Global Warming is killing my PC
I built a new computer about a month or two ago. It is very shiny and quiet and everything fit together perfectly. It ran great too, and I couldn't be happier.
But then the weather started to get warmer, and every now and again I would get a blue screen error and a physical memory dump which wouldn't start dumping. I also noticed that after rebooting I seemed to loose my hard drive for about fifteen minutes.
It was pretty annoying and scary, but it wasn't happening enough for me to worry about it too much.
Then it started getting even warmer. The blue screen errors started coming with more frequency, and now it has gotten to the point that it occurs about 45 minutes after I turn on the computer. The good part of this is that in the morning it pretty much crashes when I need to leave for work, but the bad part is that it is crashing after 45 fricken minutes, and is probably doing all sorts of damage to data and the hardware.
As this has been happening I've been thinking about just what is happening to my computer. The CPU is running at a good temp, no memory or hard disk errors, just the hard drive becoming disconnected. I moved a fan around to cool down the hard drive, which felt a little hot, but the same thing happened. Then I felt the South Bridge and noticed that it was very hot. I did a little research and found out that the SATA driver is part of the SB. My motherboard has a copper heat pipe running from the South to North Bridge and then a bunch of copper fins to cool that. I have three 120mm fans (2 case fans and the CPU cooler) blowing on the fins, but I guess it's not enough now that the ambient temperature is rising.
I just ordered a two new 120mm fans to put into the case, one of which replaces 3 5.25 inch bays and should give me some fresh air blowing directly onto the heat sinks and hopefully fix this. Otherwise I am moving to Canada, or putting the computer into the refrigerator.
But then the weather started to get warmer, and every now and again I would get a blue screen error and a physical memory dump which wouldn't start dumping. I also noticed that after rebooting I seemed to loose my hard drive for about fifteen minutes.
It was pretty annoying and scary, but it wasn't happening enough for me to worry about it too much.
Then it started getting even warmer. The blue screen errors started coming with more frequency, and now it has gotten to the point that it occurs about 45 minutes after I turn on the computer. The good part of this is that in the morning it pretty much crashes when I need to leave for work, but the bad part is that it is crashing after 45 fricken minutes, and is probably doing all sorts of damage to data and the hardware.
As this has been happening I've been thinking about just what is happening to my computer. The CPU is running at a good temp, no memory or hard disk errors, just the hard drive becoming disconnected. I moved a fan around to cool down the hard drive, which felt a little hot, but the same thing happened. Then I felt the South Bridge and noticed that it was very hot. I did a little research and found out that the SATA driver is part of the SB. My motherboard has a copper heat pipe running from the South to North Bridge and then a bunch of copper fins to cool that. I have three 120mm fans (2 case fans and the CPU cooler) blowing on the fins, but I guess it's not enough now that the ambient temperature is rising.
I just ordered a two new 120mm fans to put into the case, one of which replaces 3 5.25 inch bays and should give me some fresh air blowing directly onto the heat sinks and hopefully fix this. Otherwise I am moving to Canada, or putting the computer into the refrigerator.