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Blow out your fans...


JSM

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For all you laptop users out there, get in the habit of taking you laptop into the garage (shut of of course) and gently reverse blow air through the main CPU fan to get all the dust out. Reverse meaning blow air into where the heat comes out first. I then blow both directions both in and out and do the enitre laptop.

 

Alot of the newer laptops fans share both CPU and GPU. If your using your laptop and the screen go's white, shuts off or reboots frequently try this first before spending money having someone look at your PC. Heat is bad for these things.

 

Get in the habit of doing this at least once a year.

 

I just picked up my second newer laptop out of the trash and this is all I did after it kept white screening on me. This one even had the Best Buy repair sticker on it where I'm sure they said it wasn't worth fixing!

 

For that matter do it to you towers too. You will be shocked at what accumulates in there.

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I would recommend locking a fan in place by sticking a screwdriver between the blades, and then using full force blowing air out. I clean out my computer cases with my air compressor, actually. As long as the fans don't move, it should be ok. For laptops, use tiny screw drivers for watch repair, or a straightened paper clip

 

A lot of people don't realize just how bad dust is for computers. It's essentially insulation that works really well. My advice is also keep the computers off carpeted floors, as they become giant dust magnets.

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Fans? What fans?

 

Actually my home server (and router) has a power supply fan now. I went from a fanless power supply, which died, to this one. As luck would have it, one of the cables in my mini-itx case was resting against a blade. Our internet started acting funny and I went to check it out... I managed to see via SSH--right before it locked up--that the CPU was at 105 C. One hard drive was at 80 C (it didn't survive).

 

I don't even know how hot the source of all that heat was, the power supply, but I couldn't touch it for 10 minutes or so. When I managed to see what was wrong and move the wire away, the fan came on at Warp 9.

 

The power supply and my CPU survived (Atom 1.6GHz), which is amazing considering it was past it's critical temperature.

 

But now, even with the PS fan on, it doesn't get very dusty.

 

However, my GF's Core i7 in an Antec 300, on a carpet floor, with cats, gets clogged weekly!

Edited by BLOZ UP
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The HP laptop I have, had both the CPU and GPU super heated to reflow the solder. My tech guy doesn't have a station that can reflow them correctly. Yes, it's a risk, but I bought the laptop for $5 at a garage sale so no big deal.

 

New motherboard was in the $300 plus range. Works fine now.

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The power supply and my CPU survived (Atom 1.6GHz), which is amazing considering it was past it's critical temperature.

 

But now, even with the PS fan on, it doesn't get very dusty.

 

However, my GF's Core i7 in an Antec 300, on a carpet floor, with cats, gets clogged weekly!

I built an atom Nintendo box that's my emulator/media station. It was originally fanless, but I don't trust fanless designs in small spaces, so I put an extraction fan in the case and one on the heatsink. It never overheats, and it's super quiet. Power supply is external

 

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62756_435563828294_650983294_5252351_2860227_n.jpg

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It's an older Zotac NM10 (?) board, I think this is it. It's been a while, I built this almost a year ago. There are much better boards out now with ion chipset for video. It has a dual core atom 1.66ghz in it, with hyperthreading:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500046&cm_re=zotac_mini_itx-_-13-500-046-_-Product

 

so, 2gb of ram, and it has HDMI out. That particular board supports only 720p output for HD. Again, it was the limitation back then. If I was to do it again, I would get a newer better board, obviously, which wasn't available.

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So you're saying I should have stolen a gallon of that "LCS Fluid" from the F15's and gone the immersed processor route like most avionics have done for...what? 40+ years?

 

My kid got a fluid cooled CPU for his tower and was all raving about it... until I showed him photos of F15's with AT (or was it XT) computer boards in the Avionics Bay bathed in liquid coolant. What he thought was 'cutting edge' was really rehashed military technology from when I was a kid! :D

 

Imagine what they got out there now...

 

Your tax dollars at work!

 

I use canned air a lot. Hell, crack the case and clean thoroughly. It doesn't take that long. I have been known to shoot freez-it in the intake port when I'm getting the toasty feeling on my left knee...

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Thanks for posting this - it motivated me to tear apart the laptop and clean it today. I've owned it for roughly 1.5 years now and have watched the temps keep creeping higher and higher. This morning, GPU temps were 105*C and core temp was around 93*C. As of right now, GPU and core are both 57* C :) Just like a Z after a tuneup, she runs sooo much better now.

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Since we`re on the topic of computers. Would anybody have a laptop that accepts the old floppy diskettes?

I might have something that's about 10 years old with a build in floppy. The other option is to buy a USB floppy drive for about $30-40. here's one from newegg.com for $23:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16821118001

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I`m running a SAKURA fuel management system and the program is on a diskette/floppy and i need to adjust the TPS.I was thinking of downloading it to a CD, get a db9 to usb adapter and use my daughters lap top. Thanks for the links. I`ll look into it.

Edited by PR280z
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