I'm baaaack .. ;-)
Yeah, i know, long time no post. Sorry.
I thought i'd said all there was to say about basic computin'.
WRONG. ;-)
For about the last 6 months, i've been on a mysterious case of crash, shutdown, flaky stuff happening to my computer for no apparent reason that i could determine.
I keep my computer in *squeaky clean* shape .. daily. The software is wrung out to the Nth degree! No virus, no spyware, defragged and optimized with a passion! I even keep a can of air handy to blow out the computer innards, i make sure to keep adequate space surrounding the computer for decent ventilation, and always make sure to shut down properly (as opposed to what some folks do, just switching off the surge protector, or using the boot button to shut down .. ouch! ' gives me the willies just thinkin' about it).
So after verifying all that, over and over again on a daily basis .. mystery crashes kept happening.
Bad RAM i thought..? Cracked processor? Video card gone gonzo? Power supply kaput? I even backed up and fully low-level formatted my hard drive and *completely* reinstalled Windows, did updates, reinstalled drivers, etc.
Still the mystery persisted.
Okay .. that is IT! I said. Time to do a close eyeball inspection like they taught me in the Navy. Time to get down and dirty. And that's exactly what happened.
I unplugged everything, sat the machine open on my lap, with the motherboard and other electronic guts just a foot from my wary eyeball inspection. I mean real *close* inspection.
And boy! Were those fans ever the *dirtiest* i have *ever* seen!
Yup, it happened even to me. Blowing out stuff with a can of air is okay occasionally. But to really do your computer a solid, especially if you've owned it for years, you need to remove the fans, and clean them by hand. Yup, you need to do that. There's no magical fan elf that will come in the night and do it for you.
But fear not! It's easy!
You will just need 2 screwdrivers .. 1 flat blade and 1 phillips head .. a very small container (like a bottle cap size) of white vinegar .. a bunch of Q-tips, and a toothpick or 2.
After shutting down your computer and unplugging it and disconnecting it, unplug the fan(s) power cord(s) from the motherboard. Then remove them by unscrewing the mounting screws on the computer chassis and/or unsnapping the mounts (gently) from the heat sink (the large cast aluminum thing with fins).
As well, if your computer has a separate video card, remove it also. Just one screw to remove, and a gentle pull to release the video card from the motherboard should do it. It will likely have its own fan that needs cleaning as well. Fans on some video cards may not be removable, so it's okay to clean it where it is mounted on the video card. But you'll still need to remove the card to get at the fan easily.
Then set the computer aside, and using the white vinegar and Q-tips, clean those fans like your life depended on it .. or rather your computer's life depended on it .. because it does. Because any electric or electronic part that is overheated will have a much shorter lifespan than one that is not.
Also .. before remounting the fans .. take one of the toothpicks and dig out the gunk and dust that is lodged between the fins of the cast aluminum heat sink(s). (the big one on the motherboard now exposed after fan removal, and the one on the video card)
Remount video card and fans. Use canned air to blow out any dust that may have fallen loosely on the motherboard during fan/card removal. Reconnect, plug in, turn on, reboot. Done.
Mystery solved. No more strange, mysterious crashes.
My machine is running much quieter, fan speeds are constant, and i can essentially *feel* the love as my favorite PC entity is now running cool, smoothly, and quite comfortably.
And *your* PC, or Mac, will give you many more years of trouble free run time as a function of coolness.
' til next time (which won't be so long this time) ;-)
This is your ol' computin' pal, Ol' Doc CPU, sayin'
Happy Computin'!
;-)
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
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