I will not be turning into a pig this season, and my computer might catch on fire (RL)

[thistlechaser]

I was finally able to get my H1N1 shot. Woo woo, no turning into a pig for me! Seems really late in the season to be finally able to get it, but hey. It came with a girly pin bandaid (which luckily is hidden by my shirt sleeve).

I suspect my computer might be fixing to catch fire and/or run out the door. Twice in 12 hours it did a really odd thing: Screen went black, whole machine seemed to lock up (the first time I was in a quiet area of WoW, but the second was in a battle so I could tell the noise did that 'window froze' thing). WoW friend thought my video card might be going, so I googled around a bit and decided it might be the temperature of the card. I downloaded a program that would monitor how hot various parts were working (and how fast the fans were turning). Wow! The video card was 100+ C (200+ F!). Hottest it got was 107/222. (My card is rated safe over 120C, but... sheesh!)

I leave my machine running overnight (with WoW loaded but window minimized) and it was about 70 C this morning. Logging on for a half-hour this morning sent me into the high 80s.

I opened up the housing and I need to get a little fan to direct inside (going to be a pain in the ass, since it'll hit my legs as well. I'm cold enough as it is!).

Last summer my machine was shutting itself down and I thought it might have been because it was too hot, so maybe it is. (This is the first time seeing the black screen behavior though.) Blah!

Comments

[fealubryne.livejournal.com]

Man, overheating computers are such a pain in the arse. I had a friend who had a similar issue, and ended up getting two big fans for his machine... problem was, they were so loud you could hear them whenever he talked on Vent. It sounded like a plane was starting up in his room. And yeah, the cold thing. He said his hands were freezing all the time.

Blegh.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's the effect I get when I use the big box fan to cool it down... Don't wanna use that in winter! Will be so cold!

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

Just threaten the computer. I know it sounds crazy, but I swear it works on my consoles when they start to act funny. I think it's the whole reason my 360 hasn't got the RROD yet.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha! I'll have to try that. :D

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

Winter, and your computer is overheating. If it is the gfx card, and it certainly sounds like it is, then you really need to open it up and clean the dust out of heatsinks. In my experience, the only reason a component will overheat when the ambient temp really shouldn't be a factor (ie winter, ambient <= 70 deg F) is the fan/heatsink is unable to do its job. Usually, this means dust clogging the thing up. Lots of little bits of metal close together makes a wonderful dust trap, and dust makes a great insulator (as well as reaching a sort of critical mass where suddenly air doesn't flow through the heatsink properly).

So take it apart, clean all the dust off the aluminum/copper bits. I'll bet there's a layer of dust thick enough to peel off.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Dust and cat hair, I bet! I'll have to make time to dig it out so I can dig it out. Right now it's got an exercise bicycle and a desk keeping me from getting to it. :P Enough room for air to get to it, but not enough for a Thistle.