Saturday, November 06, 2004
The computer has been playing up over the last week or so. It just suddenly reboots for no apparent reason. We've not installed any hardware or software for ages, so it was a bit of a mystery. Checking the event log showed a number of bugchecks or various error codes and addresses, nothing consistent. Surfing the web pointed to possible hardware failure, a disk or memory chip going bad. One entry mentioned in passing overheating caused by overclocking the CPU. I used to overclock the PC but tuned it down once the PC became critcal to the business. Out with the games in in with the accounts.
On a hunch I started monitoring the temperature, and it did seem to creep up and up to 55oC+ It was a bit of a guess, but the PC is nearly three years old and taking the cover off revealed a mountain of caked on dust. Wrestling the Hoover out from under the stairs and on full suction I spring cleaned the boards, air inlets and cooling fans. I had to remove the fan from the CPU heatsink because all the fins on the heatsink where full of dust and needed brushing out.
The temperature has now stabilised at around 46oC, and so far, no crashes since last Sunday. So if your computer is having a mid-life crisis it might be hot flushes causing the problem.
| 8:03:44 PM
