VXI BlueParrott B100 Specifications download pdf (Page 36)

EVIL MONKEYS

I built my first computer last year

and it’s running great, but with one

problem: My CPU temp is out of

control. I don’t overclock, my mobo

temps vary between 35 C and 45 C,

and my case temps range from 31 C

to 35 C. But my CPU idles at 47 C and

heats up to 62 C under a full load. I

shut down my PC at this point, so it

might get even hotter if I left it on.

I originally installed a

Thermaltake Venus, but after reading

your heatsink showdown in the

September issue, I noticed that the

temps I’m getting are higher than I’d

get with a stock heatsink and fan. I

then bought the Cooler Master Hyper

6+, but now my idle CPU temps are

48 C and 62 C at full load. Are these

high temps caused by my case, a

faulty heatsink/fan installation, or the

evil monkey that lives in my closet?

—Jeremiah Teague

The readings you’re getting with

the Hyper 6+ do indeed seem very

high—they’re not so high that

you need to shut down your PC,

but they’re much higher than they

should be. We got temps of 33 C

at idle and 44 C under load on our

AMD test bench with the Hyper

6+. Here are some troubleshooting

tips: As silly it might sound, the

first thing you should do is make

sure you removed the clear plastic

cover from the bottom of the heat-

sink. Yeah, it’s a newb mistake,

but we’ve all made it.

Next, make sure you’re using

the appropriate Tic-Tac-size drop

of thermal paste and that you’ve

ratcheted the cooler down nice

and tight to the motherboard. You

should also double-check the fan

to make sure it’s spinning. Finally,

the Doc wonders what you’re

using to monitor your tempera-

tures—there’s an outside chance

it’s reporting erroneous info. We

suggest using a second utility

just to verify the temps, such as

Alfredo Comparetti’s Speedfan. As

for the evil monkey in your closet,

see if you can tranquilize him with

a spiked banana and then call the

zoo. If that doesn’t work, give your

neighborhood exorcist a ring.

REPAIR OR RECYCLE?

I recently bought a Dell Inspiron 8000

laptop from a friend. It has a 1GHz

Pentium III and 512MB of RAM. I’m

using the Dell power adapter and

what looks to me like the original Dell

batteries. After the machine has been

running for a while, the entire left

side of the screen gets very dark. The

right side is unaffected, and adjusting

the brightness and contrast has no

effect. What’s even stranger is that the

problem goes away as soon as I pull

the power-supply plug and switch to

batteries; when I plug the power supply

back in, the trouble returns. What could

be causing this? Can it be fixed?

—David Elstein

This is a complete guess, but the

Doc suspects that something has

gone awry with the machine’s

panel connection, backlight, or

motherboard. Yeah, that’s a pretty

broad diagnosis, but any one of

these components could be at the

root of your symptoms. The uni-

form light loss you describe might

be intermittent backlight failure.

You’ll find plenty of aftermarket

Inspiron 8000 parts, so you might

want to replace the backlight or

even the entire panel. Dell offers

helpful instructions here: http://

support.dell.com/support/edocs/

systems/plav/sm/ (click “Removing

and Replacing Parts”).

But here’s the bottom line: You

can fix your laptop, but is it really

worth it? Considering that brand-

new—and faster—notebooks are

priced in the $600 range, it might

not be.

UNIVERSALLY SUCKING BUS

I have had two different disk drives

installed in a USB 1.0-to-IDE box. I

now have a new USB 2.0 unit with a

third disk. I have plugged all these

units into at least a dozen different

systems and I consistently get

“Delayed Write Failure” errors.

I use this unit on a regular basis to

transfer files between my system and

those of my friends and coworkers.

When the drives decide to misbe

have, it’s impossible to transfer files.

You can’t just go back into Windows

Explorer and re-access the drive—

you’re forced to unplug and replug,

and most of the time even that

doesn’t help. I have taken the usual

steps of running Scandisk and refor

matting the drives, but no problems

are reported and there’s no change

in behavior. Isn’t this supposed to be

a mature technology? What do I have

to do to get reliable performance?

—Frank Orazem

The Doc has used plenty of USB

2.0 external drives and rarely

encounters delayed write failures.

Having said that, delayed write

failure errors are difficult to diag-

nose, because there can be any

number of causes. When dealing

with an external drive, however,

the most common problem is a

simple loss of communication

between the host and the disk

drive. This occurs most often

when you’re transferring large

files; it can be caused by a faulty

drive losing its connection with

the host’s drive controller, or the

controller losing its connection

with the motherboard chipset.

Another culprit might be other USB

traffic sucking up too much band-

width during file transfers.

As a first step, the Doc recom-

mends that you make sure there’s

no other USB activity while you’re

transferring files. Next, download

the latest chipset driver for your

motherboard, which will include

USB drivers. If that doesn’t solve

the problem, visit your drive manu-

facturer’s website and download a

diagnostic utility to test your disk

drive. If the new chipset drivers

don’t solve the problem, and you’re

sure there’s no other traffic on the

bus during file transfers, you prob-

ably have a defective drive.

No amount of cooling will be enough if you forget to remove

the protective cover from your heatsink.

De-evolution or Unintelligent Design? Whatever the source of your PC

tribulations, the Doctor is here to help. Send an email describing your

problem to

doctor@maximumpc.com and he’ll do his best to come up

with a meaningful solution.

65HOLIDAY 2005 MAXIMUMPC

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VXI BlueParrott B100 Specifications Page 36

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