My Sci-Fi Life.

[dalekboy]

Last night, Sharon was humming something. I immediately identified it, but thought I must have had it wrong. When I asked her what she was humming, Sharon replied that she didn't know. After a few questions, and my own imitation of the piece, I confirmed it was the battle music from the original Star Trek series episode Amok Time.

If you're unfamiliar with it, you can listen to an MP3 of the piece here. It's track number 22.

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My computer has been dying a lot the last few days. Again and again, it would reboot and die. I guessed that the fans on the power-thingy (does it make you wet when I talk technical) must have stopped. Checked it out and sure enough, neither fan was running.

They are really badly placed to get at, so I grabbed the vacuum cleaner and gave each a good sound sucking. No worries. Turned the computer on, but couldn't see if the fans were turning in the cramped space under the desk. Need a torch. Cramped space, not much room to move. Torch, torch, torch.

Torch too big to work around. Bugger. Need light.

Sonic Screwdriver!

So, there I was, under my desk with my sonic screwdriver, using it to help get my PC running properly again. One fan runs fine at start-up, the other needs me to pop under the desk with my sonic screwdriver and give it a little 'push', then it runs okay for as long as my PC is on.

Tomorrow - I start to manually rewrite key components of my body chemistry by jamming the microwave door open with it running. I'm hoping to grow a prehensile tail.

Comments

[cheshirenoir.livejournal.com]

I can see a group of us getting together to raise the money to buy you a new CPU.

If you were in Perth I'd GIVE you one :-)

(Good ones aren't stupidly expensive. Corner your tech-geek mates and they'll probably have a spare somewhere. They do tend to die)

Finally, if you can't find someone with a spare and want to save a few bob, rip it out of your computer, open it up, peel back the teeny stickers over the middle bit of the fans, pop open the rubber caps underneath, drop 2-3 drops of 3-1 oil (aka sewing machine oil) in. Put the cap back in, sticker back down, case back closed, PSU back inside the case, and you can probably wring another year out of it...

fixing fans

[khoath.livejournal.com]

To oil pc fans you can do the following: go to the supermarket (or get someone to go for you) you need bluetack and sewing machine oil. remove the fan from the eatsink or open the powersupply and remove the fan if possible. If there is a sticker remove it carefully; pour in a drop or two of sewing machine oil. use a ball of bluetack to remove the excess oil and restick the sticker down. If there is a rubber/plastic plug take it out and put the oil in then replace it. I kid you not; we do this all the time in Perth and a fan runs for a good 2 to 2 and a half years once oiled. Homebrand sewing machine oil will do; 68 cents a bottle, and bluetack at $2 or $3. Or buy new fans.

Re: fixing fans

[cheshirenoir.livejournal.com]

Heh! Beat you!
If it comes to swapping out fans in PSUs, be warned you'll usually need to solder them in / out. For not much more than the price of the fans I'd suggest a new PSU.

Even a cheapy Yum-Cha brand PSU will be better than what you have currently.

Re: fixing fans

[khoath.livejournal.com]

or rest the fan on the powersupply and don't remove it completely. A new psu might cost you $30 and they might be ok in Canberra but Perth power bangs them. for me; i'm totally blind so by the time I factor in freight and taxis if I go get the stuff it's cheaper to oil the fans. still; each to their own. People are so tight over here (or the ones I deal with) they'd rather pay for oil bluetack and my time. I'll admit growing upin the bush has made me fix what I have rather than go out and allways buy new. If I lived in Melb or a more computer centric state i'd go to the swap meet and get happy lucky dragon psu.

Re: fixing fans

[cheshirenoir.livejournal.com]

Heh!

Perth power is indeed shocking. I'm based in Maddington most of the time, and we lose power after every decent storm.

Orange Grove, however, was so bad even decent PSUs weren't helping. We had to put a power conditioner on every PC.

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

It's always the fan that goes first, isn't it?

Drhoz opened up the side of his 'puter and has a desk fan blowing on it. poor machine should have been put out of its misery years ago...

[cheshirenoir.livejournal.com]

A better way of looking at it is "moving parts go first."

Hard drives, CDRoms, Fans. These components break.

RAM, CPUs and Motherboards only tend to die due to overheating of one kind or another. They either bake to death cos a fan has gone or the Capacitors dry out and stop working.

[baralier.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that *Star Trek battle music* refrain has been reworked in a number of episodes. The melody is familiar but not in the way the Amok Time recording has it.

As for the PC, if the second fan needs a *hudge* it might still have a bit of fluff inside the axle. Whether you're game enough to unscrew it clean it and put it back on I'll leave up to you.

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

It's badly placed, that's the problem - cleaning it out doesn't bother me, tearing my machine apart to get to it does.
I basically have to pull apart half the PC to get to it.

Not the first PC with a push-start fan I've had *grin*

The fan that runs, I can get to with the oil. But since its suck-job, it's doing fine.

[dcrisp.livejournal.com]

prehensile tail... cool.. hehe prehensile tail!

[frzn-mmnt.livejournal.com]

OMG!

That's priceless. Would have loved to see photos of that.

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

written by Theodore Sturgeon, that ep.

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

now,, if you were a dolphin, you wouldn't need a prehensile *tail* and judging by your earlier post you'ld still be able to handle quite large objects.