Re: [amibroker] OT: XP debugging help urgently requested

[Keith McCombs]

Yuki -- Each of the two levers controls two "claws" which grab onto the plastic base which surrounds the heat sink.  Once the two levers have released the pressure on the claws they can be gently pried away from the plastic base using a long narrow screwdriver and a flashlight. Be very careful not to break either the claws or the base.  I personally know of two computers with a broken heat sink bases.  I've tried to find replacement bases without success and have had to resort to using rubber bands (which should be replaced at least once a year). If you remove the heatsink, you will probably need to buy new heatsink grease. BTW, I had to remove one RAM module before I had enough room to remove the heatsink. Now after all that, for my suggestion:  Don't bother removing the heatsink to clean it.  Just use the canned air.  Yes it gets cold and will hurt if you spray your finger with it.  But it is not so cold that it will harm any of the electronics. -- Keith Yuki Taga wrote: Hi Keith, Anybody know how to get a P4 fan/heatsink off? I put it on (I built the box), and of course I'm aware of the two primary levers that release it, but it's a partial release, not a complete one, and I can't remember exactly how to get that thing off, and I'm not into yanking stuff off the MB. ^_^ With a flashlight, I can see some accumulation between the fins of the heat sink (beyond the fan) that have to be taken care of. What has happened is that some dust has actually formed a curtain over the top of some of the fins, which of course is really cutting down on the airflow. I used a toothpick to gently dislodge some of it, and then vacuumed. But I think a more thorough job is called for. There are no more curtains, but I can see dust. I have been remiss about keeping my eye on the CPU temp. It's always run a bit on the hot side (mid 40s), and lately it's been sneaking higher, and I haven't paid enough attention to it. This little bit of cleaning I did dropped the temp SIX DEGREES C, so no minor deal. There are AB routines that will take the temp up 20 from its ambient, so I need to be more careful. The only thing I've got monitoring it is the old Motherboard Monitor, which is not supported any longer. It gives me board and CPU temps, however. So a key question for me at this point would be, does a CPU just go, or does it degrade, giving intermittent problems, because of long term overheating? Given what I saw under the flashlight, I've been slowly cooking this, and if a CPU degrades, rather than just fails, that is most likely the seat of the problem. It isn't like I never clean the box, either. And I've put a vacuum on that CPU fan before. I've always been tentative about that however, because it actually reverses the fan blade action from it's normal direction, which is to suck air in over the fins. I've also blown compressed air in there, but tentatively there, too, because compressed air can get pretty cold in a hurry (at least the can does), and I don't know just what damage I might be doing along with the good. Without a flashlight, it just wasn't too obvious what was building up in there that the vacuum could not pull out. Once dislodged though, a lot of stuff came out. But there is more dust in there. Maybe I'm better off replacing the CPU, which would have to be pretty cheap now, if I could even find one (P4 2.53 GHz). Thanks all, Yuki Saturday, September 16, 2006, 3:28:59 PM, you wrote: KM> Like Rik, I too have had CPU overheating problems. I have a small KM> utility that came with my computer that shows and records temperatures. KM> If you have such, give it a try. Recently I fixed my problems (computer KM> shutting down completely during evening virus scans), by cleaning the KM> heat sink and fan. I also used new grease between the fan and cpu, but KM> only because I had to remove the fan in order to get two years of dust KM> bunnies out of it. KM> BTW, right now I have my "red line" set for 70 C. Normally the CPU runs KM> at 40 C, but during 1 hour full virus scan it gets up to 55 C. KM> Hope this helps. KM> -- Keith KM> Rik Rasmussen wrote: >> >> I have had two pc's running XP develop problems that ended up being >> the fan >> on the CPU. In one case it had stopped and the cpu overheated. In the >> ohter >> case, the fan was apparently running too slow to cool. >> >> In both cases replacing the cpu fan fixed the problem. >> >> Rik Rasmussen >> >> Best, Yuki __._,_.___ Please note that this group is for discussion between users only. 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