Jump to content

Taking a chill pill [solved]


Dustpuppy
 Share

Recommended Posts

I've just been given a very elderly HP that I'm trying to resurrect as an abiword/firefox machine (64 MB ram, 800MHZ Athlon). I've had to put in a new harddrive (160GB, maxtor) as the old one was screwed completely by windoze and adware/virii. I've put Damn Small Linux on it as I don't think it would cope with Mandy, even with Icewm or fluxbox. It installed fine, but there seems to be problems with overheating. After about half an hour (from a cold start) it will lock up completely, to the extent that a hard switch-off is the only thing that will work. It's also scorchingly hot.

 

As far as I can tell, the heat is coming from the processor's heatsink. The fan that's over the heatsink (rather than the power unit fan) isn't working, so the obvious thing to do is replace the fan - but what I wanted to ask was if this sounds like an overheating problem or something else. Do you reckon this will be solved by a new fan, or is the system just screwed?

 

Cheers!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Athlon 800 you say? Socket A version right? That could be Thunderbird core, the second hottest CPU core in history (the hottest is Prescott).

 

Definitely need new heatsink/fan. Also buy case fans if you can to improve air circulation inside the case. If you have extra money, buy a good thermal paste like Arctic Silver.

 

BTW, you don't need to spend a lot of money for good and silent heatsink/fan for Athlon Socket A. A Maschool/Spire/Speeze WhisperRock is only about 15 dollars from newegg. I am not sure where you are located, but you should have similar brands in your area.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's now purring like a kitten B) . New fan installed, I went for a decent £10 one, and it's working so well that I even put Mandrake on it. It locked up once during the install, but I've had several hours of uptime since with no problem. And you can no longer use the case as a barbeque.

 

Now all I need is some more ram.

 

Thanks all! :cheesy:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

my home system is a Duron 800Mhz with 128MB SDR[1], 60GB HDD, Mandriva LE2005 + Fluxbox + Rox.

 

it is no gaming rig but up to the task of doing the tasks I assign to it (development, document writing, etc.)

 

[1] I found out that one of hte 128 chips was faulty and causes the bootup to sometimes fail so I took it out.

 

ciao!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...