keeping CPU usage low

[Charles Swiger]

On Sep 15, 2005, at 11:36 AM, Atis wrote:
> Is there a way to make the kernel HALT the CPU regularly even
> when it has got runnable processes? Sort of like increasing the idle
> thread priority?
>
> The problem is with one my computers which has a buggy CPU. No
> matter how many or how powerful fans I install, when there's
> a CPU usage of 100% for over ~5 minutes it just overheats
> and crashes the system.

If your system hardware supports ACPI power management, you might be  
able to use the powerd/cpufreq stuff to throttle your CPU to a lower  
speed.  You might also try underclocking the CPU in your BIOS and/or  
or set it to a lower clock divider depending on the details of what  
your hardware supports.

-- 
-Chuck