On Sat, 27 Oct 2007 19:09:33 -0700, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

"William R. Walsh"
m hath wroth:

I think I found the problem I was having with a Gateway 2000 GP5-200
desktop computer. It would randomly freeze or drop into STOP errors. I
started looking at the motherboard and found a voltage regulator
attached to a beefy heatsink. Even with that, it still got too hot to
touch for very long. If you look at the URL below, note the electrolytic
caps sandwiched in between the two major fins on the heatsink. That
can't be a great idea.

Last I looked it had been up for over five hours now. I guess Gateway
shouldn't have been so stingy with their idea to put another fan in
place...maybe that's why I've never seen another one of these?

http://12.206.251.215/gp5200/

Yech. Barbequed electrolytics. Forget the fan idea. Unsolder or just
chomp out the caps. Replace them with caps that have LONG leads. Bend
the leads away from the heat sink and over the edge of the motherboard.
That should get them away from the heat without adding too much lead
inductance.

Incidentally, I just sent to the eWaste recyclers everything in my
house, office, and storage dumpster, that was slower than a PIII. I
kept a few boards, but all the old machines and most of the ISA and VESA
boards went away. I can now almost walk into my office without climbing
over a pile of computahs. Befo
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/office/slides/IMG_0086.html After
will have to wait until after I finish purging.

Sorry for the cross-posting. It seemed like this topic would fit well in
both groups.

The IP is dynamic but should be relatively stable. I lost my DynDNS
account (after six years, they killed it for 30 days of my not signing
in!) and am working to get it back.

Just pay the $12/year for an account. I have about 20 dyndns entries on
mine, some of which are laptops and PDA's that rarely connect. They
don't pull the plug on you if you have a paying account.

Still want the MCA boards? Send me a mailing address. I
lost/forgot/misplace/too-lazy-to-look-for your mailing address.

Good slide show... Mine mess is in several rooms...

JR the postman