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thephantom
join:2001-04-24
Alamo, CA

thephantom to bbear2

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Re: PC turning itself OFF - HELP!

Thanks for sticking with me. I have been off line for a bit now and didn't see your last post in time. I handed it over to a fix-it shop this afternoon. I think I may have messed up re-connecting the heatsink as I did have a little bit of trouble with one of the corners. I turned it on one last time before bringing it in and it booted up into windows, but did not recognize the RAID and did not even recognize the 2nd disk drive. I was in the midst of trying to copy off some files for extra backup purposes when it turned itself off again. After that I just unplugged everything and drove it to the shop. He's supposed to call me Friday. I'll let you know the outcome when I get it back.
Gem
Premium Member
join:2005-09-10

Gem

Premium Member

Please let us know what the repair shop says is wrong with your computer and what all they do to fix it.

You've got an interesting problem. It will be good to know the solution.

captokita
Premium Member
join:2005-02-22
Calabash, NC

captokita to thephantom

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to thephantom
I know you said you took it to a shop, but I figure I'd toss my two cents worth in.

Since it's powering off, then on again on its own, I would think it's a PSU and/or MB. Overheating normally wouldn't make the unit come back on, it would just stay off, and the temps you mentioned looked ok. Loss of power however, WOULD make the unit come back on after a hard cutoff.

Also, just because a PSU shows "good" on a tester, doesn't mean it will handle under load. They simply test voltages.

Hopefully they figure it out for you and it's not overly expensive.

thephantom
join:2001-04-24
Alamo, CA

thephantom to Gem

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Got it back from repair, or I should say diagnosis. He found 3 things wrong: 1. My internal seagate 1T disk was dead; 2. the cpu cooling heatsink was a bit crooked (which I wasn't surprised about as I had a bit of trouble with the little plastic feet); and 3. the power supply was bad, so I guess it happens under load. He charged me $40 which I thought reasonable. The power supply is under warranty. I applied for a RMA and should hear from them in a couple of days. Seems slow to me. And assuming I get the authorization, I will have to ship it to wherever they tell me.

In the meanwhile, I can get a replacement for the disk drive. And I think I should replace the heat sink. So once again I need some advice. Should I just replace it with the like part from Intel (assuming that is possible)? Are there better cooler/heatsinks I should look at instead?

Thanks again,
bbear2
Premium Member
join:2003-10-06
dot.earth

bbear2

Premium Member

Thanks for posting back and well done. Good luck with the PSU RMA. The HDD is easy to replace so I'm sure you'll deal with that. But why didn't you have the shop take care of the CPU heatsink while it was there and be done with it for a few additional $s?
Thordrune
Premium Member
join:2005-08-03
Lakeport, CA

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I got a Hyper 212+ a couple of weeks ago and it's been working great. I have it cooling a QX6700.
Gem
Premium Member
join:2005-09-10

Gem to thephantom

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to thephantom
The Hyper 212 as already recommended is a good choice, or a one similar to that by a different manufacturer. Newegg has those on sale by one company or another almost every month. Keep an eye out there.

One word of advice. Avoid any heatsink that has the "little plastic feet" like those used by Intel. They are accidents waiting to happen, IMO. My preference is to use heatsinks that bolt on with nuts and screws. It takes a little practice getting used to mounting them and getting the screws tight enough, but not too tight, and to get the heatsink level.

It is not nearly as hard as that sounds and those bolt on heatsinks seem to cool much better that the little "pushy pin" models.

thephantom
join:2001-04-24
Alamo, CA

thephantom to bbear2

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said by bbear2:

Thanks for posting back and well done. Good luck with the PSU RMA. The HDD is easy to replace so I'm sure you'll deal with that. But why didn't you have the shop take care of the CPU heatsink while it was there and be done with it for a few additional $s?

I'll let you know how the RMA goes when I hear back from them.

Actually, he did re-seat the heatsink for me. But I figured while I was down anyway waiting for the PSU reply, I would look for advice on changing the heat sink. As Gem points out, those little plastic feet seem to be asking for trouble.

I looked at the Hyper 212+ mentioned in the next post and it looks really big! I'll have to do some measuring and see if it will fit. I also saw their M4 model (»www.amazon.com/Cooler-Ma ··· 080ATR2Y) but didn't know enough about the general design (heat pipes?) to know if it was good.

As for the HDD, yeah that's easy. The only thing is the one I have left is a SATA-3G and the replacement will be a SATA-6G. Will there be a problem if I try to tie those together in a RAID1 set up?
Gem
Premium Member
join:2005-09-10

Gem

Premium Member

heat pipes are definitely VERY GOOD.

You should have them on any CPU heatsink along with some sort of bolt on arrangement.

The best CPU heatsinks also have a backplate to support the motherboard if your motherboard doesn't already have a backplate on the underside of the motherboard.

That is not the same as a rear ports shield, btw. I've forgotten what the correct name is for that thin metal part as I normally don't use them.

Some CPU heatsinks come with dual fans to push and pull air. That makes only a small improvement in temps. I use only one fan on processor heatsinks.
bbear2
Premium Member
join:2003-10-06
dot.earth

bbear2 to thephantom

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said by thephantom:

said by bbear2:

Thanks for posting back and well done. Good luck with the PSU RMA. The HDD is easy to replace so I'm sure you'll deal with that. But why didn't you have the shop take care of the CPU heatsink while it was there and be done with it for a few additional $s?

...As for the HDD, yeah that's easy. The only thing is the one I have left is a SATA-3G and the replacement will be a SATA-6G. Will there be a problem if I try to tie those together in a RAID1 set up?

The best way to do it is to have two identical drives. If your MB interface is 3G SATA, then both drives will be running at 3G regardless of the other one being capable of 6G. If your MB interface is 6G, it might not make much difference anyway as the SATA buss is not the limiting factor. I assume you care about the data here else you wouldn't even considered the RAID1 in the first place. So that should be your guiding light in terms of whether you want to match the drives closer or not. To answer the question about will it work? As long as the drives are the same formatted size, I don't see why not - although each RAID controller is different and some are pickier than others.

thephantom
join:2001-04-24
Alamo, CA

thephantom

Member

I figured the drives would have to be identical. I don't see any SATA 3G available. I can either just run the SATA 6G on its own, run it as RAID at the slower speed, or buy another matching drive. They are fairly cheap, but I would rather put the extra money towards the cooler instead. Or I may need it for a PSU if the RMA doesn't come through. I won't know that probably until Wednesday as it takes 1-2 business days to get the reply and Monday is a holiday.
thephantom

thephantom

Member

For those interested in the results. I put them here: »PC turning itself OFF - HELP! -followup.