i7 3610QM/GTX 660m running hot at idle

[apav]

Hey guys,

Just something I noticed recently when I was downloading a game from steam. The fan was on full blast and a lot of heat was coming out, but I found that strange since all I was doing was downloading!

So I noticed in HWMonitor that when idle (browsing the web, or just sitting on the desktop) my cpu cores are ranging in the mid 60's to the mid-high 70's!! And I'm using a U3 notebook cooler and the fans are positioned right!!

The interesting thing is while under full load, it's not that much higher. I am constantly in the 70's when gaming, but never break 80C.

GPU temps are pretty much the same. 60's during idle, 70's during gaming.

My system:
i7 3610qm 2.3GHz
GTX 660m
8GB Ram
Windows 7 Ultimate

What's going on? Thank you!

Edit: Just noticed the culprit. Nvidia GPU is running at 99% load all the time, even at idle. That's really strange. Any idea why this is or how to fix it?

[mattcheau]

the good news is that your temps are nowhere near dangerously hot and they never break 80C. the not-so-good news is that that's definitely warm. what machine do you have? stock thermal grease pasted by factory? what's your ambient temp? my np9150 idles at 38-48C and is more like ~60s while gaming or under heavy load. i would guess that a thorough cleaning (depending on how old and dusty the machine is) and a repaste should bring those temps down.


_____
EDIT: ninja'd by OP. this now appears to be a GPU issue.

[apav]

My laptop is a Lenovo Y580. Got it in August.

I live in SoCal, so my room can get warm. But it's next to a window, and has the U3 cooling it and a desk fan blowing air from the window towards it.

Might consider a repaste, but now that I've figured out the reason of why it's so hot at idle (99% nvidia gpu usage all the time), if I can fix that I may not need to.

Any idea why it's at 99% load all the time? In the control panel the global setting is auto select, and the nvidia's power management is adaptive.

Okay this is really strange. Now my games are getting poor fps where they were fine before. (and gpu load still at 99%).

[mattcheau]

repaste shouldn't be necessary. you've definitely discovered the issue. what drivers are you running? maybe try uninstalling and reinstalling, rolling back to WHQL if you're currently running beta, use the notification area icon to see what program/s are using the dGPU. it would seem as though you've got optimus problems.

[apav]

Yea I fear I'm running on integrated for all my games, even though I had my program settings still making it use my nvidia gpu. I just downloaded the 310.61 drivers which was supposed to be better for Hitman Absolution. I'll delete everything (including optimus settings) and try again.

If that doesn't work (still 99% load and optimus issues) should I roll back the the older beta 310.54 or WHQL?

[mattcheau]

all of the above. on the other hand if you've uninstalled/reinstalled three different driver sets and the issue persists, then it's looking less like a GPU driver issue. some screenshots might help (where you're looking at GPU utilization, task manager, etc.).

[apav]

Figured out the issue, see post below.

[apav]

So I figured out the issue.

There were some .exe files in a folder called Windows in My Documents. Some of them were dllupdate.exe and eclipse.exe, as well as a few programs that started with "win."

When I started windows and got the desktop, every time dllupdate (and sometimes eclipse.exe) asked my permission to launch. The verified publisher was unkown but when I clicked more details there was something about a hotmail address in there. I don't think these were a virus (scanned with Microsoft Security Essentials and no threats detected) but I think they had something to do with MSE since it would say I wasn't protected until I clicked yes on these programs.

So I booted up into safe mode, deleted the folder, rebooted, and cpu usage was low and I get normal fps in games. Also, no more 99% gpu usage at idle and temps are in the 40's C with my CPU and GPU!

Only problem though is when I start up it recreated the folder with only one .exe in it, but it doesn't ask me to launch or show up as processes in task manager. I have no idea what that was but hopefully problem solved?

[mattcheau]

i think so, at least for the time being. good deal. interesting/relevant first result if you google 'eclipse.exe.' i wonder why that would have been utilizing the GPU though. you're now that much closer to a windows reinstall.

[apav]

i think so, at least for the time being. good deal. interesting/relevant first result if you google 'eclipse.exe.' i wonder why that would have been utilizing the GPU though. you're now that much closer to a windows reinstall.

Yay.. going to reboot and see if it comes back, if it does I'll uninstall MSE and get another security software.