Replacing bad hardware (1 Viewer)

[Mike Voigt]

Put a 1/4" filter cloth in front of the fan at the front of the PC. That should help keep it clean.
And add the fans in the rear. It's amazing what difference they all can make...
If the thermal pad underneath the fan was indeed wax, then it probably melted as you said. However, they also sometimes use a piece of heat transfer material - kinda grayish stuff - that stays in place and does not melt. If need be, you can remove this (very carefully, no scratches, and cleaning afterwards with isopropyl alcohol) and instead use thermal paste. Radio Shack sells it in a tiny little tube as Heat Sink Compound, part no. 276-1372... it works pretty good!
Regards,
Mike

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Bill, the idea is to pull air in from the lower front part of the case and exhaust it out of the back higher up. This creates an efficient flow of cooler air over most of the motherboard components - including the CPU. Do as Mike said with the filter cloth and all should be well. It's worth opening the case every two-three months and removing any dust anyway.
The fan in the power supply is only cooling the power supply, so don't rely on that.
[Edited last by Rob Gillespie on October 26, 2001 at 04:23 PM]

 

[Bill Catherall]

Where can I find the filter cloth?
The pad on the heatsink was a dark grey color. Almost black.
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Bill

 

[Mike Voigt]

Should be able to find the filter cloth at any hardware store. Of course, they'll probably sell it by the square yard...
The gray pad sounds like a standard heat transfer pad. These are ok, but usually the heatsink/silver compounds are better for heat transfer.
The big problem is getting rid of the pads w/o damaging the surface of the heat sink. While a minor scratch will probably be filled in by the compound, the reason you do not want the scratch is that the heat transfer is rather changed by it - it may double the thickness of the layer, in which case the heat transfer is affected negatively - a hot spot results.
This is really only a concern with massive gouges, like from a pocket-knife. Using a fine scalpel-like knife - hobby knives, for example - you can remove most all of the heat transfer layer. Then, using isopropyl alcohol and lots of elbow grease, you can get the rest off. I've done this on a couple heatsinks, works like a charm, but you do have to be careful.
Then, a dab of HT compound, and set the fan. That should do it...
Of course, all of this eliminates any warranty on the heat sink/fan combo - and probably on the chip, most all of them come with a warning of 'professional installation only' ...
Regards,
Mike

 

[Bill Catherall]

Thanks Mike.
"professional installation only" - to late for that

Warrenty on a $7 heat sink? *snicker*
It looks like it's going to be a lot of trouble. I'll see if additional case cooling makes a big enough difference. If not then I'll change the pad to something else. I checked out the manufacturer's web site and it's either a graphite pad or a "Phase-Change Interface Material" (by that the probably mean a wax). It's a Cooler Master Fan http://www.coolermaster.com/products/cpucooler/fcpga/dp5-6h11.html

[Edited last by Bill Catherall on October 26, 2001 at 06:20 PM]

 

[Bill Catherall]

For those that are still following my saga:
I bought 2 case fans and installed them last night (along with a 1/4" filter cloth on the front fan to filter out dust and carpet fibers). They add a little more noise to the system, but it's not too bad. Still tolerable. From the looks of it, they do make a bit of a difference, but nothing huge. The CPU now runs about 5 degrees cooler. The computer was on all day yesterday before I installed them, so the CPU didn't really have enough time to properly cool. But after installation the CPU maintained a temp of 43C instead of the usual 48C. This morning I turned it on to see what it would ramp to. It was on for about 7-8 minutes and stabilized at 40C. I'm sure it will continue to heat up during the day, but hopefully won't get too hot.
I also installed a cheep Soundblaster 16 sound card and plugged in a microphone. I'm now ready to play with the Shrek DVD. Bring it on!
If the CPU temp continues to run above 40C (no doubt it will) I'm going to have to fix it sometime in the future. I've already spent more money than I care to and really don't want to mess around with it any more. The new motherboard seemed to fix the issues I had been having and that was the goal. It's been running very stable since the upgrade. I've still got a partition set aside for installing Linux. I plan on playing with that a little more sometime soon.
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Bill

 

[Mike Voigt]

Bill,
the only thing really left to do is find a really good fan for your chip.
If I udnerstood you right, you said it cost $7. Mind you, that is probably a pretty cheap fan that may have come with the chip. If so, and you don't mind, spend a little ($30 or so) and get a really good fan. I did this with my P3-550s and the difference was like night and day - about a 15 degree drop. Of course, I also got rid of the thermal "mat" that they put on the bottom of the fan housing and instead used some real heat transfer goop between the chip and the fan - that mat has been shown to not be the be-all and end-all of heat transfer...!
A couple good sites that also do a lot of comparisons:
www.overclockers.com
www.2cpu.com
www.anandtech.com
Mike

 

[Bill Catherall]

Thanks Mike. I may have to wait a while before I can upgrade the CPU fan. Every time I mention upgrading or adding things to the computer my wife just rolls her eyes and points at the stack of bills. So right now the heat thing is not a big issue. Later on when I can squeeze in the extra expense then I'll go for it.
After running the computer all day yesterday the CPU temp maxed out at 43C. So I've confirmed I've got a 5 degree drop in temp and a good buffer before I hit the 50 degree overheat temp.
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Bill