[Freddo]

that is a damn good idea, can any dev speculate on wether its feasable or not? the halt command might somehow be obscured by the xbox's chipset but if not you could get considerable improvements in heat and noise produced.

[Loto_Bak]

the only time you'll be reducing heat would be when the system is not under full load.

most people want the xbox quiet during a movie or music playback which is exactly when the cpu is under heavy load.

noise levels can already be reduced quite low with xbmc's fan control (you can set a target temperature and xbmc will attempt to reach and maintain it)

[Wormboy]

no,

when playing mp3-files cpu load should be < 10%

[Loto_Bak]

dont forget about milkdrop (or other visualizations)

[Wormboy]

can be turned off

[stevellion]

this is a great idea.. fantastic if it's possible

[MisterMrB]

i added the following patch to the sourceforge project:

[ 1446284 ] fixes overheating: adds idle priority thread w/ hlt instruct

no more overheating! :fixed:

i'm now able to leave my xbox running xbmc all the time and i'm using a silent (but low flow) papst 80mm fan instead of the noisy (but high flow) built-in fan. i'd imagine those of you using the auto fan control will notice a big difference.

i'm actually surprised the kernel doesn't automatically do this when all threads are blocked, but maybe there is a slight performance hit, and microsoft decided to make it optional for developers to do or not. or maybe it is just that my bios doesn't include it (i'm using x2 bios 5032)

anyways, my patch also cools things down by reducing non-video render rates to 30fps (meaning the gui and visualizations run at 30fps instead of 60fps). i doubt anyone will notice a difference visually, but there is a big difference in power consumption and temperature.

[pike]

anyways, my patch also cools things down by reducing non-video render rates to 30fps (meaning the gui and visualizations run at 30fps instead of 60fps). i doubt anyone will notice a difference visually, but there is a big difference in power consumption and temperature.

im not so sure i like that :p would mean a limit of 25fps in pal,50 no ? nah, i do not like it. for ui sure, but not fullscreen visualization

[MisterMrB]

im not so sure i like that :p would mean a limit of 25fps in pal,50 no ? nah, i do not like it. for ui sure, but not fullscreen visualization

actually, it would mean 30fps in pal, too (fps as in "fields per second"). i have no way to test it on pal screens or other hdtvs, so i don't know if this would appear jumpy on other televisions or not. i kinda doubt it though. if so, it can be made into an option.

[pike]

forgot to say, splendid work (when i manage to apply and test it). i have no knowledge how to handle .patch files

will attempt to do it manually

edit:

this is more of a mental note than anything else... (how to merge cvs patches)

grab http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/downlink...in-zip.php

copy patchfile to xbmc root
do: patch -p4 < file.patch ; to test
do: patch -p0 < file.patch ; to apply

[pike]

one way convo here :p

im fine with ui running in 30 if:

* stuff that previously was smooth in 50 is still smooth in 30, scrollers, quick scrolling etc
* visualizations isnt an idle state and they deserve full 50fps, atleast it should be an options.

just my 5 cents

edit: oh and just how much energy is saved with hlt or hlt+30fps compared to how it was before?

[Gamester17]

awsome work mistermrb! :kickass: ...i do however like the idea of making the "run gui at 30fps to lower cpu/gpu temperature" function optional (under the fan settings in gui) :bowdown:

ps! how well tested can (with 100hz tv's, plasma/lcd tv's, projectors, pal-50/60, ntsc) these two funtcions be before the 2.0.0?, maybe wait to apply until after the point release?

[MisterMrB]

oh and just how much energy is saved with hlt or hlt+30fps compared to how it was before?

energy consumption
before: 72 watts
after (both hlt+30fps): 55 watts
savings: 24%

these measurements were taken after boot and immediately navigating to the system info screen (no music or video playing). sorry, i didn't measure the power consumption under just hlt.

operating temperatures

before: cpu=71°c+ gpu=not recorded
(i turned off the xbox before it continued to climb any higher)

with hlt: cpu=46°c gpu=59°c
with hlt+30fps: cpu=31°c gpu=53°c

these measurements were taken after boot and immediately navigating to the system info screen (no music or video playing) and waiting until temperatures peaked. however, this is not from a stock xbox cooling fan configuration. i've replaced the stock fan with a papst 80mm 9db (silent) fan, and turned it to blow in towards the cpu. i've done this because the applications running on this xbox primarily tax the cpu (not the gpu) and the silent fan moves a lot less air.

some interesting findings:

when the cpu temp climbed above 71°c, i expected the xbox to power off. i remember reading that from several different sources... is this controlled by the kernel/bios, or a chip on the motherboard?

playing halo 2 campaign mode taxes the cpu and gpu less than the old version of xbmc (without hlt+30fps). guess they must have an idle thread.

if you are going to make the 30fps feature optional, then maybe make the option specify the number of frames per second, like "maximum fps in gui to reduce temperature" or something like that. this way it can be adjusted based on the user's visual preferences. you could also add a "maximum fps in visualizations to reduce temperature" if you want to keep that separate.

[Gamester17]

when the cpu temp climbed above 71°c, i expected the xbox to power off. i remember reading that from several different sources. is this controlled by the kernel/bios, or a chip on the motherboard?

i pretty sure it's an internal function in the intel pentium iii cpu (system-cpu only, not in the gpu), but i don't remember exacly at that temperature, (maybe at 75°c?).

if you are going to make the 30fps feature optional, then maybe make the option specify the number of frames per second, like "maximum fps in gui to reduce temperature" or something like that. this way it can be adjusted based on the user's visual preferences. you could also add a "maximum fps in visualizations to reduce temperature" if you want to keep that separate.

sounds like a great idea :thumbsup:  ...you feeling up for it?

[pike]

me & jmarshall discussed this patch briefly and we both feel it's unnecessary adding this hlt/idle stuff to cvs now, with the freeze and all. who knows what impacts (small or large) it may have