Does anyone use CPU idler programs like Rain, Waterfall, or Cpuidle?

[CamTron]

While Windows NT based operating systems use the HLT instruction while the CPU is idle, Windows 95 and 98 (and maybe Windows ME) do a busy loop instead, which tends to use more power and run hotter. There are a few programs available that are able to run HLT instructions to sleep the CPU when it is idle, and supposedly make Windows 9x run cooler.

http://www.benchtest.com/cooler.html

I'm wondering if anyone has experience with these programs on actual hardware, and knows if they are worth it to save power and reduce CPU temps.

Edited November 17, 2017 by CamTron

[i430VX]

I use KCPUCooler on some of my older systems.

No actual measurements but it seems to work.

 http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/kcpucooler.html

[pangoomis]

I use AMNHLTM.

http://toogam.com/software/archive/drivers/cpu/cpuidle/cpuidle.htm

It's a simple VXD file that you install and forget about it. Can't be simpler than that!

[UCyborg]

Windows 98 was the first to support ACPI and HLT. If the support is present but not detected by the OS, it may be enabled manually, see this.

With NT systems, Windows 2000 was the first with ACPI support. For NT 4.0, some hardware manufacturers provided custom NTDETECT.COM and HAL.SYS among other things, see this.

Edited November 17, 2017 by UCyborg

[CamTron]

I have ACPI enabled on my computer, so I guess it's already using HLT anyway.

[UCyborg]

Probably, you can check and see if you have ACPI related items in Device Manager under System Devices. At least when installing Windows 98 into VirtualBox, manual intervention is required to enable ACPI support on the OS level.