how bad is 68 degrees for the xp?

[wireant]

Hi,
Earlier today I was organizing my cables and fans in my case. I changed the fan on my ax-7 heatsink and got everything ready and left without trying everything out. So later on tonight I turned the computer on and started working. Then a smell of burnt plastic or electronics became present. I smelled the exhaust fans on my computer and sure enough it was that. I opened the side panel (good think for easy open with no screws) and noticed that the fan on the ax-7 was not moving. I immediately checked the temps and the cpu was at 68. I then turned it off and let it cool then went to attempt to find the problem. I found that the plastic type mesh covering the atx power was touching the heatsink and that started to get hot. I think that was what smelled. I took the fan off the heatsink and found my big mistake - I put the fan grill upside down and that caused the fan not to spin. That shows you that you should always check your pc after working on it because you are ware of what you did.

I was just wondering how bad that was for the cpu?

Here is my next story of the night. I got everything working and turned it on in the bios and checked the temps. back to 40 thankfuly. I have the adjustable enermax fans inside and wanted to make sure they were running at full speed so I took my screwdriver and turned the knobs up. On one I cranked to hard and busted it. So I cut it off and stripped the wires with my nails ans hooked them together so it would run at full speed ( this is while the oc is running). So I figured everything was alright and I put the wire in the case and sure enough it touched the aluminum and off the computer went. I figured I blew something. I tried the pwer button, turned the psu on and off. It wouldn't turn on. I waited a minute and tried again and it worked and I am typing on it at this moment. I am not going to even touch the computer again tonight. Both mistakes were completely stupid and I can't beleive I did it. If I wasn't worried about the cpu I would have never touched that fan. Oh well, everything is still working and I will never do anything that stupid again. I am much smarter than that when I am not in a state of panic and almost melted my $180 cpu.

I hope you enjoyed my story and learn from it

[Alfie]

Be glad you had that big heatsink on it!
68c is well within the limits,so I doubt you did any real damage.
Motherboards have a built in reset,that's why it wouldn't boot up right away.
It's adviseable to have some software installed with auto shutdown features.
Vcool is such a program.
If you're using WinXP,just use the exe. file,it helps in keeping your cpu cool and with it's auto shut down You may find it useful.

[wireant]

just as I was shutting down the alarm went off because it was hot. I use the soyo smartguardian to read the temps and to set off the alarm. But Vcool looks like a nice utility that I will have to get. If I turned the computer on and walked away and the same thing happened that would save me again. A proccesor can't have too many lives

[Cricket]

Originally posted by wireant So I cut it off and stripped the wires with my nails ans hooked them together so it would run at full speed ( this is while the oc is running). So I figured everything was alright and I put the wire in the case and sure enough it touched the aluminum and off the computer went.

You didn't cover the bare joined wires with electrical tape or heat shrink tubing? If you haven't done so yet, you should or it could short out again.

Yes, it's really important to take your time and double check your work when you're working on your PC. Considering how much some of us spend on our computers, it's a good idea to be careful so you don't kill any of the parts or the whole system.

Cricket