HP zv5380us, CPU at 100%

My Vista laptop's (Gateway CX210x) mobo got busted, now I'm back to this single core Athlon64 3400+, 1GB RAM (DDR 1 I think), Nvidia Geforce Go 440 w/ 64MB, and a 4200 rpm hdd. I don't play many games, but I was checking the temp of my laptop during the game I play, it went from 34-54C. The cpu was stuck at 100%. When I was on my Intel C2D, it was using 50%, so I figured single core would be 100%, but I wasn't sure after doing some google searches. The gaming I play is Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst, and this does it on all the settings from high to low. In high, the game runs smooth, and in low same thing, just cpu is still at 100% and temp spikes. There are no viruses or spyware, this is pretty mean still a clean slate of WinXP SP3. I know its normal for temp to spike, and cpu, but is that range normal? Thanks.

 

As long as the temps are,ok, there shouldn't be a problem.
I don`t know many games that`s utilitise the cores close to 100% , are you sure it`s the game that does that?
Start the game in a window,and look into task manager to see if so.

 

It's normal for a game to take up 100% usage of a CPU.

The reason the game didn't use 100% of your Core 2 Duo was because it is a dual-core processor (basically 2 processors). The game was only programmed to use one of them.

 

Thanks for the quick replies. Yeah I'm sure its the game, and nothing else. I checked using Speedfan and Task Manager. Using a cpu at 100% all the time wouldn't "break" the cpu would it? I'm kinda thinking along the same terms as a car, if you floor the gas all the time, the wear and tear would eventually kill it. Would the same apply to the cpu?

 

The CPU don´t have moving parts

Eventualy it will die, but the MTTF(Mean time to failure) of an CPU is to long, so dont be worried. Just make sure that the temperatures are low...

 

That is true, heh. Thanks again. I'll try to keep the temps down. So far the peak is 55-60 (hasn't really hit 60, its at 57 right now with the game up and a few others things running. Such a pain downgrading, heh. Thanks again.

 

57-60C is more than ok.
You can try undervolting to get it even cooler.
Click on the link in my sig, there`s a guide about UnderVolting in there.