Comments on: Shuttles Crashing http://www.garrettbartley.com/2006/04/02/shuttles-crashing/ Fri, 01 May 2009 18:03:38 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: Garrett http://www.garrettbartley.com/2006/04/02/shuttles-crashing/comment-page-1/#comment-6 Garrett Mon, 03 Apr 2006 06:54:35 +0000 http://newest.phragmunkee.com/2006/04/02/shuttles-crashing/#comment-6 I'm sure it's probably time to do some spring cleaning inside the cases, but I haven't really had the motivation for it. I need to go ahead and buy some of the really fancy thermal grease and probably get a shim for my AMD as well. If I had to guess as to why the they started running a lot hotter, it's because I used to run processor-intensive apps nearly 24/7 and then just stopped. With the AMD, I was encoding video for a while and then stopped. Within a week or so of stopping, it started overheating. For the Intel, I was encoding and running SETI@Home. Then, I reformatted and haven't run anything on it for a week and now it's acting up. Those are the only two coincidences that I can think of that may be linked to this. And I'm glad someone else believes that computers are inhabited by paranormal spirits. In the case of overheating, I'd have to believe that mine are possessed by demons (and not the cute FreeBSD daemon). When you apply thermal grease, it's like sprinkling holy water and casting out the demons. It makes for a good story anyways... I’m sure it’s probably time to do some spring cleaning inside the cases, but I haven’t really had the motivation for it. I need to go ahead and buy some of the really fancy thermal grease and probably get a shim for my AMD as well.

If I had to guess as to why the they started running a lot hotter, it’s because I used to run processor-intensive apps nearly 24/7 and then just stopped. With the AMD, I was encoding video for a while and then stopped. Within a week or so of stopping, it started overheating. For the Intel, I was encoding and running SETI@Home. Then, I reformatted and haven’t run anything on it for a week and now it’s acting up. Those are the only two coincidences that I can think of that may be linked to this.

And I’m glad someone else believes that computers are inhabited by paranormal spirits. In the case of overheating, I’d have to believe that mine are possessed by demons (and not the cute FreeBSD daemon). When you apply thermal grease, it’s like sprinkling holy water and casting out the demons. It makes for a good story anyways…

]]> By: Jeffrey http://www.garrettbartley.com/2006/04/02/shuttles-crashing/comment-page-1/#comment-5 Jeffrey Mon, 03 Apr 2006 04:57:05 +0000 http://newest.phragmunkee.com/2006/04/02/shuttles-crashing/#comment-5 I've found on hot-running machines (mostly AMD) that I need to re-grease the chip/heatsink every 6 months or so - the original thermal pads on the sinks wear out (I guess because of the heat itself?!?) Plus when you have the sink out, run a vacuum on it. Like a shop vac is best if you're serious about getting the dust out. The AMD chips have spacers that keep the sink at the right distance from the chip, but that means if you don't have a transfer pad or grease, all that heat stays on the chip itself and you start crapping out. I did have my machine running open with a fan blowing on it for about a year, and every time I thought "this is stupid" and turned the fan off, it rebooted within a few hours, no kidding. Eventually it turned out that I had a bad memory chip that itself must have been kind of heat sensitive - with that fixed I've had my case actually closed for a bit. I think there's a certain karma associated with running computers with the cases open. I think as soon as you screw everything down, put in all your board spacers and shut the case the 'puter thinks that you're going to ignore it, so it has to act up to get you to pay attention again. You leave it open and the ghost in the machine assumes that at any minute you'll be pulling out the vacuum and thermal grease... I’ve found on hot-running machines (mostly AMD) that I need to re-grease the chip/heatsink every 6 months or so – the original thermal pads on the sinks wear out (I guess because of the heat itself?!?) Plus when you have the sink out, run a vacuum on it. Like a shop vac is best if you’re serious about getting the dust out. The AMD chips have spacers that keep the sink at the right distance from the chip, but that means if you don’t have a transfer pad or grease, all that heat stays on the chip itself and you start crapping out.

I did have my machine running open with a fan blowing on it for about a year, and every time I thought “this is stupid” and turned the fan off, it rebooted within a few hours, no kidding. Eventually it turned out that I had a bad memory chip that itself must have been kind of heat sensitive – with that fixed I’ve had my case actually closed for a bit.

I think there’s a certain karma associated with running computers with the cases open. I think as soon as you screw everything down, put in all your board spacers and shut the case the ‘puter thinks that you’re going to ignore it, so it has to act up to get you to pay attention again. You leave it open and the ghost in the machine assumes that at any minute you’ll be pulling out the vacuum and thermal grease…

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