Of Hardware, Linux and Sleepy Pigs

Before I start, here's a pink sleepy pig with an outie belly button I got at Tom's World SM South Mall Las Pinas.

Anyway,
I wanted to set up my second hard disk with different Linux
distributions. SO I did the usual formating, partitioning and adding an
OS loader. In this case it was GRUB. Things were going great, I had WinXP, Nimblex, Ubuntu, Damn Small Linux and Geexbox
up and running then WHAM! Blue Screen of Death... WinXP or Linux. Seems
my PC was overheating, the processor temperature was reaching the
auto-shutdown point set at 60 degrees celsius. I suspected that the
culprit was the lack of cooling air reaching the processor or lack of
contact between the processor and the heatsink. I was right. I replaced
the power supply a couple of months ago and had to remove the processor
fan to get at it. Back then the grease was already drying up. The PC is
a year old so I was half-expecting it to dry up already.

I
took the fan and heatsink apart and I was right. Damn things were dirty
and air wasn't reaching the processor. Plus the thermal grease was
already dry. I didn't have any thermal grease around. The stores in SM
Southmall didn't have any in stock as well. So I had to make my own.
The grease is important since it allows contact between the heatsink
and processor so heat is conducted from the processor and makes for
easier cooling by the fan and heatsink. So I googled for alternatives.
I found Homemade Thermal Grease! at overclockers.com and Thermal Transfer Compound Comparison at dansdata.com
very helpful. Hmmm... Seems toothpaste plus grease could do the trick,
so could Brylcreem, but I couldn't find that particular page again
since the PC hung before I could bookmark

I cleaned the dirt off the fan and heatsink with alcohol so they
would dry fast (couldn't use water, WATER BAD!) Ditto for getting the
dried thermal gunk off the processor. There were different recipes for
homemade thermal grease, one suggestion was 75% toothpaste and 25%
grease. I experimented and came up with a 50%-50% mixture using
toothpaste and joint grease. The green gunk I lathered on the processor
and slapped on the fan and heatsink. Well... So far so good. It's been
a week now and no trouble yet. The processor temperature is down to 48
to 51 degrees. it's been a week and it's still going strong.With the PC
in fighting form, I was able to finish the updates on FlipSpin.org (the Summer Swimming Party) and TeatroSanJose.org (Salubong)





Crossposted: gokitomo.com, gorilla.multiply.com, gorilla.vox.com.