If you are looking at thermal paste, you should check that none of your motherboard's capacitors have swollen up - they can go out of spec. If they are new, or little cubes then this won't be a problem. If your motherboard is older and has cylindrical capacitors, there was a batch that would age poorly. They swell and the top domes up - good caps from this time have flat tops. Replacing the dozen or so bad caps can be done if you have mad soldering skills - a new motherboard might be a better option. This is an unlikely problem to have with current motherboards, but if you're looking at the thermal paste, it's a thing to also check. stay grounded & good luck On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 9:48 AM Michael Butash via PLUG-discuss < plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org> wrote: > This is a good point too, I actually just did this on my xps15 as well as > they are known to be badly thermal pasted from the factory, and some years > later, same thing as Stephen described. That wasn't too bad, redid the cpu > and gpu with high quality stuff, and allowed me to do some mods with > thermal tape some of the mosfet chips to the case others found works well > too. > > This could be your cpu or gpu here that use large heatsinks. > > I also had a heatsink once pop off a southbridge on my mobo too that > caused some havoc, and once on my dell server raid, thinking about my > adventures in computing over the years. > > Moral of the story, heat kills. > > -mb > > > On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 7:09 AM Stephen Partington via PLUG-discuss < > plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org> wrote: > >> I just had to partially rebuild a friends computer because the thermal >> compound used in their system had petrified. they went from 89C down to 30C >> after I cleaned and replaced the compound. (Partial disassembly was >> required to unmount the HSF *String of expletives censored* >> >> On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 7:07 AM Michael Butash via PLUG-discuss < >> plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org> wrote: >> >>> Agreed, and even more so, I have seen internal PSU fans die too, so make >>> sure to check that. >>> >>> -mb >>> >>> >>> On Sun, Jul 12, 2020 at 10:41 PM Brian Cluff via PLUG-discuss < >>> plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org> wrote: >>> >>>> Are you sure all your fans are running, including in your power supply? >>>> If you CPU fan secured properly and has good (Not dried out) thermal >>>> paste on it. If you took your CPU fan off and it had some of that >>>> thermal waxy stuff on it and you just put it back on, it's probably not >>>> conducting heat very well. I would take it back off and scrape all >>>> that >>>> stuff off and put some proper thermal compound on it in it's place. >>>> >>>> In my experience, if your computer is randomly locking up, it's usually >>>> heat related. Although it CAN be the power supply, usually power >>>> supplies just tend to outright die and will refuse to turn on your >>>> machine when they go bad. The other things are bad RAM and bad >>>> software.... but if you've tested your ram and you haven't changed >>>> anything software wise, I would look for a heat related issue. >>>> >>>> Brian Cluff >>>> >>>> >>>> On 7/12/20 7:49 PM, Michael via PLUG-discuss wrote: >>>> > OK.... well, I ran stress and gearsglx and the computer ran fine for >>>> > about 5 minutes and then it froze. so this means it is the hardware? >>>> > so I guess.... is it the power supply? what else could it be? how can >>>> > I verify or else is it a shot in the dark? >>>> > >>>> > On Tue, Jul 7, 2020 at 10:17 PM Michael wrote: >>>> >> thanks for shaaring your experiances with me! >>>> >> >>>> >> On Tue, Jul 7, 2020 at 10:58 AM Michael Butash via PLUG-discuss >>>> >> wrote: >>>> >>> That is about how my laptop was acting using the i915 driver vs. >>>> the intel kernel mode driver... Maybe make sure you're not using that, by >>>> default you shouldn't. I ended up with it trying to make prime gpu >>>> switching work. >>>> >>> >>>> >>> It could be gpu related still, most browsers use hardware >>>> acceleration that could be hitting it. >>>> >>> >>>> >>> Try running glx-gears for a while in full-screen to see how it acts >>>> if it dies when heating up. >>>> >>> >>>> >>> I also had an older system that was locking up seemingly whenever >>>> I'd hit the graphics. Turns out the gpu fan went bad, with ambient case >>>> fans keeping it cool enough off the heatsink, but watching a movie or >>>> something that hit the gpu, it would crash. Tearing it open it was then >>>> obvious the fan wasn't working. Of course I couldn't find a fan that fit >>>> the stupid thing, so I ended up buying a new gpu for it, all was well. >>>> >>> >>>> >>> Only ever had one PSU that got wonky on me to crash intermittently >>>> in some 25 years of building pc's, but it happens... >>>> >>> >>>> >>> Also, boot up and in grub run memtestx86 on it, bad memory sectors >>>> can cause grief too with intermittent locks, usually the more ram you >>>> invoke, you'll hit the bad spot. >>>> >>> >>>> >>> -mb >>>> >>> >>>> >>> >>>> >>> On Sat, Jul 4, 2020 at 9:36 AM Michael via PLUG-discuss < >>>> plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org> wrote: >>>> >>>> you know.... it seems that the first time of the day I start it it >>>> >>>> runs a few minutes and then freezes. but upon subsequent restarts >>>> >>>> everything is good. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On Fri, Jul 3, 2020 at 8:18 PM Michael wrote: >>>> >>>>> I have ssh installed on my system but to ssh into another system >>>> you >>>> >>>>> need ssh-server installed on your computer but I can't find it. I >>>> >>>>> guess I'm wrong. What else do you need installed? >>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>>> On Fri, Jul 3, 2020 at 8:03 PM Michael wrote: >>>> >>>>>> I think my issue might also be grafix related because when it >>>> first >>>> >>>>>> started doing this the dark areas on my desktop picture would >>>> turn >>>> >>>>>> blue when it froze. I do have another system. Could you walk me >>>> >>>>>> through solving the problem? >>>> >>>>>> >>>> >>>>>> On Fri, Jul 3, 2020 at 11:11 AM Michael Butash via PLUG-discuss >>>> >>>>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>>>> It really could be about anything, hardware or software. >>>> Unplug everything unnecessary, even usb things, and just see if it locks up >>>> then. I've had psu's do this, video cards, ram, even usb devices cause >>>> weird hardware-ish problems. Check dmesg and /var/log as well for >>>> errors/events, could indicate a flaky device. >>>> >>>>>>> >>>> >>>>>>> Also software - upgrading ram recently, I also updated my >>>> system since I had to reboot anyways, and my pc began locking up every 2 >>>> days. I thought the new ram perhaps was bad, but memtest looked ok. It >>>> took some digging, but guess I picked up a bug in using an old intel >>>> graphics driver inadvertently, removed that driver, and I've had 70 days of >>>> uptime since. >>>> >>>>>>> >>>> >>>>>>> I had to get a bit creative to diag this, including sshing into >>>> it from another system when it did lock up. Turns out it was graphics >>>> related, just the display froze, but the system worked otherwise headless. >>>> This led me to investigate graphics as a source of the lockups to fix at a >>>> driver level. If you have another system available, I'd suggest that. >>>> >>>>>>> >>>> >>>>>>> -mb >>>> >>>>>>> >>>> >>>>>>> >>>> >>>>>>> On Fri, Jul 3, 2020 at 6:36 AM Michael via PLUG-discuss < >>>> plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org> wrote: >>>> >>>>>>>> sometimes my computer freezes. is iut the power supply? >>>> >>>>>>>> >>>> >>>>>>>> -- >>>> >>>>>>>> :-)~MIKE~(-: >>>> >>>>>>>> --------------------------------------------------- >>>> >>>>>>>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org >>>> >>>>>>>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >>>> >>>>>>>> https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >>>> >>>>>>> --------------------------------------------------- >>>> >>>>>>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org >>>> >>>>>>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >>>> >>>>>>> https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >>>> >>>>>> >>>> >>>>>> >>>> >>>>>> -- >>>> >>>>>> :-)~MIKE~(-: >>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>>> -- >>>> >>>>> :-)~MIKE~(-: >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> >>>> :-)~MIKE~(-: >>>> >>>> --------------------------------------------------- >>>> >>>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org >>>> >>>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >>>> >>>> https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >>>> >>> --------------------------------------------------- >>>> >>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org >>>> >>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >>>> >>> https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >>>> >> >>>> >> >>>> >> -- >>>> >> :-)~MIKE~(-: >>>> > >>>> > >>>> >>>> --------------------------------------------------- >>>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org >>>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >>>> https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >>> >>> --------------------------------------------------- >>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org >>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >>> https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >> >> >> >> -- >> A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from >> rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button. >> >> Stephen >> >> --------------------------------------------------- >> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >> https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss