I've got a question that requires the expertise of a EE to answer and I am
hoping one of our resident engineers can do precisely that.

The other day I was swapping out a hard drive on my bench box..... Tomcat
III....233MMX..it is in a open 286 case with a fist rate PC Power and
cooling CPU heat sink / fan.....normally the heat sink feels cool.

I inadvertently loosened the connection to the CPU fan and the PC ran for
around three days.....12 to 16 hours a day...with no CPU fan...just the
heat sink. I finally noticed it last night ......the heat sink was VERY
hot.....I could touch the heat sink but it was cooking.
The amazing thing was I saw no degradation in performance or experienced
any lockups ....and I have been running NT4 with SETI continuously running
in the background...so from the moment I boot I have a constant 100 percent
CPU use.

The computer has been performing perfectly. Of course what saved it was a
67 to 74 degree ambient air temperature....no cover on the case....and a
first rate heat sink with thermal grease....

I started thinking about this and I am curious if the heat necessarily
damaged or over stressed the CPU even though there have been no failures or
abnormal behavior of any sort ? ?

thanks

m

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