Computers and dust

[#juan]

I generally use a little hand vaccuum on my computer about once every six weeks or so. We've had construction crews and heavy equipment on our street for about a month. The weather has been warm and dry and there is a coating of fine dust on everything. That should have been a hint for me at least two weeks ago. Yesterday morning my computer started squealing and neither the mouse or the keyboard would respond. I shut the machine down and took the side panel off. The heat sink below the CPU fan was completely clogged with dust. A rough guess is that the CPU is fried and maybe the motherboard as well. I logged in this morning on my wife's computer. I have to go out and buy a new motherboard and CPU. My inattention will cost me around two hundred and fifty dollars.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Here on the dusty prairies, six weeks would be way too long, and a small hand vacuum would be hopelessly inadequate. I have to do it every week or two, and I have to use an air compressor at 90 psi and the little pin nozzle for inflating footballs and basketballs and such, to get into all the little nooks in the heat sinks.

And since you're buying a new motherboard and cpu, which I also just did recently, permit me to offer you the benefits of my pre-purchase research. The best boards I think are the Gigabyte S series, in particular the P35-DS3 and P35-DS4 models. I bought the latter, and an Intel E8400 processor. It's a dual core, I think the quad core processors are still way overpriced and over-rated.

 

[#juan]

Dexter your comments and suggestions are more than welcome. Your info gives me a hell of a lot better reason to buy something than my usual "by guess and by golly methods".

For cleaning, when I take the time to think of it, I also use the aerosol cans to blow off the worst of the dust, cat hair, and whatever.

I've printed your suggestions. Thank you.

 

[Niflmir]

If you aren't playing games or running simulations, you probably don't need a quad core. Heck, you could probably live without the dual core even.

 

[#juan]

The processor was fried but the board was okay. I bought another AMD athlon 64 processor and everything seems to be working again. According to the technician, the board apparently has a thermal cut out that shuts it down if the temp climbs too high..... I like it...;-)

 

[Niflmir]

Yes, my computer has done that numerous times (shutting down because of heat). Finally, I installed a manual fan controller and it hasn't bothered me since.

 

[CDNBear]

Yes, my computer has done that numerous times (shutting down because of heat). Finally, I installed a manual fan controller and it hasn't bothered me since.

You too?

Ditto here, and I replaced the MDG motherboard. I hate MDG, they're a rip off.

 

[#juan]

Yes, my computer has done that numerous times (shutting down because of heat). Finally, I installed a manual fan controller and it hasn't bothered me since.

Just a thought but maybe if they set the thermal cut out to switch off at a lower temperature, it might have saved the cpu. Yesterday, on a whim, I bought an additional fan with a switch. It fits in one of the card slots and moves a fair amount of air. Can't hurt..

 

[#juan]

This is the first time I've lost anything directly as a result of dust. I once had a cpu fan quit and the resulting heat build up cooked the cpu. A few years years ago a power supply failed and took a few things with it. I bothers me a bit that I didn't see the dust problem coming when it should have been obvious.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Eh, live and learn I guess, I'm sure next time you'll see it coming in time to prevent it. That's one of the reasons I bought the mother board I did. It has thermal sensors and fan headers on it, and it's smart enough to adjust fan speeds based on the temperatures of the board and the processor, and warn me if temperatures exceed the limits I set in the BIOS or a fan fails. The case has multiple 12-cm fans, and a dust filter at the air intake, so it runs quietly and cleanly. I can tell when the dust filter's plugging up because the fans rev higher and make more noise. I hate a noisy computer, I don't want to hear a sound from it, which means the fans can't go any faster than about 900 rpm. As long as I keep things clean, the fans run around 850 rpm and the processor and board temps are in the mid-thirties.

 

[#juan]

Up till now I've bought computers based pretty much on processor clockspeed and price. I've usually bought from stores that offered some kind of warrantee but I've never got too deeply into the details. I just wanted the damn thing to work. I can see now that attention to detail can save one money and I can certainly appreciate saving money.;-)

 

[DurkaDurka]

I think the quad core processors are still way overpriced and over-rated.

It all depends on what you do with your PC. Video encoding, rendering etc benefit greatly from a quad core. Any software that is multi-threaded will make use of multiple cores.

Quad Cores really are not that expensive anymore, you can pick up Q8400 for $220.00.

 

[DurkaDurka]

Just a thought but maybe if they set the thermal cut out to switch off at a lower temperature, it might have saved the cpu. Yesterday, on a whim, I bought an additional fan with a switch. It fits in one of the card slots and moves a fair amount of air. Can't hurt..

Most CPU's will automatically power down after they hit about 80 degrees.

 

[#juan]

Most CPU's will automatically power down after they hit about 80 degrees.

Hi Durka

At what temperature does the cpu start to fry? My cpu was definitely cooked.

 

[DurkaDurka]

Hi Durka

At what temperature does the cpu start to fry? My cpu was definitely cooked.

Anything above 90 degrees would usually do the trick.