Messages

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General Mach Discussion / Re: hot environment

« on: June 05, 2013, 02:00:49 PM »

TOTALLYRC,

Great suggestion! The last box that blew looked like some furry woodland creature had taken nest in it. Vegas is notorious for dust. I'd say that Florida would be different but I just opened up a friend's computer that lives here and it was just clogged with dust bunnies. I will definitely take your advise and make a filter enclosure. Thanks again, sometimes the thing is just staring you in the face and you don't see it.

-Andrew

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General Mach Discussion / Re: hot environment

« on: June 04, 2013, 02:47:49 PM »

The first and second machines were top of the line motherboards. After that, I switched to "el cheapo" motherboards. At the time I was in Vegas with my garage routinely getting into the 110-120 degree range for extended periods at both day and night. Yes, I have not been kind to my computers. I have since moved and am looking into a new computer for my mill, which again is in my garage (also un-airconditioned as before). I have a few computers to choose from since I've blown so many motherboards while living in Vegas and want to not repeat that problem, although the temperature here is much cooler so it might not be a problem anyway. Maybe my solution will be half a dozen fans pointed at the motherboard for peace of mind. The problem seems to only happen at the worst time, right in the middle of a long job but isn't that always the case?

Thanks to everybody on this forum for all of the help.
-Andrew

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General Mach Discussion / hot environment

« on: June 04, 2013, 10:10:19 AM »

A while back I was having problems that turned out to be "popped" capacitors on the motherboard of my computer. Since then, I've had the same problem a couple more times... So...

Does anybody know of a computer that is designed to run in a hot environment? My mill is in my (un-airconditioned) garage and my computers keep popping capacitors. Are there any good solutions that do not include an air conditioner or a computer cooler? Can I under clock the motherboard somehow to keep the heat down? Has anybody else had this same problem and found a solution? I am way too cheap to cool my garage (I'd put a smiley face after that but it's true).

Thanks for any ideas you may have!
-Andrew

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General Mach Discussion / Re: blue screen of death

« on: January 02, 2011, 11:24:19 PM »

Dang! I found two bad capacitors on the motherboard... I am going to replace them and let you know.

If that does turn out to be the problem I will be shocked due to the computer only crashing under Mach.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: blue screen of death

« on: December 30, 2010, 03:44:10 AM »

The times I was stating were from the start of running Mach. The computer won't crash until Mach is run. I haven't noticed any bulging caps but will take a closer look...

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General Mach Discussion / Re: blue screen of death

« on: December 30, 2010, 02:25:50 AM »

So... it's not the memory. The memory has passed all tests and I swapped it out when the new memory arrived... Still, I have the problem.

To answer the question as to when do I get the Blue Screen of Death... It might happen immediately or in two hours, or maybe five minutes... it seems random.

An update on the second computer that I tried using... After Mach caused the BSoD, that computer is completely dead. Paperweight dead. Doorstop dead. Dead.

I have put Mach on a third computer, an old, slow, eMachine, it should have a crank on the side, but it did pass the driver test program... No BSoD on it yet, but like I said, the first computer worked for years before there was ever a problem and I'd still like to get it working again.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: blue screen of death

« on: December 17, 2010, 03:08:26 PM »

I have a program that tests hardware but I'm not real sure that it's all that good. So, I have ordered new ram and am now waiting to give it a try. I will let you know when it gets here and I've installed it.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: blue screen of death

« on: December 16, 2010, 07:50:52 PM »

Nevermind my last post I'm still crashing but I will keep trying

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General Mach Discussion / Re: blue screen of death

« on: December 16, 2010, 01:41:58 AM »

As promised here's my update...

It seems to be a video adapter problem and I cannot change the resources used by my video card. I guess that explains what happened, Windows re-assigned my video resources and whammo. I do have a work around, I disabled video hardware acceleration and am now up and running again.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: blue screen of death

« on: December 04, 2010, 12:35:43 AM »

Thanks guys, I will further investigate my hardware. I did not build this machine or there'd be no need to check for common mistakes... I'm only half kidding, I'm good but hey, we all make mistakes. This was a "discount" machine from eBay, but it did work well for years. I don't mind buying another machine if this one is the problem but what's got me going is why did it do the same thing on another machine? Of course, that was another old machine but for its time it was top of the line.

I will pull the thing apart and find the problem and post it. Once again, thanks to all.