Help Wanted

[Old Hairy]

I decided this weekend to try and quiten my PC by following some other members lead and going down the water cooling road. The fans on my PC were really starting to drive me mad

The first thing that I did was to remove all the fans. The one on the processor and graphics card were no problem but the one in the power unit was a bugger to get out.

The most difficult part was sealing all the ventilitation openings in the PC case with silicon. I also put silicon all around the joints on the PC case. The smell of silicon was dreadful but when my wife complained I told her to be patient as it will be worth it when we have a completely silent PC.

Because I had completely sealed the PC case the only opening near top was the DVD drive. So I opened that and put the small hose I had purchased specially for the job into the DVD drive as far as it would go. With what I can only describe as great excitement and anticipation, I turned on the water. It really is amazing just how long it took before the case was complete full, and boy was it heavy. That didn't really bother me as I didn't intend to be moving the PC anyway.

The big moment had arrived so I flicked the switch on the socket on the wall.

Before I could even press the power button on front of the PC, with a loud bang, the whole place was plunged into darkness

I knew that it was only the tripswitch so I told my onlookers not to panic and I ran out to the hall to turn the trip switch back on. But can u believe it, it wouldn't stay on. After five attempts I decided to try unplugging the PC and would you believe...yes the trip switch stayed on. My conclusion: the PC must have in some way been causing the problem.

After about an hour of tries I finally decided to abandon the whole idea of water cooling and emptied the water out of the PC, put back in the fans (except the fan in the power unit, I had broken that one getting it out) and tried the pc AGAIN. IT STILL CAUSED THE TRIP SWTICH TO BLOW!

My PC is completely shagged thanks to stupid suggestions that I got on this forum. What the hell am I going to do now. I spent two hours last night with a hair drier inside the PC case and it still trips the switch.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated

[frostbite]

You should have used heavy water.

[Keygrip]

When you tipped the water out, did you catch the small packet of silica gel?

You have to have one of those in there, apparently.

Which detergent did you use to clean the registry?

Did the water have any ice cubes in it? You may find that Windows has frozen - but scraping them with a credit card usually helps (it used to do on my car windscreen when I lived in UK).

I presume you now do Guggle searches?

[Parapunter]

Probably the Hard water drive.

[Jhieminga]

Have you contacted your electricity supplier? Obviously there's something wrong there which is causing the tripswitch to malfunction. You could try a dab of glue on the tripswitch so it doesn't trip again, then plug in the PC again to see if it works!

[Saab Dastard]

You forgot to earth yourself properly.

What you should have done was to stand in a large basin of water, with a copper bracelet on your left wrist wired to the PC case chassis while you switched it on.

That way you wouldn't have blown the delicate components.

Or at least you wouldn't have cared too much.



SD

ps - isn't this thread 6 days early?

[Gertrude the Wombat]

You could try a dab of glue on the tripswitch so it doesn't trip again

The guys who ran the lighting gallery in my school hall found that the fuses kept blowing, and eventually solved this by getting a piece of copper rod of the right thickness from the physics lab, cutting off fuse-length pieces and using these to replace the fuses. Worked perfectly, they could turn all the lights on (eg for the last scene of the school play) and no fuses blew.

[hellsbrink]

The guys who ran the lighting gallery in my school hall found that the fuses kept blowing, and eventually solved this by getting a piece of copper rod of the right thickness from the physics lab, cutting off fuse-length pieces and using these to replace the fuses. Worked perfectly, they could turn all the lights on (eg for the last scene of the school play) and no fuses blew.

Now the thought of that has me worried. What happens when fuses don't blow? The cables tend to go on fire because no fuses = overcurrent = heat.

I know what would have happened to these guys if I had been a sparkytrician there, they would not have been employed in any capacity for much longer.

[carholme]

Old Hairy;

Excellent, as well as some of the replies. We all need a good laugh now and then.


Regards

carholme

[west lakes]

solved this by getting a piece of copper rod of the right thickness from the physics lab, cutting off fuse-length pieces and using these to replace the fuses

Many years ago asked to attend a report of folks getting electric shocks from a metal gate post of a house, situated just outside a local town.
Gets there, confirms there is voltage on the gate post, and while stood talking to the customer I noticed that the meter disc was spinning at rather a high speed. Asked to customer if their leccy bill had been high recently - which they confirmed.
Switched everything off and started checking fuses in the consumer unit, found one of the ring mains, that should have a 30A fuse had a nail in it!!
Oh said the consumer the fuse kept blowing so we put the nail in to keep our fridge on
Of course being fair minded I gave them the choice, either I disconnect the faulty wiring and leave the rest of the power on and they get an electrician to sort the fault or I disconnect the whole house until the fault is sorted!!

[bnt]

It sounds as if the power supply has imploded, but they aren't hard or expensive to replace. It's typically 4 screws on the back, unhook the wires, and you can take it to a PC shop of Maplin and ask them about a replacement.

[Gertrude the Wombat]

I know what would have happened to these guys if I had been a sparkytrician there, they would not have been employed in any capacity for much longer.

We're talking sixth formers in a sort-of private school here, if you'd been a "sparkytrician there" they would have been employing you.

[Loose rivets]

Your mistake was using stagnate cooling water. Next time, drill a drain hole in the bottom of the case, and keep a supply of fresh water going in. Be careful however, because the waste water will have all your data digitally encoded upon it, and the drain operatives might get to know your secrets.




When I was at school, I was charged with relaying the electrickery from one end of a corridor to the stage. I supplied the wire. Single strand 3 core rubber - that I'd got off a dump. It just reached.


I wired the stage with the schools rheostats supplying big bulbs in biscuit tins. All these 'dimmers' were totally open!!! and the multi-leaf sliders sparked gently until I rubbed my pencil on the windings. On one bright scene, the wire - hanging from coat hangar to coat hangar along the corridor - started to smoke. On the day of the play, the parents all remarked how good the lighting was, but what was that smell?

[al446]

Old Hairy

Did you not notice the pre-requisites of power up to a system such as you describe? You have to do it at full moon having previously sacrificed a virgin. Haven't tried it myself due to a serious materials shortage round here.

[Parapunter]

All these wrong answers! Any fule noes that the trouble with water cooled systems is bubbles.

You need to get down to pc world & get a box of bubbles. The other kind.

[BOAC]

.. of course, we all know USB is an anagram of 'sub'.

[Guest 112233]

Its Really simple

You need to add a tad of Salt to the cooling water - It improves its conductivity - why bother with all those peskey connections - universal connectivity - Computer Scientists have been expousing this for years. PS I can do you a very good deal on a a fire extunguisher - and a Foam tender for that matter - Just post on PPRUNE ten minutes before your next test - Let the National grid know too. Just a courtesy - If the lights dip -I will be sure that you have succeeded - Its the volts that jolt and the amps that cauterise - Good luck (from a safe distance).

CAT III

[SyllogismCheck]

You got it back to front, dummy.
Once you've sealed the PC up good and tight, you're supposed to put it in water, not water in it.
Sheesh, some folks.

[Keygrip]

al446

Haven't tried it myself due to a serious materials shortage round here.

Don't you get a full moon in Manchester then? They did when I lived there.

[srobarts]

Shouldn't the water be deionised?
I guess freezing PC once filled with water will also aid cooling.