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Cooking my PC: what NOT to do
wreckedcarzz:
My stupidity often overrides my logic. It is just me. It cannot be explained. This is a prefect example of what NOT to do when messing with your CPU.
Back in November, about a week before my birthday (I do the same with Christmas), I went on some sites with my dad's login, and found out what I was getting on my little day. One of them was a Thermaltake Blue Orb II CPU fan I had asked for. Upon opening the box and acting as surprised as possible, I found that the thing was about 1 CM to big for my case (it was a small form factor case, and I didn't take the time to measure it). So waiting another week and after receiving the case, I continued to attempt my new case swap and fan replacement. I spent 4 hours getting 2 little standoffs out of the legs that attached to the motherboard (this made the heatsink + fan too high, not touching the CPU, and thus emitting a siren-like sound upon boot, followed by an emergency system shutdown).
After getting that done, I screwed the heatsink into the slots, and booted it up. Success! It works!
Coming to about 4 hours ago, I was testing my system boot time, and noted that it took longer than usual to boot. I went into the BIOS and changed the hard drive to the primary boot device; but I also decided to take a look at the system fan speeds and temps.
CPU temp 67C
--- End quote ---
I about wet myself- 67C?!?!?! Thats roughly 153F!
After thinking for about 5 minutes what could be causing the heat problem, I remembered that I, for whatever moronic reason, did not apply thermal grease to the CPU!
I kept it in my drawer of computer supplies, so I pulled it out and got to work disassembling the thing. After 45 minutes of work, I plugged everything back in to find that it would not boot. Another 30 minutes of troubleshooting revealed that if I remove all USB devices, it boots (I have not yet rebooted with them plugged in).
With the new fix, the computer seems to run a little faster and a little cooler, although I am going to stress test it for the next few hours on some of my games.
Moral: Follow instructions- not your stupidity ;D
-Brandon
Darwin:
Wow! At least it looks headed for a happy ending, Brandon. From the subject line I had feared the worst! Good thing you caught it in time :Thmbsup:
[offtopic]Back in November, about a week before my birthday (I do the same with Christmas), I went on some sites with my dad's login, and found out what I was getting on my little day.
-wreckedcarzz (February 16, 2008, 10:27 PM)
--- End quote ---
Man, gone are the days when kids used to check under their parents' bed for their Christmas presents! Being a naughty boy has definitely gone high-tech![/offtopic]
wreckedcarzz:
Yes, I got lucky on that one. I just checked, and I am now riding at 49-50C, so definately a major drop. Crysis, anyone? :P
[offtopic]Back in November, about a week before my birthday (I do the same with Christmas), I went on some sites with my dad's login, and found out what I was getting on my little day.
-wreckedcarzz (February 16, 2008, 10:27 PM)
--- End quote ---
Man, gone are the days when kids used to check under their parents' bed for their Christmas presents! Being a naughty boy has definitely gone high-tech![/offtopic]
-Darwin (February 16, 2008, 10:34 PM)
--- End quote ---
Hehehe, quite the creative one, I am. And they have no idea... >:D ;D
mouser:
when the next generation of kids learns about the insanity of how we used to assemble computers they will not believe it.
few things are as insane. i'm sure everyone who has put together a pc has their own horror stories. my father once crushed a chip by tightening the fan too much. i once blew out a motherboard by putting a jumper accidentally on a set of fan pins. it is just crazy how prone to disaster it can be.
f0dder:
Christ, you're damn lucky you didn't fry your computer, especially since it's a Pentium4 you have - those things get darn hot. For comparison, my Core2Quad Q6600 idles at thirty-something centigrade.
And do stress-test the machine, if you're very unlucky there's a risk you have partially damaged the CPU, like blown part of the cache. If you get any MACHINE CHECK BSODs, time to cry.
Btw, a decent computer case with good airflow means a lot, too, and a couple of 120mm casefans (those are pretty silent) are really great as well, especially having an intake fan cooling your harddrives is a good idea. If you have a sucky cramped case, installing a good CPU cooler is pretty much a waste.
Oh, and your computer isn't running any faster because of the new cooler, that's just placebo. It should be running cooler, though :)
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