Microsoft support gave me this link entitled "After 1903 update: CPU spikes and noisy fan" at https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/after-1903-update-cpu-spikes-and-noisy-fan/8afbfc81-becc-4adb-8cc3-efa0cfef2fb2. There are a lot of suggestions to try and I'll be going through them one by one. I have also put hardware monitoring on this list. Thanks for the advice and offer of help.
To answer your question about updating BIOS. Yes, I actually check Dell's website daily to see if there are any updates. After I updated to Windows version 1909 I checked again and updated to the current version for my machine.
By the way, I've seen a lot written about very high fps in the Sims and the bad effect they can have on your computer. I have attached my data according to Razer Cortex for TS4 and TS3. Can someone tell me if this is too high and what I can do about it if so? Also, it seems my fps is dropping to zero at times. What would cause this? Thanks.
@thealienqueen Wow, yes, that fps is too high for Sims 4 and even more so for Sims 3. And incidentally, if that's what you mean by an fps drop in Sims 3, even the minimum is higher than it should be, and higher than most people get while playing. Excessively high framerates could certainly account for high temperatures and loud fans, as well as damage your graphics card in the long run.
In general, your in-game framerates should never go above the refresh rate of your monitor. To find out what that is, right-click on your desktop, select Display settings, then Advanced display settings. Clicking "Display Adapter Properties, then "List All Modes," will give you a list of all resolutions and refresh rates supported by your monitor.
If you play in fullscreen mode, the easiest way to limit fps is through the built-in Nvidia Control Panel's profile for each game. Right-click on the desktop and select Nvidia Control Panel, then Manage 3D settings, then the Program Settings tab.
Choose the relevant game .exe (green box): TS4_x64.exe for Sims 4, and TS3.exe (Origin install) or TS3W.exe (disc or Steam install) for Sims 3. If you don't see the game listed, click Add to the right. Scroll down to Vertical sync and set it to On or Adaptive, and turn TriplebBuffering on (red box).
If you have a new enough GPU driver, as in from February 2020 or later, you can instead set a global fps limit in the Control Panel. This works in windowed mode as well, unlike the vsync setting.
Click Max Frame Rate (red box), set it to On, enter your preferred limit, and click OK to apply the change.
You can see your in-game fps in real time in Sims 3 or Sims 4 by bringing up the cheat console (crtl-shift-C) and entering "fps on" without quotes. A number will appear in the upper right corner for Sims 3, or the lower left corner for Sims 4. ("fps off" makes it go away.) If the Control Panel settings aren't properly limiting the framerates, there are other tools you can use instead. Let me know if you need one.
Just finished working (4) 12-hour shifts in a row. Today, I am going to start working on the long list of things to do that were given to me by Microsoft. I will check the messages here tomorrow and continue trying to find a solution. Thanks!
