazing, I can play intense games and not experience any issues, whereas previously it would overheat even just being idle on a flat surface. I don't even use the fan component, just having it elevated with the mesh backing gives great airflow.

Please change your print to white.

+1 to the cooler pad.
Given the laptop has just been reburbished I would hope inlet/outlet air slots are clean.
You don't appear to be doing CPU intensive tasks. I'm not a Speed Fan user but I wonder if it is performing some fan control??
You could try disabling speedfan and try some these popular temp monitoring problems:
Core Temp
Download Real Temp 3.70 | techPowerUp
http://openhardwaremonitor.org/
Then see if you observe the same temperature cycling.

I like Open Hardware Monitor since it monitors more system parameters.

Thanks mjf yea speed fan is a free app that can be used to control fan speed but I just used if for hardware monitoring. I will try your links later.

Google is my friend again. I found this link and it helped. http://www.focusrite.com/answerbase/en/article.php?id=1071

After setting it up this way the CPU never goes above 10% but generally is less 2% heat is constant around 49-50 this is recording 2 channels at 24bit/96 kHz.

As always I spoke to soon. About 45 minutes into a needle drop both cores jumped to 100% and the temps got into the 80s I got a screenshot. I stopped recording and closed everything.
WinSat.exe was 49 % I closed it and the CPU dropped to near 0% instantly. I don’t know it’s purpose but if it puts that much stress I hope I don’t need it.

Hi Datman,

'Winsat.exe' is a 'System Assessment Tool' in Windows and it runs a series of tests to rate your computer on a scale ranging from 1 to 5. It rates several subsets of your computer system including processor, memory, primary hard disk and graphics. If 'Winsat.exe' continues to consume majority of the system resources, you may 'disable' this task and change its 'triggers'.

To 'disable' a task that takes up high resources, you may follow these steps:
- Open 'Control Panel' > 'Administrative Tools' > Double click 'Task Scheduler' > Browse to Microsoft\Windows\Maintenance; and 'Disable WinSAT'
- Right click and 'disable WinSAT' task in 'task scheduler'
- You may also change its triggers; you may find the following 'web article' useful: Change an Existing Task
You may also refer to the images attached.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Saurabh A that's good to know. It looked as if it remained disabled after I closed it in task manager.

mjf I find it interesting how all 3 programs have different numbers. There must be a +/- 5deg error in any of them.

If I can get it to stay in the low 50s I will be happy.

Hope I'm not speaking to soon again but it looks like I got it. I'm doing a mock multi channel session. 12 channels at 24bit 48 kHz. Mid 60s and rarely above 25% CPU usage. I'm 55 minutes into it. i think I can go like this till I run out of HDD space.
I have a box I built with a fan and exhaust ports for club recording that will bring it down into the 50s.
I greatly appreciate everyone’s responses.

Hi Datman,

Glad that 'Winsat.exe' stays disabled; and the applications are now resulting into a nominal 'CPU usage' and an acceptable 'temperature' level. Thank you for confirming.

Do reply if you have any further questions; would be glad to assist.