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Showing posts with the label troubleshooting

When the paste dries!

My computer was working fine enough. All was going well for it. Suddenly it began to freeze without a warning. With the help of my friend I came to figure out the source of the problem - overheating of the CPU. Now there are a number of reasons that can trigger this particular problem. In my case the CPU was fine, so the culprit was most likely drying up of the heatsink compound that is present in between the CPU and the heatsink. These are actually conductor that transfer the excess heat of the CPU to the heatsink which dissipates the heat using the fans. So all I had to do was apply a fresh coat of heatsink compound to the CPU top and also on the heatsink surface and I was set. My machine was fixed and the CPU was cooled. Why does the paste dry up? Well, actually in dry conditions or due to prolonged use, the paste dries up reducing to powder, when it gives way leaving the heatsink separated from the CPU. So the CPU heats pretty fast and there is a risk of component overhea