The saga continues. I love being a tech. You know how most people have trouble keeping their computer cool enough? Last night I was working on a computer that was running too cold... My friend has a Step Thermodynamics cooled CPU (a very well engineered Peltier cooler design) on a nice little set up. He started having troubles so immediately went to investigate. After a long time and a lot of very bad things happening I found out that because he was running his computer in a cold (I love Air Conditioning) basement in humid Kansas City the Step chip ran a little too well and was freezing the heat plate where the peltiers (or Electro Thermal Chip if you prefer) connected to it. This caused frost to form and then condensation. When too much condensation formed water would start dripping down and well... water and electronics don't like each other.
To fix the problem I was forced to do the following:
1) Add a Radio Shack Turbine fan to the bottom of the case. This fan shot air into the case fan which...
2) Reverse the case fan so it was blowing air out of the case. That's right folks, to stop the condensation I have all fans on exhaust mode.
3) Put the case cover on to limit the amount of cold air coming into the case. Since his case has vents on the side, enough cool air gets in to prevent overheating.
So far my little idea has worked. Even with all fans blowing air out of the case the heating plate is still very cool, but enough to cause troubles. Man that was the weirdest fix I have ever needed to do to a computer. Sheesh.
Jammrock
------------------
PIII 540 (120 MHz x 4.5 - 540), 256 MB PC133 SDRAM, ASUS P3B-F, Winblows 98 SuckyEdition, 18 GB WD Expert HDD, Encore 6x DVD w/ Dxr3 decoder, (TEMPORARY!!!) Voodoo 3 2000 @ 175 MHz which will be replaced by a Matrox G400 MAX, Sound Blaster Live! full retail, MAG DX715T 17
To fix the problem I was forced to do the following:
1) Add a Radio Shack Turbine fan to the bottom of the case. This fan shot air into the case fan which...
2) Reverse the case fan so it was blowing air out of the case. That's right folks, to stop the condensation I have all fans on exhaust mode.
3) Put the case cover on to limit the amount of cold air coming into the case. Since his case has vents on the side, enough cool air gets in to prevent overheating.
So far my little idea has worked. Even with all fans blowing air out of the case the heating plate is still very cool, but enough to cause troubles. Man that was the weirdest fix I have ever needed to do to a computer. Sheesh.
Jammrock
------------------
PIII 540 (120 MHz x 4.5 - 540), 256 MB PC133 SDRAM, ASUS P3B-F, Winblows 98 SuckyEdition, 18 GB WD Expert HDD, Encore 6x DVD w/ Dxr3 decoder, (TEMPORARY!!!) Voodoo 3 2000 @ 175 MHz which will be replaced by a Matrox G400 MAX, Sound Blaster Live! full retail, MAG DX715T 17
Comment