Uechi-Ryu.com

A Charged Gamble

Recently, A PC was exhibiting erratic behavior, not unlike a virus infection or a toasted CPU. Programs wouldn't work, entry using only safe mode, the blue screen of death (Windows 2000 has them too, yes!), and finally no screen, not even the baby-blue BIOS.

The solution, short or replacing the motherboard, turned out to be removing the CMOS battery, shorting the CMOS (unnecessary after battery removal, but one place where a bigger hammer works without ill after-effects), grabbing a glass of water (for time-on-target and to lower blood pressure), removing the short, replacing the battery, turning on power with fingers crossed, then pressing the BIOS key, watching the display illuminating the CRT again.

It was just a thought, and it worked after other remedies failed.

Might be a way to clean-out a BIOS with an infected virus too.

When experiencing weird symptoms on your PC, give it a shot. For those with older PCS, the battery on its way out may be the cause for squirrelly behavior (You may prudently wish to replace your battery anyway if your PC is aging). This one was on a new PC, and the source of the difficulty was apparently technical in nature.

P.S. One last thought… Most will never build a new PC or be curious enough to find out what’s underneath that fanned finned aluminum on the motherboard. Whenever you remove or replace any heat sink, especially those with fans mounted on them make sure you apply a new coating of thermal grease. A way to obtain thermal grease without undue expense, is to bring a plastic spoon rt a q-tip to your friendly PC repair shop, present it to the repairman and offer him $1.00 to put enough grease on it to cover the bottom of the heat sink.

This reapplication is important, because the thermal bond to heat sink is maintained by the grease and is broken whenever the components, which sandwich the white goo, are separated. Then, a fresh application is required to ensure sufficient heat transfer. (Good thing these things aren’t water-cooled yet).


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Allen, Home: http://www.ury2k.com/pulse mirror: http://home.ici.net/~uechi/

Allen,
You haven't read some of the horror stories about watercooling? They are great! Hee heee hee
Lets just say that what most of those brave souls are doing isn't worth the risk.
I mean Overclocking a 700 to 850 isn't that big a jump, but these guys will spend $100+ on fishtank pumps, plastic tubing, and special fixtures to eek out the 150~ Mhz that they could do by buying a new CPU for the same price. Of course they use Intel so ;-)
I'll stay firm on the AMD camp till Intel gives me a couple Xeons to play with.

Dakkon

p.s.
I haven't BSOD'd either win2k machine yet :-)
Now they will happen as i cursed my self. haa haa

<font color=blue>Fry Me, Baby!</font>

The chip did go into the fryolator, and it <font color=red>WAS an AMD Athalon!</font> After several times of ejecting the CMOS battery I placed a call. New Chip and ABit MB to be replaced by next Saturday when they get a new supply of 1.1 Giggers in.

Just finished sketching-out a top-level design on replacing the CPU fan with an old motorcycle engine connected to a car air conditioner mounted on 2x4's next to the desk to blow cold air across the heat sink, else run the coolant right across the top of the chip directly thru the fins.

I got the ole 733 intel Coppermine up and running a few minutes ago. <font color=green>If it's Intel, It's Swell!</font>

Allen,
This guy did it and looks pretty good
<a href="http://www.overclockers.com/tips95/">Water Cooled Computer</a>

Oh ma-yh-n! I was only joking when I wrote what I did, and someone actually did it. Those pix are awesome.

I remember back when PCs were 8088s running in the sub-teen MHz range and some guy in Taiwan claimed to have a 100 MHz 8088 cooled by either Freon or liquid Nitrogen. I think Intel paid good bux to keep him quiet.

Saturday is the big day. Going to get a new Thunderbird 1100 and a new MB. Free replacement to boot.




[This message has been edited by Allen M. (edited October 17, 2000).]