Possible Absence

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 4:47 pm

bffulgham wrote:I'll bet the vast majority of us do....and of those, most don't know it.
There's a utility you can download for Windoze, SIW - System Information for Windows (Looks like the 'Home Edition'/freebie is now packaged with some bloat-ware called OpenCandy:mad: ...but they also say you can run SIW with the /nocandy switch...."SIW.exe /NOCANDY to turn the d@#$ed thing off) that will show internal sensors. I use their "Technician's Version" for work almost daily.
Here's a snapshot of my laptop:
[ATTACH]18087[/ATTACH]
...OOOPS, I cut off the column headings. They are Current Min Max

Your readings all run quite a bit higher than mine. I suppose that is because it is a laptop. However, if my core temperatures get that high, the processor freezes and waits for a cool down. It freezes (locks up) when the core temperatures reach 52°(125°F).

The cores normally run in the high 30s or very low 40s.

Thanks for that feed back. Now I gotta go read the manual. Something I don't do a lot of.

At least I have not opened it up yet to put in new thermal paste. It might not be necessary.

fjimp · Post by **fjimp** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 6:36 pm

dusty wrote: Guess it was all that sawdust.

Sawdust in the Computer? Sounds like time to clean and polish:D Jim

lightnin · Post by **lightnin** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 9:46 pm

You need a liquid cooled processor

[ATTACH]18095[/ATTACH]

robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 9:52 pm

fjimp wrote:Sawdust in the Computer? Sounds like time to clean and polish:D Jim

Yep, JPW on the innards...

.

derekdarling · Post by **derekdarling** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 1:30 am

Having worked in IT for many years, I have come to the conclusion that computers fail for the same reason that planes fall out of the sky (bear with me on this).

A little bit of ice on the leading edge of a wing can reduce the wings' lift significantly, causing the plane to ... fall out of the sky.

A little bit of dust on the leading edge of the 'cooling fans' in your computer reduces the 'lift', or in this case, the ability to move air, significantly.

Less air being moved around equals less dust moved out. Less dust moved out equals more dust left to settle into cracks and crevices and on to the motherboard... where it acts like Granny's quilt and heats up the motherboard. Heating up the motherboard leads to thermal stresses and movement, which can cause micro-fractures on the fine traces on the motherboard, and the solder joints.

Also, the cooling fans on the CPU get clogged when less movement is available, and excess heat is not moved out and so on.

So... the moral of our story is... clean the computer fans, and blow out the dust often! If you can hear the fans spinning up and down, it is wayyy past time to clean them.

Derek

Derek

lightnin · Post by **lightnin** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 6:16 am

I have a friend in Australia who runs his gaming computer something like THIS to keep it cool.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 5:29 pm

derekdarling wrote:Having worked in IT for many years, I have come to the conclusion that computers fail for the same reason that planes fall out of the sky (bear with me on this).

A little bit of ice on the leading edge of a wing can reduce the wings' lift significantly, causing the plane to ... fall out of the sky.

A little bit of dust on the leading edge of the 'cooling fans' in your computer reduces the 'lift', or in this case, the ability to move air, significantly.

Less air being moved around equals less dust moved out. Less dust moved out equals more dust left to settle into cracks and crevices and on to the motherboard... where it acts like Granny's quilt and heats up the motherboard. Heating up the motherboard leads to thermal stresses and movement, which can cause micro-fractures on the fine traces on the motherboard, and the solder joints.

Also, the cooling fans on the CPU get clogged when less movement is available, and excess heat is not moved out and so on.

So... the moral of our story is... clean the computer fans, and blow out the dust often! If you can hear the fans spinning up and down, it is wayyy past time to clean them.

Derek

Derek

You hit it right on. Dust clogging the cooling fins and on the fan blades seemed to be all I had wrong. A bit of compressed air and I am back in business.

The core temperatures are now running in the high thirties and low forties.

I just hope that was all that was wrong.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Wed Aug 01, 2012 12:54 pm

OKAY. I think I have gotten the message. This is a week that I should probable go sit under a tree and sip ice tea. Just about everything I touch goes bad.

Earlier today, I was unable to get my computer to boot. When I finally did, I decided to make a back up. I think that was started and I decided to get breakfast. When I returned, the computer was hung up.

Hang ups in the middle of a hard drive read write operation is not good. Yup, now I can't gain access to that HD at all. That drive contains all my picture files, all my pdfs, all my Excel documents, all my Word documents.

I may have lost just about everything. I have backups on flash drive but they don't seem to be accessible.

Not a good week.

fjimp · Post by **fjimp** » Wed Aug 01, 2012 9:02 pm

Hey Dusty I think its time for a bit of travel for you and your bride. Jim

derekdarling · Post by **derekdarling** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 2:08 am

dusty wrote: Hang ups in the middle of a hard drive read write operation is not good. Yup, now I can't gain access to that HD at all. That drive contains all my picture files, all my pdfs, all my Excel documents, all my Word documents.

While you are indeed correct about the iced tea, all may not be lost. The safest way is to take the HD out of the old computer, and install it in a different computer (with the same type of connectors). Then you should be able to access it from the running computer. Do your backups first (ideally copy to the working HD, assuming it is large enough. If not, install a new, blank HD to copy to). This will hopefully save your data, but your settings may be lost. As well, any installed software may need re-installing to be useful.

After doing this, get a new PC (with a warranty), and restore the backed-up data. Oh, and BACKUP often!

While there is an enormous satisfaction in restoring old machinery like the ShopSmith, there is only heartache trying the same thing with old computer equipment!