🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3A089A3B.1D8C7CB4@blueyonder.co.uk>, Paul Richards (Pauldoo) wrote:
>All PCI/ISA slots are occupied, and many of the cards are too hot to
>hold onto.  The CPU itself is cool, the heatsink is only mildly warm.

I'd expect the CPU to be the hottest part in terms of big power
dissipation in small area, or perhaps any meaty CPUs on things like
graphics cards. The PSU will kick out some heat, but will also dissipate
it better and you don't get to touch the heatsinks directly anyway as
they're normally inside the protective box[1].

Presumably you've also upgraded the motherboard to take the new CPU. I
wonder if either:

  The power supply is too great. The CPU is probably protected by its own
  regulator, but the hard disks and cards won't be. I'd wonder how this
  would happen. Last time a PSU failed on me it was because the output
  wasn't quite smooth rather than being smooth but the wrong voltage.
  Maybe the +12V is wrong?

  The new motherboard clock is too fast for your older(?) cards so
  driving them a bit too hard?

  Software problem?

Of course I'm no hardware expert, these are just a couple of ideas. IIRC
the voltages from the PSU should be -5,0,+5,+12 - relative to the 0V line
of course which I think is the black one. +5 and +12 were red and yellow,
or was that yellow and red? -5 I think was purple but am unsure.

Its quite a while since I took a PC apart so someone I expect will
correct me on these.

 - Richard.

[1] Don't try touching the heatsinks if they are in the box. Its probably
for a reason. Some/many devices such as transistors connect their heatsink
tab to one of the pins, so that heatsink may have a voltage on it which
may be quite high.

-- 
   _/_/_/  _/_/_/  _/_/_/ Richard Corfield <Richard@Littondale.freeserve.co.uk>
  _/  _/    _/    _/      Web Page, CV:   http://www.littondale.freeserve.co.uk
 _/_/      _/    _/       Dance (Ballroom, RnR), Hiking, SJA, Linux, ... [ENfP]
_/  _/  _/_/    _/_/_/    PGP2.6 Key ID:0x0FB084B1   GPG/PGP5 Key ID:0xFA139DA7