<p>Using bitcoin-qt you can go into Helps->Debug Window->Console and then type </p>

<pre><code>setgenerate false
</code></pre>

<p>By default it should already be false so my guess is that you have a fast internet connection and that your computer receive a lot of blocks in a short time. Your computer then needs to check all the ECDSA signatures for the transaction and this can consume a lot of CPU.</p>

<p>I had an overheating issue like that when I was mining litecoins with my laptop. I installed the <strong>cpufreq</strong> package to decrease my cpu frequency about 30% and everything was fine then.</p>

<p>If you have a dual-core processor you should type something like this in your terminal.</p>

<pre><code>sudo cpufreq-set -c 0 -u "1.8GHz"
sudo cpufreq-set -c 1 -u "1.8GHz"
</code></pre>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-15T17:40:56.773Z
@ Jan Thanks! Choose this as an answer since it is the work around I was looking for. Decreasing CPU frequency made my laptop not overheat. I used `indicator-cpufreq`.
Jonathan Rogiest
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-14T16:20:26.853Z
2014-07-25T20:08:03.653Z
2014-07-25T20:08:03.653Z
Jan Moritz
<p>Verifying and indexing blocks is computationally intensive, so it's not surprising that it would try to use all of the cpu time available. If your hardware isn't able to handle this without overheating, then you should try to fix your hardware.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-14T17:41:35.640Z
2013-12-14T17:41:35.640Z
Nate Eldredge
<p>You can try to run it with the configuration -checklevel=0</p>

<p>It will do a less intensive block validation check as explained here: 
<a href="https://gitorious.org/bitcoin/luke-jr-bitcoin/commit/4538e45c46d3829a21aed7685e6fbac7e8aafad3" rel="nofollow">https://gitorious.org/bitcoin/luke-jr-bitcoin/commit/4538e45c46d3829a21aed7685e6fbac7e8aafad3</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-07-25T22:35:35.200Z
2014-07-25T22:35:35.200Z
k kurokawa
<p>I am using Ubuntu 12.04 and Bitcoin client v0.8.6.0-g03a7d67-beta and Qt version 4.8.1 as the GUI.</p>

<p>My CPU is heating up and is automaticly shutting down after 30 minutes and sometimes after many hours. This is occurring  both while synchronising with the block-chain or while reindexing the blocks on disk.</p>

<p>After the CPU overheating my laptop (Dell Inspiron R15) switches off and has corrupted my sync. Other users have mentioned to start by typing in terminal <code>bitcoin-qt -reindex</code>. At the the end of the index around week17 my CPU overheats again.</p>

<p>Reading around I found topics about switching off the "generate bitcoin" option inside the bitcoin.conf file but on my Ubuntu (including hidden files) I can not find that file.</p>

<p>Any tips or help on this overheating issue?  I have also posted this on <a href="https://askubuntu.com/questions/390737/bitcoin-is-using-90-cpu-power-using-ubuntu-12-04">AskUbuntu</a></p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

<bitcoin-core><ubuntu><cpu>
Bitcoin is using +90% CPU power using Ubuntu 12.04?
Jonathan Rogiest
# Bitcoin is using +90% CPU power using Ubuntu 12.04?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-12-14)

I am using Ubuntu 12.04 and Bitcoin client v0.8.6.0-g03a7d67-beta and Qt version 4.8.1 as the GUI.

My CPU is heating up and is automaticly shutting down after 30 minutes and sometimes after many hours. This is occurring both while synchronising with the block-chain or while reindexing the blocks on disk.

After the CPU overheating my laptop (Dell Inspiron R15) switches off and has corrupted my sync. Other users have mentioned to start by typing in terminal `bitcoin-qt -reindex`. At the the end of the index around week17 my CPU overheats again.

Reading around I found topics about switching off the "generate bitcoin" option inside the bitcoin.conf file but on my Ubuntu (including hidden files) I can not find that file.

Any tips or help on this overheating issue? I have also posted this on [AskUbuntu](https://askubuntu.com/questions/390737/bitcoin-is-using-90-cpu-power-using-ubuntu-12-04)

Thanks in advance.

**Tags:** bitcoin-core, ubuntu, cpu


---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2013-12-14. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

Using bitcoin-qt you can go into Helps->Debug Window->Console and then type

```
setgenerate false

```

By default it should already be false so my guess is that you have a fast internet connection and that your computer receive a lot of blocks in a short time. Your computer then needs to check all the ECDSA signatures for the transaction and this can consume a lot of CPU.

I had an overheating issue like that when I was mining litecoins with my laptop. I installed the **cpufreq** package to decrease my cpu frequency about 30% and everything was fine then.

If you have a dual-core processor you should type something like this in your terminal.

```
sudo cpufreq-set -c 0 -u "1.8GHz"
sudo cpufreq-set -c 1 -u "1.8GHz"

```

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: @ Jan Thanks! Choose this as an answer since it is the work around I was looking for. Decreasing CPU frequency made my laptop not overheat. I used `indicator-cpufreq`.  

---

### Answer by username_2 on 2013-12-14. Score: 0

Verifying and indexing blocks is computationally intensive, so it's not surprising that it would try to use all of the cpu time available. If your hardware isn't able to handle this without overheating, then you should try to fix your hardware.


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2014-07-25. Score: 0

You can try to run it with the configuration -checklevel=0

It will do a less intensive block validation check as explained here:
<https://gitorious.org/bitcoin/luke-jr-bitcoin/commit/4538e45c46d3829a21aed7685e6fbac7e8aafad3>


---

