Ben Gamblin Online - Blog: Computer Work

Computer Work

29 Jul '04, 00:00

Been tinkering around inside my PC this evening.

A few days ago, sound weird noises starting emitting from the insides of my main PC, which I decided was a fan perhaps giving up. So I decided to take a guess a which fan, and bought me a new cooler - especially as I was getting sick of the sound of a helicopter each time I turned the PC on (it was noisy if that wasn't clear).

So today was the day to put the new (massive) cooler in. Much bigger than the old one and it's copper so it wasn't too much fun getting it in. On removing the old cooler I managed to snap one of the clasps on the motherboard that hold the cooler in place (good thing there's 2 more), and I managed to snap a clip that holds the power cable in place but that doesn't really matter. Once that was done, cleaning the chip of the old thermal compound and applying the new compound was easy but mounting the new cooler was a pain in the bum. I did eventually hear that satisfying 'click' on it going into place after about 10 minutes prodding. I was slightly concerned that the machine would not start up.

Thankfully though, it has done, and the noise in this room has been reduced although it is still noisy. I think the next thing will be to replace the 300w power supply with something quieter and with more power. Perhaps 400w. Might keep the room (and the PC) a bit cooler.

Other than that, not much else has been happening. Bought myself a laptop computer on Sunday. Don't get excited though, coz I bought it from a boot sale for £13. It's a very old 486 DX-2 40MHz with 20Mb RAM and a 1.3Gb hard drive. Got it running Windows 95, bought a network PCMCIA card for it and hooked it up to the network, and it now runs WinPack getting the bulletins from the local amateur radio BBS - GB7ESX. Old computers still have their uses.

Permalink | Comments (0)