I replaced the old clone I had built for my son (and rebuilt 3 times)
with a new midtower case and an Asus motherboard with a 550 Mhz K6
processor. I put back in 192 MB of DIMMS, a 6.4 MB WD drive, a Creative Labs
DX2 Encore DVD drive with decoder card, 16 MB Creative Labs PCI TNT Riva
card, a Linksys network card, and a Creative Labs 128 PCI sound card.

   About a week after I had it running it began singing a loud whine after a
few minutes (sometimes hours) of operation. When I removed both sides of the
computer case it cools enough to where it won't whine while running.

  I decided to order a dual 80MM fan ($16) from http://www.millisec.com and
a digital thermometer  with a flat thermistor ($14).

   Before the fan arrived I drilled 40 small holes in one door side to see
if that would allow enough cooling (it did not).

   When the fan arrived I attached it facing the CPU and also ran the
thermometer probe within one inch of the heat sink. First I replaced the
case covers and left the new fan unpowered and the thermometer running to
check what actually was the case temperature when the problem occurs. The
case temperature starts at 23.5 Centigrade and within ten minutes rises to
36.5 C at which point the whining sound begins. I then attached a spare
Molex connector to the new double fan assembly and ran it again. It again
rose quickly to mid 30s, but stopped at the 35.5 reading where it remains
and the whining has stopped.

   I am slightly disappointed that I only gained 1 degree, but happy the
sound has stopped. My daughter reports that at times it seems like it is
going to start the sound again, but stops after a second. If I get a
recurrence of the problem I am going to reseat the CPU cooler fan and make
sure the thermal grease doesn't have any gaps with a smooth reapplication.
If that fails I am going to replace the CPU cooler fan with a premium model.

   It's probably unknown by many users about inside heat problems and I'd be
willing to bet a substantial amount of Windows' problems are heat-related.
I'm sure we will all see more discussion about heat problems in the near
future as more manufacturers and more people add hotter components to their
systems.


All the best,

Russell Smith
Edtech Consultant, Journalist
A+ Technician
http://www.rustysmith.com

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