An option to limit CPU usage

For the first time ever, after upgrading to version 1.6.2.46 today, I encountered the problem described in this thread: Crashing or Shut Down

When I run a scan, it gets most of the way through the scan, but then my computer suddenly restarts. According to the above thread, this is possibly because of CPU overheating. Unfortunately, I'm afraid to open up my computer to dust it out or install a fan, since bad things have happened in the past when I've dared to try to open up my computer and install things.

So, I'd like to suggest the idea of putting an option in Spybot to limit its CPU usage so as to make overheating impossible. I definitely don't mind if that makes Spybot slower to complete its scans. Safety is more important to me than speed.

Thanks for everything. Spybot has been very useful to me over the years and given me a lot of peace of mind.

Best wishes,
Apollia

Good advice, and welcome to the forums.
I'd strongly recommend you take the extra effort and clean out the interior of your machine. If you do, it should stop the CPU from overheating. If I were in your shoes, it would be frustrating if my PC restarted out of no where during a scan. If you take this chore, not only will the CPU not overheat (very unlikely), Spybot-SD scans can complete faster (that's a maybe).

All you need is a screw driver to take out your PC's case and one of those air cans (designed to remove dust particles and other gunk). Think about it, what harm can you do if you do not add or remove any components? Before you clean, just be sure to touch the outer case of the PC to remove any static shocks. Spray, clean, put back the case.

I recommend doing this procedure every few months to keep your physical PC running as smooth as possible.

If a PC is shutting down due to overheating, the PC has cooling problems, it's that simple. No change to a single program will ever solve the problem, it's a hardware issue.

However, you are saying the PC is rebooting, which isn't normally an indication of overheating, it's generally the result of a crash of the OS, though it may be caused initially by some other program. If there are errror messages being display, they may tell us something. If not, it's possble something is being logged by the PC before the reboot, but you'd have to do some digging to find out.

This site is great at detecting and removing malware, but not so great at hardware and other program crash issues. If you believe you might have malware it would be worth asking for help in the Malware Removal forum here, but otherwise I'd guess you are having other issues.

Do the crashes occur at any other time or only when scanning with Spybot Search & Destroy?

Bitman