OnTarget CPU Cool was a processor cooling application designed in 1998 for OnTarget Technologies by YiHong Software Development Corporation (Leading WinTech), the development team behind the popular Rain utility. CPU Cool was also known under the YiHong brand as Waterfall Pro.

In order to support most hardware manufacturers, this software uses several unique technologies such as Ring0 Technology, Multitasking Technology, PM Technology, I/O Detection Technology, etc. CPU Cool is the most powerful thermal software solution available. It can not only cool your processor but also monitor important information such as CPU and motherboard temperature, HDD usage and free space, etc. Because of its high expandability and support for third-party plugins, there are no limits to what it can monitor. It also supports all 80x86 processors from Intel, Cyrix, AMD, IDT or any others, and can be used in any modern computer (under Windows 95/98).

 

THIS PROJECT WAS DISCONTINUED IN DECEMBER 1998 AND IS NO LONGER SUPPORTED BY EITHER COMPANY.

 

 

Downloads

Setup.exe
Help Docs

 

 

Features

CPU Cool is a very powerful utility which protects your PC and cools down your processor. It is designed to PC users who want a cooler and safer Windows environment, as well as to laptop users who need to save power so that the battery will have a longer life.

 

 

System Requirement

Windows 95/98
8MB of Ram
5MB of HDD space
80x586, 80x686, Pentium or equivalent

 

 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: What's the difference between Rain & CPU Cool?
A: Rain is just a CPU cooler that uses HLT instructions. CPU Cool goes way beyond that. It's the most complete software thermal solution up to now. CPU Cool is better, but Rain is simple and straight-forward. We recommend you to start with CPU Cool and if you find it too difficult to use, then try Rain.

Q: How does CPU Cool's HLT cooling work?
A: They both work with HLT instructions that replace idle cycles with a suspend mode. In other words, when a certain percentage of your CPU is not working, instead of generating heat by processing idle cycles, it's put into a suspend mode, therefore it runs cooler and also consumes less power.

Q: What's a HLT command?
A: It's a command that replaces the idle cycles (which generate heat) with a suspend mode. In advanced CPUs, this command can be executed when a certain percentage of the CPU is idle. Some OSes, like Linux, OS/2, Windows NT usually include these instructions by default, but Windows 95/98 don't. The memory architecture of Windows 95/98 is very bad, so it isn't able to execute the HLT instruction very well. But YiHong Software Development Corporation uses an exclusive RING0 Technology to create new unique memory architecture to protect the ring0 code, which gives CPU Cool an unmatched stability.

Q: Can Rain & CPU Cool increase my chances of a successful overclock?
A: The HLT cooling itself doesn't increase the chances of a successful overclock because it's only effective when the CPU is not 100% in use. When an overclock is not stable, sometimes when the CPU is not 100% in use it may give you the wrong feeling that it's stable, but when you use a CPU intensive application or game, it may crash (not because of Rain or CPU Cool, but because it's not stable).
CPU Cool, however, has a unique feature called CPU Throttling. This feature can increase your chances of a successful overclock because it prevents the CPU from achieving a CPU load of 100%. Please refer to CPU Cool's readme.txt file for further information on CPU Throttling.

Q: Sometimes the background in CPU Cool's traybar icon changes, but I didn't choose to disable it, what does that mean?
A: The default CPU Cool icon is a blue chip. When the chip turns to red, it means that your CPU is 100% in use. When it runs white and has small white dots above it (kind of like if it was snowing on the chip), it means that CPU Throttling is being used to prevent your chip from exceeding a certain CPU load.

Q: Does using CPU Cool decreases my overall performance?
A: Well... the task that Waterfall executes doesn't decrease your overall performance. However, no matter how small they are, CPU Cool is a program, and just like any other program, while they're running, they do use some resources. However, the amount of resources that they use is negligible, so the impact on performance is almost null. In fact, with CPU Cool you should even experience some performance increase due to its optimization features.

Q: I've tried several fake performance boosters, how do I know that CPU Cool really works?
A: The only way to notice that it is really working is to measure your CPU and/or heatsink temperature. Or if your motherboard has a temperature sensor which is supported by CPU Cool then you should be able to monitor the temperature decrease from Windows. Another way of seeing that CPU Cool really works is that if you use CPU Throttling it may help you achieve stability with your overclocked CPU.

Q: I hear some buzzing sound coming out of my speakers when using CPU Cool, is something wrong?
A: That's a very common problem. This is not a bug in CPU Cool, it's just that some hardware components have weird behaviors when a HLT instruction is executed. This buzzing sound seems to be the most usual problem - although some people think it's annoying, it's actually harmless. In CPU Cool you can disable the HLT cooling in the Setup and still use the other features.

Q: I experience some weird side effects when running CPU Cool.  What should I do?
A: The best thing to do is to try to identify if the problem is with the program itself or the HLT instruction. The only way to do that would be to install CPUIdle (another cooling program) and see if it works. If it doesn't, then contact your hardware manufacturers (especially your motherboard manufacturer) and ask them about any conflicts with the HLT instruction. Notice that if there is a conflict with HLT instructions, then this is not Waterfall or Rain's fault, in fact, the problem will be reproduced under any OS that uses HLT instructions (such as Windows NT for example).

Q: Does CPU Cool work under Windows NT?
A: No. NT doesn't need HLT coolers, but we are considering the possibility of Porting CPU Cool to NT.

Q: Why is it that System Monitor and other CPU monitors indicate that my CPU is 100% busy when running CPU Cool?
A: That happens because these monitors only detect that a certain percentage of the CPU isn't being used when it's idle. CPU Cool replaces this idle mode with a suspend mode generated by the HLT instructions. Therefore, these monitors will always show that your CPU is 100% busy. There's no fix for this unless someone releases a patch for these monitors. Please use CPU Cool to see the CPU Usage, because it's more precise than other detecting programs.

Q: When running CPU Cool, I get weird scores under Wintune. Why is that?
A: Wintune isn't a good utility for measuring your system's performance, it's results can't really be trusted. If you run a Cyrix 6x86MX PR200 at 166Mhz and an Intel Pentium MMX at 166Mhz, it'll show exactly the same scores, but we know that the Cyrix CPU is much faster (when comparing Mhz per Mhz). Try using Winbench for a real performance benchmark.

Q: Can I use CPU Cool and other cooling programs at the same time for a better cooling?
A: CPU Cool already performs all the tasks that other cooling programs does, therefore if you run both, one of them will be inactive. CPU Cool 2.0 is more stable than other cooling programs and it will try to close other cooling programs to protect your system.

Q: I get weird readings when I use CPU Cool's temperature monitor. What should I do?
A: First of all, please be sure that you're using the right temperature sensor module. If you select a sensor that is not actually present in your motherboard you may get weird readings. In case you're sure that you picked the right motherboard and/or sensor, then please contact YiHong Software Development Corporation so that we can try to fix this bug.

Q: What does the alarm function do?
A: It warns you when it gets a reading from a certain sensor module that is out of the safety range. For example, if you select the "CPU Temperature" warning, it may warn you when your CPU goes above a certain temperature. Or it may warn you when your "FAN Voltage" goes above or below a certain margin. You may set up several alarms at the same time. For each alarm, you're given the option to select a certain sound so that you can differ them.

Q: I am a programmer and I want to design a monitoring program which use YiHong's sensor modules. Could I use these Sensor modules?
A: YiHong Software Development Corporation spend a lot of time and budgets to make these sensor module protocols and design these sensor modules. If you want to develop your monitoring program and want to use our sensor modules, please contact us. Or you should not use them.

Q: Could CPU Cool harm my PC or processor?
A: No, CPU Cool won't harm your PC or processor. However, some low-quality mainboards that use cheap components may cause your system to be have some weird, but harmless, side effects (such as a buzzing sound coming out of the speakers). If your computer crashes when using CPU Cool, please contact your hardware manufacturer and tell them that your mainboard has this problem.

Q: Why is the CPU Temperature that CPU Cool reports lower than other monitoring programs?
A: Because the CPU Temperature is higher than the actual temperature which is detected by the sensor chip or sensor components, some monitoring program will add compensating values in CPU Temperature. But we believe that compensating values are not very useful because they're generating an artificial number, so our sensor module will not add them.