Computers

[deccan]

Originally posted by Ragnarok:
My laptop runs perfectly fine. It's an Inspiron 8100 that is about 2 years old. I run it for usually for a couple weeks before I restart. And that isn't due to heat problems, just needs to be restarted to fix a couple issues that would come up and so forth. I've been extreamly happy with it.

You know what REALLY annoys me? My laptop before this was another Compaq Presario, which runs at about 450 MHz or so (I forget what exactly) with 8 Mb video RAM. I sold it to someone here and bought my Presario 2700 a year and a half ago (I wanted a laptop with 32 Mb video RAM), and now the old thing still runs perfectly fine. Right now, it probably even runs faster than mine does most of the time. Sheesh. I think that the new, big graphics chips generate a LOT of heat if you push them by running big 3-D games.

[Fyron]

850 chipset = RDram
845 or off brand chipset = DDR

And this means what exactly?

[Phoenix-D]

That means you can tell which RAM type you use by the type of your motherboard.

[Fyron]

I see. Don't motherBoards often support several different types of RAM?

[Thermodyne]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
I see. Don't motherBoards often support several different types of RAM?

Some support Sdram and DDram and some support these at several speeds. But Rdram is a more advanced form of memory and requires a different type of signal.

Dual DDRam is an attempt to reach the bandwidth offered by Rdram, but so far, a faster speed setting has been needed to close the gap.

Also, Rdram has very few settings to worry about and does not corrupt data when set out of range. Ddr on the other hand has many settings to worry about and will fubar your data if you get too aggressive with the settings.

[Thermodyne]

Originally posted by deccan:
Hmm, I have a Compaq Presario 2700 laptop with the following specs:

1.12 GHz Pentium 3-M
512 MB RAM
30 Hz HD
Win XP Home Edition
32 MB ATI Radeon Mobility M6

It ran fine for the year-and-a-half that I've had it (I've played and finished such games as Morrowind, Jedi Knight 2 and Splinter Cell on it).

The thing is, I have been having some major heat problems with this machine lately. A couple of weeks ago, it overheated so much that it shut itself down.

Now, some kind of heat management system seems to have kicked in, so that the laptop runs with SpeedStep permanently enabled. Now, it runs for 733 MHz for maybe half an hour, until the temperature gets too bad, and then it drops to 384 MHz. At least, it doesn't shut down by itself now. This is enough to play SEIV but not for other stuff.

I know that I really ought to bring it to a Compaq Service Centre but I can't where I live, at least until the end of the year.

I'm considering either:

1) Buying a new desktop-replacement Dell Inspiron.

2) Buying the spanking new Dell Dimension 8300 but then I'll have to arrange for it to be shipped specially for me from Singapore to where I live.

I'd prefer buying the laptop but I'm worried about persistent heat problems, especially since I keep my computer running for long periods of time.

Anyone have any experience with heat problems in laptops that they'd like to share?

Sounds like you have a dead fan, could also be an air port plugged with lint and such. Any computer shop could fix that for you.

I have a Prostar laptop with a 2.4GHz northwood chip. It runs real hot. The heat venting out the side of it is about 120f when its working hard. But when it is running on battery, I can set the speed to 25% (about 500MHz) and there is almost no heat at all.

[Loser]

Originally posted by Thermodyne:
Loser:

words, words, words

I see old NT server disks at almost every computer show I hit.

words, words, words

Thank you, Thermodyne. Sounds like it's going to be NT Server.

I don't care to invest time in some *nix right now. Did that, got the zeal, got the t-shirts and the "Live Free or Die" license plate to prove it, got a job, don't have time to figure it our again.

[ July 08, 2003, 13:35: Message edited by: Loser ]

[Loser]

Originally posted by Thermodyne:
Sounds like you have a dead fan, could also be an air port plugged with lint and such. Any computer shop could fix that for you.

There are other problems that can cause the heat-sinks to fail to dissipate heat. Smoking around a computer deposits gunk on everything inside, and this can eventually have a significant impact on the heat sink's ability to pass heat into the passing air. I've also seen ashy paraffin (from candles like) all over the inside of a computer with a heat issue.

But it is probably a fan.

And any hole-in-the-wall computer shop should be able to take care of just about any possible reason for your heat issue.

[Thermodyne]

Originally posted by Loser:
There are other problems that can cause the heat-sinks to fail to dissipate heat. Smoking around a computer deposits gunk on everything inside, and this can eventually have a significant impact on the heat sink's ability to pass heat into the passing air. I've also seen ashy paraffin (from candles like) all over the inside of a computer with a heat issue.

Worst one I ever ran into had roaches in it.

[ July 08, 2003, 15:20: Message edited by: Thermodyne ]

[Loser]

Originally posted by Thermodyne:
Worst one I ever ran into had roaches in it.

When I worked at one of the big PC manufacturers we got one back in the service department that had been filled, packed even, with manure before it was carefully placed back in the packing material and shipped back. I guess someone had an attitude problem. I know someone shortly had a legal problem shortly thereafter. I doubt it was worth the laughs.

[edit: since this was, probably, intentional I do not think it can exactly compete with the roaches.]

[ July 08, 2003, 15:28: Message edited by: Loser ]