Last week, you suggested AnVir Task Manager to monitor your PC. I installed this and found that one of the monitoring functions displays the temperature, which was 33C. How accurate are these figures and is this in the normal operating range?
Jo Lynch
Intel processors have an on-chip thermal diode that lets you find the temperature by measuring a voltage, and PCs may have extra sensors, so they know when to turn on fans. What's "normal" depends on the processor. Intel's website lets you look up the specification of your CPU. Entering, say, P9600, and clicking for the spec sheet gives the thermal specification for this Core 2 Duo Mobile chip as 105C, which is hot. If a chip gets too hot, Intel's Thermtrip should kick in and turn it off. So, small variations in temperature are of no concern. It only becomes of interest if you're operating close to the Thermal Specification, which is more common with an overclocked processor.
