Friday, March 12, 2004
Computer problems and solutions...
So, my home computer's cpu fan has been dying for ages now. It is something like 3 or 4 years old, with the first couple of years having no cleaning done to it... The fan started making lots of noise, especially when starting up after being off (usually it is on all the time, but if power went off or something). So, it finally decided to die, with the motherboard giving off audible heat warnings!
I checked and New Egg doesn't carry socket 7 kits anymore, and most retail computer stores don't carry them at all. It ends up that Radio Shack actually had one that I could use. At $20, I'm sure there is some gouging going on, but oh well. You pay for convenience... I considered having a full-size floor fan blowing into the case and stuff, but I don't want to risk messing my system up (and all the data on it!) before I get the new computer built...
This new fan and heatsink was a bit smaller than the old one, but it is 5000rpm and seems to be keeping it really cool (like 39C/100F). I know 5000 is supposed to be loud, but it is really quiet compared to the fact that the other fan was dying..heh. The clip on it scared me a bit (seems like it'd be really hard to take off), but I managed to use the one on my old fan/hs (has a cool latch on it).
The really good news is that a friend online sent me a big bunch of spare computer parts for free! This includes a capture/scsi card that I'll use on the new machine, but also ram! I had one 128mb chip in the machine before and was able to add in two additional 256mb chips! I've gone from 128 to 640! I have to say that I can see a massive difference even doing stuff like surfing the web (I tend to open lots of windows at once).
He also gave a mb and psu and some cpus, but I'll fuss with that stuff after the new machine is running. This way I can grab drivers and stuff on the old machine. It is a k6-2 500mhz, but with the 640mb of ram, it is quite comfortable for a lot of stuff. Kind of wary of changing it around too much... In any case, it should all work out well because the old machine can be used for older games, surfing the web, word processing, etc. while the new one can be for new games and more intensive programming stuff.
Speaking of which, all the parts on the new machine are in! I'm really excited, but my back has been kind of messed up for the last week or so, preventing me from doing too much (especially trying to tackle the monitor). Later on I'll give the info. on what parts I actually got and maybe some pics.. :)
I checked and New Egg doesn't carry socket 7 kits anymore, and most retail computer stores don't carry them at all. It ends up that Radio Shack actually had one that I could use. At $20, I'm sure there is some gouging going on, but oh well. You pay for convenience... I considered having a full-size floor fan blowing into the case and stuff, but I don't want to risk messing my system up (and all the data on it!) before I get the new computer built...
This new fan and heatsink was a bit smaller than the old one, but it is 5000rpm and seems to be keeping it really cool (like 39C/100F). I know 5000 is supposed to be loud, but it is really quiet compared to the fact that the other fan was dying..heh. The clip on it scared me a bit (seems like it'd be really hard to take off), but I managed to use the one on my old fan/hs (has a cool latch on it).
The really good news is that a friend online sent me a big bunch of spare computer parts for free! This includes a capture/scsi card that I'll use on the new machine, but also ram! I had one 128mb chip in the machine before and was able to add in two additional 256mb chips! I've gone from 128 to 640! I have to say that I can see a massive difference even doing stuff like surfing the web (I tend to open lots of windows at once).
He also gave a mb and psu and some cpus, but I'll fuss with that stuff after the new machine is running. This way I can grab drivers and stuff on the old machine. It is a k6-2 500mhz, but with the 640mb of ram, it is quite comfortable for a lot of stuff. Kind of wary of changing it around too much... In any case, it should all work out well because the old machine can be used for older games, surfing the web, word processing, etc. while the new one can be for new games and more intensive programming stuff.
Speaking of which, all the parts on the new machine are in! I'm really excited, but my back has been kind of messed up for the last week or so, preventing me from doing too much (especially trying to tackle the monitor). Later on I'll give the info. on what parts I actually got and maybe some pics.. :)
