Resident youth makes your CPU "brain easy"

Mature computer users, in addition to being careful when buying computer hardware, know how to maintain your computer is also very important. Because the computer is well maintained, it can not only help you complete your work smoothly, but also serve you "Faithfully" for a long time. Today, let's take a look at the computer's brain-how to maintain the CPU to stay young!

The CPU (central processor) is like the brain hub of a computer and also the most power-consuming component. The CPU circuit is extremely complex and intensive, with a large amount of current in and out, so the loss is also large, pay special attention to maintenance. A well-maintained CPU can work for at least 5 to 8 years, or even more than 10 years. Don't think that a single CPU does not require 5 years of service life. I think the author's statement is useless, thus denying the point of view that the CPU needs to be maintained.

CPU usage is poor, and the service life may be shorter than one year. I used to encounter a case: a 150 MHz Pentium P54C processor with a high frequency of 200 MHz, which is very cost-effective. Half a year later, performance deteriorated, and the frequency above 133 MHz could not work stably. It is conceivable that the use and maintenance will reduce the CPU life, so please pay attention to the maintenance skills provided by the author below.

1. Check whether the CPU is frequently used.

Some motherboard manufacturers claim the performance advantage of their own products in order to enhance the competitiveness of the product, the motherboard BIOS has put FSB (front-end system bus) the default value is higher than the value required by the CPU. In other words, it means that the frequency exceeds the frequency without knowing it. If you want to know whether your CPU is frequently used, the first step is to know the normal FSB frequency of your CPU. Go to the website of Intel or AMD to download CPU-related technical information, as this is an official release of accurate information.

Because the FSB frequency displayed by the BIOS on the motherboard may not be correct (the purpose is to conceal the frequency exceeding), the user will use the dedicated CPU detection software to view the CPU settings on the computer. For Intel CPUs, you can use Intel Processor Frequency IDUtility software. Its Simplified Chinese version is www.onlinedown.net/soft/6212.htm. After downloading and installing it, you will immediately know the CPU settings when it is started (figure 1 ). Then compare the official information to see if the CPU is being used frequently. As for AMD processors, you can use third-party detection software (such as WCPUID, figure 2) to achieve similar results. In any case, the FSB frequency of the motherboard is increased to exceed the rated value of the CPU at factory time, and the manufacturer does not guarantee that it can run stably. So the safe method is, of course, to adjust it back to the normal value.

2. Be careful when the CPU voltage is increased

Some "cunning" motherboard manufacturers not only increase the FSB frequency, but also even increase the core voltage of the CPU. This ensures stable operation after the CPU overclock, so as not to be easily recognized by users. There are many internal CPU circuits. Even if only a small amount of voltage is added, the number of electrons flowing through each circuit increases accordingly, and the total traffic will increase a lot. Therefore, adding voltage will accelerate the CPU aging to a certain extent.

In fact, the method of dismounting a mirror is very simple, that is, the "Hardware Monitor" project in the BIOS of the motherboard is used to check the voltage. Voltage information is directly from the 5bit ADC (Anlog-DigitalConverter, analog-digital converter) in the I/O chip (input/output chip, such as Winbond W83627HF ). Although the value can be spoofed by modifying the resistance value, according to the author's experience, manufacturers seldom do this, mainly because it is dangerous, so the voltage readings in the BIOS are basically credible. The standard CPU Core Voltage (Norminal Core Voltage) used for comparison can also be found in the CPU database of the processor manufacturer.

In addition, there is one more thing to mention. If your computer uses a P4 processor, some of its normal voltage may be 1.45 V or 1.475 V, or even 1.50 V. In fact, the core voltage of P4 changes with the current load, but the maximum value is usually not greater than 1.50 V, and 1.55 V is less. If you find that the Vcore value is greater than 1.60 V, it is highly likely to be artificially increased!

Iii. Check whether the quality of the c p u fan is poor

The two cases discussed earlier may reduce the CPU life, but because the motherboard of "spoofing" users is rare, you don't have to worry too much. In fact, the CPU fan of poor quality is the fatal star of the CPU. Poor fan quality, poor heat dissipation, so that the CPU is in high heat for a long time, the internal resistance of the semiconductor material decreases, resulting in a large amount of current in and out, accelerating the speed of Electronic migration, thus accelerating the CPU aging.

Determines the quality of the CPU fan, mainly to detect the temperature of the radiator. Taking a standard closed chassis as an example, it is acceptable for the radiator to feel warm hands (during computer operation). If it is a bit hot, be careful. The solution is to remove the dirt that hinders the rotation of the fan blades as much as possible, for example, use a hair brush to sweep the gray. Otherwise, the performance of a brand-name CPU fan with reliable quality is more obvious.

When I had a chat with a friend who was familiar with the fan, I realized that there were endless ways to cut corners on the fan. The most common one is the ball-shaped fan with a "fish-eye-Ball" (Figure 3 ). The problem mainly lies in the ball in it. Generally, the diameter is small or the number is small. As the fan runs longer and the wear increases, the ball will become smaller and smaller. And the ball with a small diameter is much faster than the ball with a large diameter after being worn out. When the ball is small to a certain degree, it will lose the ability to work (that is, it cannot be cooled ). So to avoid shortening the CPU life, you must be very careful when selecting a fan.

4. Use CPU monitoring software

Changing the fan costs more, maybe you're not happy with it. The author provides a completely free method. As long as you make good use of it, the CPU life can be greatly extended. Here we will introduce an application that monitors system conditions, called CPUCool. On the surface, CPUCool is only for the CPU. In fact, it is a very complete and mature system monitoring and optimization software. You can download it at www.onlinedown.net/soft/32554.htm. Run it for the first time after installation. It requires you to enter the motherboard model to determine the I/O chip used.

So what is an I/O chip? I/O chips used to be just a chip that integrates various low-speed interface controllers, including the soft Drive Interface, serial interface, and parallel interface. Later, about two or three years ago, as the system monitoring function became increasingly popular, chip vendors began to add the system monitoring function to the I/O chip to increase the selling point. Taking the most common W83627HF chip as an example, the monitoring part includes 5 v idcpu voltage, 3 temperature inputs, 9 voltage inputs (+ 12 V,-12 V, + 5 V, -5 V, + 3.3 V, VcoreA, VcoreB, Vbat, + 5VSB), fan speed input, and other items.

Of course, if you do not know the I/O chip model of the motherboard, you can skip it and CPUCool will detect it on its own. After entering the main operation interface of the program, the system displays various basic information, including temperature, CPU, memory usage, hard disk usage, and network speed, the project is complete (figure 4 ). At the same time, you can set and optimize the CPU functions (AMD and Intel are supported) in the window, including low power consumption when the CPU is idle to reduce the calorific value, which naturally prolongs the CPU life.

5. Make good use of the sleep function

Although the usage of CPUCool is simple, it may not be used for some new computers because they do not understand the principles. Here, I will give you a simpler CPU life-increasing solution, that is, using the power management mode provided by Windows itself. In start → set → Control Panel → power options, set the system sleep time (figure 5 ). If it is set to 15 minutes, the system automatically goes to sleep state when your computer does not take action (including hitting the keyboard and moving the mouse) for one or five consecutive minutes, at this time, the CPU power consumption will also decrease. When you use it again, the computer will wake up. For some friends who want to use the computer for a long time and find it very difficult to switch the computer, this method is convenient and effective.

6. Make full use of ACPI Functions

To sleep your computer, in addition to the power management function of Windows, you can also use ACPI settings in the BIOS of the motherboard. In the BIOS "Power Management Features → ACPI Standby State" project, there are two sub-options: S1/POS, which is a low Power consumption mode, however, the system components are still in connection. The other is S3/STR (Suspend ToRam, suspended to memory), which is a more power-saving mode. Once the S3 mode is started, the system information will be stored in the memory, and most of the hardware except the memory will stop working to achieve the best power saving effect. The biggest advantage of the S3 mode is that it saves power and completely wakes up in an instant. If you make good use of it, it is quite beneficial to extend the CPU life.

The above describes the CPU maintenance methods in detail. As for other chips, including GPU (graphics chip) and the north-south bridge chip on the motherboard, the principles are the same, that is to avoid working at high temperatures for a long time. The main method is to pay attention to whether the heat dissipation device works normally. When idle, try to make it into a low power consumption state to reduce the loss. In this way, the semiconductor material inside the chip will be more durable.