[OLUG] Isolating flaky hardware problems

[bbrush at unlnotes.unl.edu]

One way to isolate a heat problem, although not exactly "environmentally
friendly" is to spray an inverted can of air on the suspect chip.  This
blasts the super cold liquid onto the chip and should make any heat
problems disappear for a time.  The liquid is non-conductive, so it's a
safe test and it is so cold it should bring the chip temp down below the
problem threshold.

So if you cool the chip, and the problem disappears, then reappears after
the chip heats up, it's pretty conclusive that heat is the problem.

Bill



                                                                                                             
                    "Rogers, John C NWD02"                                                                   
                    <John.C.Rogers at nwd02.usace        To:     "'olug at bstc.net'" <olug at bstc.net>              
                    .army.mil>                        cc:     (bcc: Bill Brush/NET/UNL/UNEBR)                
                                                      Subject:     RE: [OLUG] Isolating flaky hardware       
                    02/10/2000 11:42 AM               problems                                               
                    Please respond to olug                                                                   
                                                                                                             
                                                                                                             





I vote for the CPU overheating.  We have seen similar problems here when
the
fan stops spinning or the fan is clogged with dust and barely moves.  This
was noticeable on cases that fit tight and do not pull air off the CPU
directly.  I have never experienced RAM work then not work after some time.
It either worked or did not but it always gave parity errors or something
bad.  The CPUs have always worked then after a few hours bad things started
happening.  Usually with a winblows box the registry starts dying and then
the machine blows up.  Shut it off and let it cool and all was well for
awhile.  Then the problems happened again after things heated up.

Just my thoughts,
John





-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sent by OLUG Mailing list Manager, run by ezmlm.  http://olug.bstc.net/ 
To unsubscribe: `echo unsubsribe | mail olug-unsubscribe at bstc.net`