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View Full Version : Simple fix to my ongoing hardware woes - British summer!



likwid
July 6th, 2007, 11:54 AM
Hi

I was having problems over the last few months with a media box in our living room freezing up randomly.

Having tried everything to troubleshoot, spending hours swapping ram, cpu, motherboard, psu while stress testing, i simply could never replicate the problem.

The other night i came home after work late and went to watch some tv before bed. I opened the window to let in some cool air and within 2 minutes the system froze for the first time in days. The following evening i did the same with the same result.

So it turns out that moisture was creeping in the window, falling to the floor, traveling a couple of metres to the pc and shorting the system. The problem only started recently due to the warmer (but still wet) weather causing us to start opening our living room window. I'm not sure what I can do to prevent this from happening, obviously apart from keeping this particular window closed. :)

prizrak
July 6th, 2007, 02:55 PM
LOL. Make some kind of a cover for the system I guess? I'm assuming the only place for moisture to get into it is the exhaust ports, so if you make some kind of an awning over that area you should be fine.

likwid
July 6th, 2007, 04:44 PM
An awning! :)

I assumed the cold damp air is being sucked through the air intake. Maybe it wouldn't be a problem, but for the fact that we have bare floorboards in our flat. I think my only choice is to move the box but I'm somewhat restricted in that respect due to the location of the tv.

lepz
July 6th, 2007, 07:45 PM
Typical Brit, always whinging about the weather. :lolflag:

prizrak
July 6th, 2007, 10:50 PM
An awning! :)

I assumed the cold damp air is being sucked through the air intake. Maybe it wouldn't be a problem, but for the fact that we have bare floorboards in our flat. I think my only choice is to move the box but I'm somewhat restricted in that respect due to the location of the tv.

Hmmm, shouldn't be that much of a problem, generally condensation doesn't affect the system THAT much. Well here are some more solutions I thought off.
1) If it doesn't get very hot, consider installing an air filter akin to those they use in cars that should trap moisture pretty well. Also has an added benefit of not letting dust in.

2) If you have the money, switch the system to passive liquid cooling. You won't have any openings in the case for the moisture to get sucked into.

3) Get one of those wireless A/V sender/reciever things and move the box somewhere.

If I think of something else I'll post :)

moffatt666
July 6th, 2007, 11:25 PM
1) If it doesn't get very hot, consider installing an air filter akin to those they use in cars that should trap moisture pretty well. Also has an added benefit of not letting dust in.


I like that idea! Air filters are pretty cheap from your local motor factors. Get one for a Vauxhall Cavalier or Nova.

blackened
July 6th, 2007, 11:46 PM
Invest in a window-unit type air conditioner. The evaporator should remove most of the moisture from the air (I can rarely sleep with ac on because it makes the air so dry).

smoker
July 6th, 2007, 11:52 PM
try a large dry sponge by the window to soak up moisture!

FoolsGold_MKII
July 7th, 2007, 12:20 AM
Brits have summers? Proper summers?

My God. :o

likwid
July 7th, 2007, 12:57 AM
The problem is the lack of a real summer. The weather's rubbish here, we even had hail stones week before last. We have quite large windows in our flat, it's pretty old. I think a vauxhall nova air filter would kinda spoil the aesthetic i'm looking for.

Joking aside, i'll see if i can find some kind of air filter, either that or i'm going to build the pc into the telly cabinet and draw air from the opposite side from the window; if i do i'll post some pictures. This will all happen in a couple of weeks though as i'm away on holiday for two weeks tomorrow. Off to Gran Canaria!!

prizrak
July 8th, 2007, 05:27 AM
The problem is the lack of a real summer. The weather's rubbish here, we even had hail stones week before last. We have quite large windows in our flat, it's pretty old. I think a vauxhall nova air filter would kinda spoil the aesthetic i'm looking for.

Joking aside, i'll see if i can find some kind of air filter, either that or i'm going to build the pc into the telly cabinet and draw air from the opposite side from the window; if i do i'll post some pictures. This will all happen in a couple of weeks though as i'm away on holiday for two weeks tomorrow. Off to Gran Canaria!!

Oh, this is actually gave me another idea, perhaps building some sort of an air duct out of sight to make it draw the air from somewhere else. Also you could probably install the air filter on the inside of the machine, not too sure what your case looks like though.

lepz
July 8th, 2007, 09:58 AM
Brits have summers? Proper summers?

My God. :o

Yep, and there will be getting much longer and hotter, thanks to those countries that wouldn't sign up for the Kyoto Protocol. :p

prizrak
July 8th, 2007, 04:47 PM
Yep, and there will be getting much longer and hotter, thanks to those countries that wouldn't sign up for the Kyoto Protocol. :p

Hey don't thank me all at once ;)