The following horror, a rat's nest, dust infested inferno of an Intel oven, turned out to be a blessing in disguise! Facilitating a somewhat earlier upgrade of a PSU for my main rig, then passing my current PSU down to a spare box.

I'll post the details of the story after the pics, cuz I just know you are all desperate to see the nasty stuff, and the end result!

Before:


















After:





[img]http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/7486/jda39oe.th.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4326/jda49hj.jpg[/img]


So I'm passing my Enermax Liberty down to a system I am building later this summer for my eldest., and replacing it with an OCZ GameXStream 600W. I didn't even get to page two of the review on it here, and I was convinced enough. I've been watching prices on them for a while now, and seen a couple good specials come and go. I ordered one with the last special, way ahead of my planned schedual.

I had to jump on it, because with no stores open, I've pulled a PSU out of my XP3000 to get my brother's system going and him on his way home... so I am down one PSU and the folding farm is down one plot lol.

You see, my brother was in town visiting with his two daughters, and brought his computer with him (as per my request). He has been having random shutdowns, lockups, reboots. I've always suspected his PSU, but he's been reluctant to test it himself.

Opening the case, he had a little more than just PSU problems. I was appalled at the dust clogging the fins in the heatsink, yeah I've seen it before, but this isn't how I taught him how to take care of his system!! Alas, nothing I couldn't fix up easy enough, providing the scortching heat didn't cause any serious damage.

His rails were all in spec, but his 12v was fluctuating quite a bit.

Prime95 would freeze the computer within one hour of running. It would not error, just freeze.

Memtest would reboot itself, no errors, just that when I would check on it, I would notice the loop count and wall time was being constantly reset.

I put a spare -- although basically new and hardly used but very cheap POS -- 450w PSU in and ran Prime 95 for 14 hours no lockups and error free.

The spare would not do permemnantly, but proved enough that the PSU he had was the cause of his instability.

The stores were all closed here because of a long weekend, and he had to drive back home next day. So I pulled the 400w Fortron Sparkle out of my XP3000 and gave that to him for cost. It was all hand sleeved by me, near new, and was currently running on it's 70th day of uptime folding 24/7 on that spare machine.

His case had ZERO fans in it other than the PSU and HSF. So I filled up the slots with 4 x 80mm fans I had in stock here, one front intake and one side panel intake, and two rear exhaust. I also put filters on the intakes.

So the Enermax will go in the XP3000 till I can get another Sparkle, and then it's going in either a new Intel or AM2 depending on how prices go after the end of July release (and price slash) day.

The Enemax cables had been bothering me in a couple places in my case, the connectors are too close together, too limiting in length in some situations, and the GameXtreme will solve these issues as well as give me a little more overhead that I was lacking, and also give the planned new system a rock solid PSU that is much better than the Sparkle I had planed for it.

The GameXtreme had been on special, I had my eyes on it and was kind of wishing for an opportunity to pick one up but had to wait till the rest of the components until this came up and I was out a PSU for one system.

I should have the new PSU tomorrow sometime, but no idea when I'll have time to install it. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have new install pics to post here.

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beautifull job, didnt read it all, but i did see the stuff 'bout the gamexstream, well i have it, great job with it till now (has a really good fan, quite, and its aint hot at all!)

Amazing transformation. It looks 110% better than before!

On a side note, you'll be very pleased with the GameXStream. It's a sweet PSU...

Lol those were some nice dust buffalos you had there. Good job cleaning it all up your before and afters are better then the ones on the infomercial im watching right now .

That dust isnt that bad, infact im pretty sure my sisters PC is like that. Come to think of it, so is my dads. Ive seen some shocking ones where i used to work, sat on the floor for years near to the door to a dusty warehouse. It was a miracle they didnt burst into flames., i nearly choked to death when i tried blowing the dust out i had to wash it out of my eyes and hair!

LOL
Sad but true.
You did do a bang up job on the transformation m8.
really nice pics. I may use the dust buried RAM as a desktop.

I've seen worse too, but pre-digital camera days, and also back when heatsink fans were puny minature toys compared to even that little CM.

One press I worked on had all the timesheet and docket info on networked computers that sat right at the presses. They were so gummed up with spray powder (finer than even flour) I was amazed that they continued to run flawlessly. As I've said to many of my pressman apprentice students, computers that are dedicated to single tasks tend to work flawlessly, and it's only when you start running a ton of software and customizing the OS and stuff that you run into instability. All these systems did was run one piece of software, ever, and they did it well.

Clean them? Don't you dare! It might cause problemns lol, don't fix what ain't broke. They ran like that for years, uncleaned.

Tyvm!

ROFL, you will have to take a screenshot and post it. Let me know if you want a high res version and which pic, I'll put iut online for ya.

I actually like running into these ones, because the transformation is so drastic from before to after that I get a lot of brownie points for the extra time I put into it (nocharge for cable detailing like this). I can see if I get busier I won't have time to go the extra mile, but I can still do a lot in 5 minutes; and will always clear out IDE ribbon cable and obvious bad routing.

So the dust cleaning is a basic charge, and usually includes a fan or two that will need replacing or filling empty slots. I make extra on the fans, and that's always an easy bonus. The cable management and detailing I throw in as complimentary and find it goes way farther than any flyer or handfull of business cards.

It is a lot easier to keep a client than to find new ones. Do this for them, and I garantee they will never call anyone else.

/edit: This one, by the way, was totally complimentary of course, my kid brother's first computer he bought a year ago last Xmas. Against my advice, he bought it from MDG and has been regretting it ever since.

I keep telling him not to fret about it, chaulk it up to a crash course in computers, look at how much he's learned and the difference in value and quality is made up via a very usefull learning experience.

I tell him he is probably one of the only people in the world to achieve a Level 60 Mage in WOW within the first 6 months of ever owning or using a computer. Nubcakes he is, his harddrive is still called imanewb from when I first checked it over, but he's come a long way man, long-ass way.

He's now seen my system, and knows what he wants for his next system, and will be handing this one down to his kids. I can't wait to build it for him, hopefully this year.

Thats a very nice cleanup and organization job there Litho. I always get a kick out of the end result, because it looks almost foreign to have a clean, organized PC again. I've never heard of MDG though, are they like a canadian eMachines?

TY, and yes, I am thinking so.

That mobo is actiually an Intel, but it seems very scaled back, there are a lot of missing parts that were never soldered on to it, a lot of features that were not included in the massive bulk sale they must have bought them at.

There are no sensors whatsoever, and no cpu clocking adjustments at all, and only very rudimentary memory settings to allow for compatibility but not much else.

The case had NO fans in it at all, only the cpu fan and the very crappy PSU fan.

They sell these things through flyers and on TV, for prices that would make you peuk to think people pay so much for such junk.

It is attractive to a large market of consumers because they offer a finacing package that works out to a dollar a day -- hard to resist but the f'ing things rarely last as long as the payments do. They also come bundled with a lot of software, monitor, speakers, printer, camera, tons of stuff that is not worth the cost of shipping.

The first thing my brother did was replace the mouse and speakers, out of his pocket. The next thing was the monitor popped, a 17" CRT. They replaced it under warranty. The replacement popped. He is on the third monitor now and the warranty is over.

The printer stopped functioning after about 1 week of not being used, typical inkjet with 5 year old ink.

The camera is not much more than a keychain camera that takes worse pictures than the crappiest webcam you could possibly buy anywhere, and I am not egagerating.

To be completely honest, the most reliable components in the thing so far, is the CPU and Ram, and I guess I have to credit the mobo for hoilding up to this too, or maybe Windows if it would qualify too. The CPU has been folding (for me heheh) the last couple months with that gummed up heatsink and must have been close to 70C, 24/7 when it wasn't locked up, lmao! I am suprised it is stable and OK now, and not completly fried! Same for the ram of course, it's working like a charm with that CPU, all they needed was some air!

The Hard Drive had some problems, but we managed to fix them and salvage the OS. He already knows how to format and install XP, it was one of the first things he learned after he got himself very infected with spyware by installing the regular infecting host apps -- yes I warned him about stuff like that too. :mad:

Anyway, he's set his mind now on a DFI and AMD, with some nice ram and video, and a decent case. He'll end up laying out a fraction of what he paid for the MDG, get an LCD on top of the deal, and most likely start hanging around here slurping up info every night like the rest of us.

I always laugh when I enter a computer/electronics store and see the prices they charge for the machines they sell. Some of them are quite nice, and I actually had a Sony Vaio back in 2004 that was factory liquid cooled and pretty powerful, but the prices are insane! I've built two high-end PCs for the cost of one commercial high-end pc.

Have the temps decreased since you cleaned that sucker out?

I am going to start bringing my camera to some of the jobs I do, I've seen ten times worse, but that heat sink was useless in that condition, good job.

he said that


so i doubt he saw the temps decrase, we all know that it should have decrease but it cannot be mesured because the baord had no sensor

We have about 100 of those motherboards at work... They have almsot not software full stop in them to monitor temps and NO clocking options either.

But other then that they are great little boards.

haha, nice cleaning job man. seeing the after pics i was thinking to myself "hmm.., pressure washed and steam cleaned " haha. nice and shiny

That is correct.

I used the tried and true old school method. I put my finger on the heatsink.

With all the gunk and dust, it was impossible to leave my finger on the heatsink for even a split second without burning myself... it was that hot.

After all the gunk was cleaned out, the heatsink was barely warm to the touch. That is how important it is to keep those fins clean and clear.

So I am guessing that the temp was 70C, only because I know that at 60C I can leave my finger on for a second or two without injury. Beyond that I do not know, lol.

I considered pulling the FPD out of my system for the thermistor temp sensors, but what for? No matter what they end up reading, he gets what he gets. Besides, I was seriously concerned that it would melt the thermiostor lol.

Oh man, I would love to see what others run into. Please do feel free to post any pics you take from your own camera here, even if there is no after pic.

I take pics of just about every job I work on in my "lab". Offsight, in the clients home or office, fuggetaboudit. But anything that hits my bench and gets a detail job gets pics... oh sometimes the wife has the camera or the batteries are charging, so I miss a few. When I get some time, I'll post some others here.

Tonight's job; Virus ridden DELL. I was surprised not to see mushrooms growing in there.

Tonights job.

hahaha, wow. it really is amazing how many people have never cleaned out their comp once, in the years they have owned it.

added 2 more pics for your viewing pleasure

With that amount of dust and god knows what else you had in there can't you short something dude? You have animals in your room? I live in a cave so i'm assuming we're alike!

That's not mine, no way, LOL, it's a customer's DELL, which originally came in for a virus infestation...SURPRISE!!!

Nice clean up job. Both of the crappy Celeron machines, in the video department of a store I used to work at, started having shutdown problems within an hour of each other. I popped them open - and holy crap, it was like looking at a furnace filter that hadn't been changed in 5 years. Each POS had a furball the size of my fist, as well as a full serving of other dust and kibble. I walked them outside, and blew all the crap out into a garbage can. What was amazing, was that I was deemed a computer genuis by everyone in my store. Even more amazing - IT had been in about a month prior - for "routine" system maintenance. Right.

OMG! You gonna need a respirator when cleaning that! Damn, call the health department! LOLzorz!

You think ordinary dust is bad? Try cleaning a computer that's been next to an abattoir:

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?si...3&tid=4&tid=137

Damn, no pics

People that treat their computers like that should have them taken away by like computer protective services. *single tear falls from eye*