Hardware Issues Part 2

I think I was gone about 20 minutes when I received the phone call that the system had locked up again. Sure enough the temps were alright, the case was steady at about 98 degrees and the CPU had creped up to about 145, still not enough to cause the lockup. On this next visit I decided to install another case fan, the case was so thin at the front between the cover and grill a standard fan would not work and I do not stock the skinny fans. Thus, I added an 80 mm fan at the back of the case. Once Installed the system warmed up to 92 inside the case and 140 for the CPU and no lockup, to add a measure of security, I decided to order a front case fan the blows in from the CD areas.

When walking back to my car I decided to get out and install a new heat sink and fan on the processor. I had used the factory provided one and I have used them for years without any issue. I had one that’s capacity was well above this CPU (it was for an XP 3000+) so I properly cleaned and replaced it.

The next few days were cool and cloudy outside and the system worked fine. The day before the new fan arrived was warm and sunny. Guess what, the computer locked up. I greatly apologized to the end user but was beginning to wonder about the weather. The end users office has one entire wall as a window, floor to ceiling. The back of the case faced the window, however due to the location of the building, the sun at this time was not beating through the window so I decided to rule out that possibility. Continue reading

Hardware Issues Part 1

So, where do I start? Fussing at AMD? Case manufacturers? Cooling requirements? Or heaven forbid, myself?

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted here. I would love to give you some dramatic excuse. My birthday came and went this month, a friend got his hand caught in some machinery and lost his fingers, I chaperoned a class of kindergarteners at the zoo. None of these really hold water, after all we all have these things in life.

A couple of weeks ago I built an AMD XP 2500 PC for a customer. Actually I had built it a little earlier in a translucent green case with a matching mouse and monitor. The business owner wanted black and since he continually buys computers elsewhere and then I support them and the business, I decided to rush a case purchase and buy a new inexpensive but nice looking case from a local computer shop.

When I built this computer I turned it over the kids to test out. This means hours of Age of Empires, Tom Clancy games and the occasional school paper. There were no issues what so ever. After swapping the components into the black case and reinstalling the operating system and installing the security software and programs needed for this business I happily delivered the PC, set it up, tested the accounts and went on my marry way. Continue reading