19 Apr
2002
19 Apr
'02
11:16 p.m.
Since it's been so hot I had to pop the top off of my PC. The top of
the case was getting hot!! It's an AMD K6-2 stuffed with cards, all in
a desktop PC case built in 96, so it would have been designed for high
power 486's or low end pentiums. I found the heatsink on my STB
Velocity 4400 was too hot to touch, even with the top off, all day.
Temporarily, I've got a fan sitting on top of the cards and the power
supply. It's cooled off a lot!! I need to poke a hole in the case an
permanently install that fan. A guy at work mentioned I may be over
loading my power supply, too. I had never thought of that. I think
mine is only a 230 watter. I think I may be replacing it with a higher
wattage unit to be on the safe side.
Chad Fernandez
Michigan, USA
Doc wrote:
Speaking as a generally unwilling but frequent
Fixer-of-Busted-PCs,
I'd highly recommend spending a few bucks on a 300W-400W PSU. A lot of
the better PC power supplies are rated 10-15% below their real max, so
I'm not surprised that yours is working, for now. I'd bet that's
part of the thermal problem, though - an overworked power supply throws
a lot of heat. I'd also bet large odds the PSU doesn't last very long.
"Commodity Hardware" isn't an idle epithet. Fortunately, the concept
includes cheap fixing.
Doc