How Should Prime95 Behave on a W510?

[don820]

I saw on another thread this week a suggestion to use Prime95 for testing the CPU/Heat response.  I've never heard that before, so I gave it a whirl.

I'm now perplexed at the results.  Running Prime95 and a HW Monitor (I use CPUID) gives the following results:

 - My CPU heats up about 1 degree every 30 seconds until it hits 97 Degrees

 - The computer then starts acting really choppy and slow, but the temperature drops down to 60

 - The only way to get the computer the behave at "full speed" again is to pull the power supply and reattach it

Basically, my worst fears are confirmed.  I can't run my CPU at 100%, or it will eventually overheat and the BIOS steps in and brutally throttles my performance in retaliation.

Am I missing something?  Shouldn't a computer be able to run at 100% CPU indefinitely?

[hazart]

unclewebb has developed a great program called ThrottleStop for monitoring and tweaking CPU throttling. You can get the latest version here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/452692-acer-throttlestop-thread.html . Before using it, make sure you read ThrottleStopDocs.html that comes along with the program.

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

this is your bios thermal management cutting in to prevent the CPU going into a meltdown. This never use to happen with Lenovo Thinkpads, as they always keep the temperature in check. I am not sure if this is a problem with thermal system design or the thermal management is keeping the fan running too slow.

Try the latest version of the TPfancontrol and run the fan at level 7 and then run the Prime95 test, and see whether that prevents the cpu from overheating and throttling back. 

[jketzetera]

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Basically, my worst fears are confirmed.  I can't run my CPU at 100%, or it will eventually overheat and the BIOS steps in and brutally throttles my performance in retaliation.

Am I missing something?  Shouldn't a computer be able to run at 100% CPU indefinitely?

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What CPU does your W510 feature?