Puzzle solved
How long has it been? A month? I think it's closer to two months since I last wrote anything here. Between then and now, many things have happened but nothing life-changing in particular. Well, maybe the most significant event was that I have officially completed my mandatory conscription some weeks ago. Specifically, on the 3rd of April, 2007. In local lingo, men like me will scream the following:
O-R-D LOH!
ORD is an abbreviation for Operationally Ready Date, which means, SAF can throw me into the battlefield at any point in time and I can defend the country with my life. Yeah, sure I can but will I? Now, that's a question that everyone has an answer for but no one is very keen on stating the obvious.
Anyway, since I'm free from conscription obligations for the time being, it means it's time for me to start hunting for a job. Gotta feed myself, y'know? And bills to pay too. I'll start a new series to chronicle my job hunting experiences but for now, let me focus on today's stuff.
For the first time in my life, I removed the CPU cooler from the chip. It's pretty tough but I figured out a way to do it. May not be the best way but heck, I still managed to get it out. Turns out that the entire cooler is modular and comprised of 3 separate parts, as show above (from left to right) : the fan/cooler bracket, heatsink and the fan.
The heatsink was choked with - what else? - dust. Initially, I stood by the sink with a toothpick, running it through the heatsink fins. When I saw what seems to be fine dust floating happily in the air, I ran it under the tap without a second thought. Better a wasted heatsink than me dying of "excessive inhaling of fine computer dust bunnies". After drying it sufficiently with a hair dryer, I re-assembled it.
Actually, cleaning the heatsink was the last thing on my list. My original plan to was take the PSU (power supply unit) out and then head to Sim Lim Square to get a new one. I've been using the old one for like 4 years and last week, it started to acquire a bad cough. Too much dust bunnies. However, when I opened the casing and saw the dirty heatsink, I somehow felt feisty and decided to give it a shot at removing it. The rest, was what I just mentioned above.
Nothing much. Just how the CPU cooler looks like with 3 parts assembled. Oh yes, I'm still using a stock Intel CPU cooler but for my next computer, hopefully, I can afford a Zalman air-cooled or water-cooled kit.
Here's what I bought. A CoolerMaster Extreme Power 430W PSU and an Antec Tricool 92mm case fan. They cost me $73 and $25 respectively, bringing the total damage to $98. Note that they are still in their retail packaging. I had to resist the burning urge to rip the shrink wrap into shreds while on board the train back.
My old 92mm case fan came together with the casing when I first bought it, same as my old PSU. The old fan was making some audible noise despite being cleaned so I figured since I'm swapping out the PSU, I sure can do myself a favour and kill 2 birds with one stone by changing the fan as well. There weren't any 92mm fans on sale the last time I went to Sim Lim Square, so I guess I pretty fortunate that they have some in stock. Though they are not from CoolerMaster and they do not have any LEDs, I guess I'll just have to make do with it first.
How the interior looks like with the PSU, top 92mm fan and CPU cooler removed. On hindsight, it was a good idea that I removed the CPU cooler and fan, for I needed all the space that I could get to maneuver the PSU out of its bracket.
The 92mm fan in its place, complete with the rubber washers to reduce vibration. A biggg mistake on my part to install the fan first. Later, I learnt that there wasn't enough space for me to move the PSU into place and I had to remove the fan. *roll eyes* Note to self: Biggie goes in first, followed by the smaller stuff.
The contents of the PSU package. I didn't know it come with its own 3-pin power cable as well. Kinda neat, huh? The rest of the stuff were the usual: 4 mounting screws and 1 user manual.
Everything in place. The 120mm fan at the bottom of the PSU is going to blow the heat away, literally, from the CPU cooler. I think my old PSU came with a 80mm fan. My next PSU? Maybe one from Zalman. I really liked their modular designs.
Here's another view. Oh yeah, I changed my motherboard, from my previous GA-8IK1100 to this current one, GA-8I865GME, roughly 2 months ago. Both are from Gigabyte, though. My previous motherboard had some capacitor or some other problem and cannot boot up. Coincidentally, I'm going to pick it up from the distributor tomorrow. Man, I missed it! It's been like, 2 months, since I left it with there for repair. The guy said he wasn't able to fix it and he had to send it to Taiwan for repairs instead. "4 to 6 weeks" was what he said. I think it's more like 8 weeks. But never mind about that.
To minimize the clutter caused by the wires/cables, I hid the redundant ones at the side and routed those in use to the side as well. I suppose that should improve the airflow within the front side of the casing by a good amount.
I removed my Creative 52X CD-ROM drive too. It's been with me for like... Hmm... Gosh! 9 years! And it's still working. Talk about durability. Some time back, I had some problems with it so I thought I better remove it. It was only today when I realized that the fault does not lie with the drive. Still, its removal meant more space for the cables, as shown above, and less power consumption. Besides, I figured that one drive is sufficient for now. So like, my trusty old drive is taking a break in my cupboard now. In time to come, when I assemble my next computer, it'll resume its work again.
A few months ago, my computer would reboot itself for no reason. I attributed that to Windows XP and Microsoft's ineptness in designing a robust OS. It wasn't a frequent thing so I wasn't really bothered by it. Then my Creative CD-ROM drive would be undetected during boot up at times. I thought my old drive was dying on it. Perhaps it was but the real crunch came when my old motherboard decided to call it quits and I had to sent it for repair.
While I was changing the parts this afternoon, these seemingly random and unrelated events suddenly had a common cause: the PSU. It was the faulty PSU that caused the reboots, not XP; it was the same PSU that failed to supplied power (or so I suspect) to the CD-ROM drive; and it was the exact same PSU that damaged my motherboard, either by oversupply of power or otherwise.
As much as we always try to solve the problem, more often than not, we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg and simply resolving the symptoms. I guess it takes experience and a certain degree of knowledge to be able to find a link between seemingly distinct events and see the connections. Of course, at the same time, one should avoid the fallacy of linking events that in reality, have no actual relationship, and making things more complicated than they look. There's indeed a fine line between being in-depth analytical and overly skeptical. I guess that's really a fine line to tread upon.
So like, lessons for the day. I learnt to remove a CPU cooler, install a PSU, what order of items to fit into a computer casing and perhaps the most important lesson, to have foresight without myopia.
O-R-D LOH!
ORD is an abbreviation for Operationally Ready Date, which means, SAF can throw me into the battlefield at any point in time and I can defend the country with my life. Yeah, sure I can but will I? Now, that's a question that everyone has an answer for but no one is very keen on stating the obvious.
Anyway, since I'm free from conscription obligations for the time being, it means it's time for me to start hunting for a job. Gotta feed myself, y'know? And bills to pay too. I'll start a new series to chronicle my job hunting experiences but for now, let me focus on today's stuff.
For the first time in my life, I removed the CPU cooler from the chip. It's pretty tough but I figured out a way to do it. May not be the best way but heck, I still managed to get it out. Turns out that the entire cooler is modular and comprised of 3 separate parts, as show above (from left to right) : the fan/cooler bracket, heatsink and the fan.
The heatsink was choked with - what else? - dust. Initially, I stood by the sink with a toothpick, running it through the heatsink fins. When I saw what seems to be fine dust floating happily in the air, I ran it under the tap without a second thought. Better a wasted heatsink than me dying of "excessive inhaling of fine computer dust bunnies". After drying it sufficiently with a hair dryer, I re-assembled it.
Actually, cleaning the heatsink was the last thing on my list. My original plan to was take the PSU (power supply unit) out and then head to Sim Lim Square to get a new one. I've been using the old one for like 4 years and last week, it started to acquire a bad cough. Too much dust bunnies. However, when I opened the casing and saw the dirty heatsink, I somehow felt feisty and decided to give it a shot at removing it. The rest, was what I just mentioned above.
Nothing much. Just how the CPU cooler looks like with 3 parts assembled. Oh yes, I'm still using a stock Intel CPU cooler but for my next computer, hopefully, I can afford a Zalman air-cooled or water-cooled kit.
Here's what I bought. A CoolerMaster Extreme Power 430W PSU and an Antec Tricool 92mm case fan. They cost me $73 and $25 respectively, bringing the total damage to $98. Note that they are still in their retail packaging. I had to resist the burning urge to rip the shrink wrap into shreds while on board the train back.
My old 92mm case fan came together with the casing when I first bought it, same as my old PSU. The old fan was making some audible noise despite being cleaned so I figured since I'm swapping out the PSU, I sure can do myself a favour and kill 2 birds with one stone by changing the fan as well. There weren't any 92mm fans on sale the last time I went to Sim Lim Square, so I guess I pretty fortunate that they have some in stock. Though they are not from CoolerMaster and they do not have any LEDs, I guess I'll just have to make do with it first.
How the interior looks like with the PSU, top 92mm fan and CPU cooler removed. On hindsight, it was a good idea that I removed the CPU cooler and fan, for I needed all the space that I could get to maneuver the PSU out of its bracket.
The 92mm fan in its place, complete with the rubber washers to reduce vibration. A biggg mistake on my part to install the fan first. Later, I learnt that there wasn't enough space for me to move the PSU into place and I had to remove the fan. *roll eyes* Note to self: Biggie goes in first, followed by the smaller stuff.
The contents of the PSU package. I didn't know it come with its own 3-pin power cable as well. Kinda neat, huh? The rest of the stuff were the usual: 4 mounting screws and 1 user manual.
Everything in place. The 120mm fan at the bottom of the PSU is going to blow the heat away, literally, from the CPU cooler. I think my old PSU came with a 80mm fan. My next PSU? Maybe one from Zalman. I really liked their modular designs.
Here's another view. Oh yeah, I changed my motherboard, from my previous GA-8IK1100 to this current one, GA-8I865GME, roughly 2 months ago. Both are from Gigabyte, though. My previous motherboard had some capacitor or some other problem and cannot boot up. Coincidentally, I'm going to pick it up from the distributor tomorrow. Man, I missed it! It's been like, 2 months, since I left it with there for repair. The guy said he wasn't able to fix it and he had to send it to Taiwan for repairs instead. "4 to 6 weeks" was what he said. I think it's more like 8 weeks. But never mind about that.
To minimize the clutter caused by the wires/cables, I hid the redundant ones at the side and routed those in use to the side as well. I suppose that should improve the airflow within the front side of the casing by a good amount.
I removed my Creative 52X CD-ROM drive too. It's been with me for like... Hmm... Gosh! 9 years! And it's still working. Talk about durability. Some time back, I had some problems with it so I thought I better remove it. It was only today when I realized that the fault does not lie with the drive. Still, its removal meant more space for the cables, as shown above, and less power consumption. Besides, I figured that one drive is sufficient for now. So like, my trusty old drive is taking a break in my cupboard now. In time to come, when I assemble my next computer, it'll resume its work again.
A few months ago, my computer would reboot itself for no reason. I attributed that to Windows XP and Microsoft's ineptness in designing a robust OS. It wasn't a frequent thing so I wasn't really bothered by it. Then my Creative CD-ROM drive would be undetected during boot up at times. I thought my old drive was dying on it. Perhaps it was but the real crunch came when my old motherboard decided to call it quits and I had to sent it for repair.
While I was changing the parts this afternoon, these seemingly random and unrelated events suddenly had a common cause: the PSU. It was the faulty PSU that caused the reboots, not XP; it was the same PSU that failed to supplied power (or so I suspect) to the CD-ROM drive; and it was the exact same PSU that damaged my motherboard, either by oversupply of power or otherwise.
As much as we always try to solve the problem, more often than not, we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg and simply resolving the symptoms. I guess it takes experience and a certain degree of knowledge to be able to find a link between seemingly distinct events and see the connections. Of course, at the same time, one should avoid the fallacy of linking events that in reality, have no actual relationship, and making things more complicated than they look. There's indeed a fine line between being in-depth analytical and overly skeptical. I guess that's really a fine line to tread upon.
So like, lessons for the day. I learnt to remove a CPU cooler, install a PSU, what order of items to fit into a computer casing and perhaps the most important lesson, to have foresight without myopia.
posted by hg @ 21:25
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