Hot environment....Possible damage to PC.

Hello

I have in the last few days been reinstalling windows and Fs9 (still doing that.

)

It's very hot in the UK at the moment as I type this it's over thirty degrees in side my flat.

I am worried that my PC may be damaged as all the installing I have been doing requires my PC to be on for many hours.

I do use a large room fan ,but that just pumps out warm air as well.

So do I risk damaging my PC

Thanks Andrew

In addition to loki's advice, the one, most important thing, in my opinion, you can do to help your PC keep it's cool is to clean it.

Turn it off, let it get all the way off, no sounds, or any other indication of life of any kind. Pull the side cover off, and use canned air to blow out every nook and cranny. The CPU and GPU heat sinks, every fan you can find, the power supply, everywhere. Get every speck of dust you can out of the PC. Every dust grain is an insulator. You can use things like small paintbrushes to help break things loose, if the air alone isn't adequate alone. Just be VERY gentle with them.

Remember, when blowing out/off fans to hold them with a finger to keep them from spinning in the air blast.

Only use canned air or equivalent. Never more than a 10 PSI source. Higher pressure than that, and you take a chance on braking wires, or prying loose cards and components, things like that. I used to use an air compressor as a source, but I had a calibrated regulator on it. Kept the pressure down from 150 to 10 PSI. But I never ran out of air, no matter how many PC's I cleaned :D

Make sure you put the side cover back on when you're done. If the PC is designed and assembled properly, the air flow will be maximized, from intake to exhaust, with the covers on.

Bear in mind, the closer you get to the floor, the cooler the air is. Having said that, however, never place the PC ON the floor. Always keep it a foot or so up, and ALWAYS on a hard surface. Never the carpet, or anything like that. I place a couple thick boards with a nice flat board on top of them down on the floor, where there's real good airflow for mine. Placing them ON the floor, however, will make the dust build up MUCH faster.

Another thing to remember, and this comes from a LONG career in the electronics field: Electronics, like PC's, tend to fail most when turned on from a cold-n-dark condition. Best is to leave them run. Let them turn off the monitor, idle down the HD's, go to sleep, whatever, just don't turn it off unless you have to.

Final bit of advice. ANY time you have the covers off, make sure you ground yourself to the PC's metal chassis. Something as simple as a metal watchband, with a nice length of wire wrapped around it (bare wire, not insulated!), and then leading to an alligator clip (that part can be insulated if you like, but not where it connects to the clip!) you can clamp to someplace metal in the PC will do nicely. Or you can buy a static-proof bracelet or other form of anti-static protection from nearly any electronics store.

Something you may not notice, like a small movement of your feet, or even blowing the canned air into the PC, can build a static charge on your body that can destroy computer components quickly and easily. A charge you don't even feel discharging into the PC, but the electronics sure can! A static proofing bracelet or other device can prevent this little problem.

Good luck!

Pat☺

Also, install a free program like this to monitor your temps. :)

https://www.nzxt.com/camapp

Another thing to remember, and this comes from a LONG career in the electronics field: Electronics, like PC's, tend to fail most when turned on from a cold-n-dark condition. Best is to leave them run. Let them turn off the monitor, idle down the HD's, go to sleep, whatever, just don't turn it off unless you have to.

This really isn't an issue with computers built in the last 10-15 years. Modern computer components are far more resilient than those that went into the first PCs decades ago. You would have to be doing cold boots multiple times a day, every day for years to noticeably shorten the lifespan.

https://www.energystar.gov/products/low_carbon_it_campaign/faqs

Thanks to all who replied (a special thanks to Pat for some useful info. I will take on board your suggestions ,especially concerning static discharge ,I think in the past I have been to cavalier when it came to working inside my previous PC and it may explain why it failed suddenly and with no symptoms to suggest it was about to)

Fortunately the temperatures have now dropped significantly here so my heating concerns are no longer worrying me.

As to 123 degrees in Las Vegas ,that doesn't bare thinking about ,however by UK standards we have had an exceptionally long and hot dry Summer, temperatures have been pushing 100 degrees in the last few days ,and record low rainfall totals over the last few months have meant are green and pleasant land has now become burnt and brown and may now have to be named New Arizona.

anyway heat problem solved for now ,but its good old Windows 10 issues to try and sort out instead.

cheers to all Andy

Hello

I have in the last few days been reinstalling windows and Fs9 (still doing that.

)

It's very hot in the UK at the moment as I type this it's over thirty degrees in side my flat.

I am worried that my PC may be damaged as all the installing I have been doing requires my PC to be on for many hours.

I do use a large room fan ,but that just pumps out warm air as well.

So do I risk damaging my PC

 

 

Thanks Andrew

As others have said you want to have moving air - but avoid blowing a fan directly at the PC components - over time static charge builds up from the simple air flow passing over components (not a problem for active air cooling because the system is earthed through the computer) and the flow actually increases the amount of dust that sticks to the system.

As PhantomTweak references it should be part of your six-monthly checks (more frequently in dust-laden environments) to switch the equipment off and blow it out. This is the main advantage to a transparent door to the PC - to be able to view the dust build-up, not the delightful combination of glowing LED lights that make the room light up!

On the five machines I maintain I have a regular three month cleaning cycle, based on the simple premise that if it doesn't get dirty there are no heat and power issues - and while I'm at it I can check power supplies and plugs and connectors. It's possibly more than they need, but peace of mind is valuable when a PC is 50 miles away, and the amount of chaos that can be caused by force-fitting FSX into P3Dv4 means that a dirty computer isn't one of the prime failures for consideration.

And what I want to add is DON'T forget to clean that expensive flight sim hardware at the same time - you will be amazed at how a desktop device like a yoke or throttle can attract dirt through the nooks and crannies! Rudder pedals should be hoovered or wiped with electrical contact cleaner EVERY week!

Final advice is ALWAYS to dry clean or use electrical contact cleaner, never a damp rag. Water and electrics do not mix!

I have an i7 2600 that idles at 40 to 44 C (103 to 111 F) even if the temp inside the apartment is 30 C (86 F). If idle then it throttles down to 1.6 Ghz and thus the temps are reduced. I have a fan going across (left to right) OVER it (not pointed at it) to remove the heat coming out of case. I never turn my PC off. It (and monitor) are on 24/7. Unless when I clean it (every 3 months).

I have a neat program called 'Real Temp'. It shows temp (C or F) for each core. You can minimize it and ck anytime while you work. You put your cursor on Icon on task bar and the temps will pop up automatically. Move the cursor away and the readings go away.

So the concern is what the CPU temp is due to the power it is consuming. Each CPU has it's own 'power index' and thus it's own 'heat' index' both for when it's idle and when it's working. They don't all run 'hot'. Some run 'cool' by design. Fans and liquid cooling get rid of this heat. Heat is what kills your CPU not 24/7 use.

Chuck B

Napamule

I've seen projects where people take a mini fridge and place the computer in there. LOL!

So if Amazon is available across the "pond", and you have money to blow, buy a mini fridge, put about a 1" hole through it for the cables and perhaps use some insulation in the hole then place the desktop inside. Make sure the mini fridge is large enough of course. You can also get a hold of mini fridges in the classified sections of the newspapers, etc. Here in the U.S we have a website called Craigslist which allows people to sell their crap to others that want -- crap. I don't know if you have that there or not. But just note that if you do ever buy stuff from a third-party to trade at a store parking lot or somewhere very public. I have read countless times of people getting victimized because they went to their house, etc.

Just an oddball thought I figured I throw out there. Kinda a waste to use a mini fridge for a desktop, but it would be a pretty neat project and you won't have to worry about heat ever again.

Something else you should have is a good UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). I bought this one here a couple months back. It's been fantastic thus far. I'm running my two computer screens on it, the desktop and my 5.1 surround sound speakers. With the full load the display on the UPS says I have 15 minutes of battery run time. More than enough time to safely save my work or the Sim and exit the computer normally. I pulled the power to the UPS and everything kept running like nothing ever changed. Was pretty cool. I can't tell you how many posts I've seen on computer forums where people say a power outage damaged their computer. Of course a good brand name PSU goes a long way too. I'm an Antec user myself.

I read that UPSs pull a lot of amps, but that wasn't true when I used my clamp meter with an AC line splitter to measure the current, and I asked CyberPower how many amps are used when it's charging the battery. Their response was about 30 watts. Hardly anything at all. I was a little concerned since I run a space heather in the room my gaming desktop is located at. And that space heater pulls about 11 amps! That's massive! I even looked at the space heater with my FLIR imager and there's so many amps going through the cord it showed up red in the imager. Pretty crazy.

Absent of a good name brand and reputable UPS, you should use a surge protector. Many people think a surge protector guards against lightning, but that's simply not true at all. If lightning enters your house and hits your equipment it's game over. When a thunderstorm is in the area I always turn off everything, power off the UPS and unplug it. Better safe than sorry, and as a radio communications hobbyist I also disconnect the antenna feed from my radios.

A surge protector will help guard against a power surge, spikes, and power sags in the line and it's usually Summer when this crap happens with everyone running their air conditioning. Note: You should always replace a surge protector about every 5 years or so. Reason is due to the type of resistor (or what ever it's called now) can get worn out over time with surges and become a fire hazard. Also note that a UPS' battery needs to be replaced at about every 7 years, but to tell you the truth, the whole unit should just be replaced since it too has its own surge protection circuitry.

Anyway.... Just some Info. I thought I'd pass along seen as how it's Summer. I just got done flying to Dubai and it was about 109 with .9 miles visibility to to blowing sand apparently. I stupidly flew the route VFR from Pakistan where I last left off. Well, when I was at 30 miles out I asked tower for a runway and they denied me saying they were IFR only due to the low visibility. I flew into runway 30R anyway and then asked ground for parking. Stupid Sim. LOL I'm on my way to Israel to land at the lowest airport in the world to get the badge.

BTW- Your username reminds me of a man by the name of Horatio Admiral Nelson. He was a famous "privater" and in fact one of his flag ships, the HMS Victory is dry docked there in England (can't remember where) and is one of the oldest ships in the world. The oldest sea worthy ship is the USS Constitution here in the states. In fact, Paul Revere created the rivets for it. He was a Silversmith.

If Horatio Admiral Nelson sounds familiar, then you may have tried the rum going by the same name Admiral Nelson. https://admiralnelsonsrum.com/

I used to buy that rum back in my twenties when I couldn't afford the better Captain Morgan. LOL Now in my late 30's I rarely drink anymore. A jack & coke at a restaurant and that's about it. Sometimes on the patio with a nice cigar.

BTW- Your username reminds me of a man by the name of Horatio Admiral Nelson. He was a famous "privater" and in fact one of his flag ships, the HMS Victory is dry docked there in England (can't remember where) and is one of the oldest ships in the world. The oldest sea worthy ship is the USS Constitution here in the states. In fact, Paul Revere created the rivets for it. He was a Silversmith.

 

If Horatio Admiral Nelson sounds familiar, then you may have tried the rum going by the same name Admiral Nelson. https://admiralnelsonsrum.com/

 

I used to buy that rum back in my twenties when I couldn't afford the better Captain Morgan. LOL Now in my late 30's I rarely drink anymore. A jack & coke at a restaurant and that's about it. Sometimes on the patio with a nice cigar.

Hello There

I am a Brit so I know well the story of Horatio Lord Nelson,In fact I don't live far from an area he used to frequent called Merton in South London,and to this day you will still find streets and pubs named after him .

As to his ship (called HMS Victory) I think it's now permantly dry docked at Portsmouth, a town and a naval base on the South coast of England.

If my facts are not quite right Iam sure someone more learned than I will correct me.

As to are names....pure coincidence I just made mine up ,Iam not a secret Nelsonophobe..just a lover of silly name making.

Cheers Andrew.

I've seen projects where people take a mini fridge and place the computer in there. LOL!

If you want to go down that road, a tank of mineral oil, or similar, would be better for cooling a PC. With a fridge you need to worry about condensation inside, especially in humid climates.

Hi all,

Here in Cape Town, South Africa..

In summer, we very regularly get temps of between 32-38, with no ill effects on PC's.