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Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)

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151–160 of 177 posts

Re: Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)

#151

One day I'm going to connect my water heater inlet to a water cooling block or two and schedule the workloads to queue until somebody takes a shower.

Perhaps a flow sensor rigged up to trigger processes avoids the need to schedule. (How? Don't ask me)

Yeah that was the plan. I was using "schedule" in a bit looser sense.

My thought was that a Raspberry pi notices the flow and triggers an Apache airflow dataset every 10 sec or so while it's still flowing. DAGs which consume that "dataset" (a misnomer in this case) will run. Flow stops, DAGs stop.

Re: Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)

#152

We had a problem with a robot overheating here in denmark and we had a fridge in the office. We tried to make a copper heatsink but it was still struggling, and so to keep it working so we could develop on other issues, we had a cycle of putting leverpostej from the fridge on it for 30 minutes before replacing it with another. It had the bonus of heating the leverpostej for a nice lunch lol.

That's hilarious! I sometimes idly wonder about harvesting the heat from various components, like we're Apollo astronauts getting every last smidgen of efficiency from our craft. In my daydream, I have wall sockets for dumping heat back into the house from, for example, the fridge, or the excess heat from the oven. I know it's not at all practical, but the idea of a hyper-efficient home is deeply appealing to me :)

That's a really fun idea. I always loved the concept of circular systems, terrariums and the like. I'd love to try and do the calculations to get oxygen-neutral with the plants in my house vs my own exhaled breath, or treat and reuse water on a local level.

Re: Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)

#153

This reminds me of a time I tried to install Ubuntu on an old thick Dell laptop many years ago. Each time I would try the system would overheat and then crash. The existing (windows) system still appeared to work fine with light loads so I was pretty sure I just needed to get past the install and decided to try one more time. It was winter at the time, I can't remember if it had snowed recently, but I think it was pr…

Though, at 40 F, you could have put on some socks, shoes, shorts and a t-shirt and sat outside, instead of peering out through the window in your underwear.

Or, were you fully clothed and this was in Florida or something?

(I half joke, but when it warms up to 40 F again in the Spring, in Minnesota we break out the t-shirts, if not shorts.)

Re: Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Opening it up and vacuum cleaning the fan from dust also can do wonders with old and "broken" laptops as a first step. Tiny bit of WD40 in the fan mechanic is the next, then thermal paste, then replacing parts. (Advice, prevent the fan from spinning while doing vacuum)

WD40 - Nooooo! It gets gummy. Use a proper lubricating oil. Or replace the fan. "Pro tip:" Do not direct the output of a strong air stream (e.g. the kind used for automotive work) at the fan as it can de-blade the fan.

Good to know, but in those few fans I used it for, it worked so far ..

Re: Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to frequent overclocking forums and at the time a lot of this was crazy custom work instead of purpose built cooling products or things like water cooling AiO setups. I remember people building intakes into their window so the computer case sucked in cold winter air from outdoors. There was even a guy that installed a homemade water cooling setup and had the reservoir tank outdoors and piped through the window…

Ive done that. I am doing that. Using the outdoors as a natural heatsink isnt crazy. In a couple months it will be -30 outside my window. Why should my computer fans whirl around constanly using 20c indoor air when literally inches away there exists and unlimited supply of -30c outdoor air? Some simple water cooling parts, a 30$ heat exchanger and a little radiator fluid. Net result is lower temps and significantly l…

It's a neat hack but I have to wonder whether the hole through which you pass through the pipes leaks more heat energy to the outside than the fans take to run on an all-indoor system.

Plus, in the winter, you get "free" heating by running the machine completely indoors. Not actually free of course, but free as a side-effect of using the machine for other tasks. Had a friend who tried splitting his electrical service off into a cheaper heat-rate branch to run his bitcoin mining rigs and claimed they were the same as a space heater. I don't think the power company bought it.

Re: Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)

#156

This reminds me of a time I tried to install Ubuntu on an old thick Dell laptop many years ago. Each time I would try the system would overheat and then crash. The existing (windows) system still appeared to work fine with light loads so I was pretty sure I just needed to get past the install and decided to try one more time. It was winter at the time, I can't remember if it had snowed recently, but I think it was pr…

I used to frequent overclocking forums and at the time a lot of this was crazy custom work instead of purpose built cooling products or things like water cooling AiO setups. I remember people building intakes into their window so the computer case sucked in cold winter air from outdoors. There was even a guy that installed a homemade water cooling setup and had the reservoir tank outdoors and piped through the window…

I would assume folks would use antifreeze when doing sub-zero liquid cooling, that would prevent issues in all but extreme cold. It would have a bit of an impact on heat transfer though...

Re: Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)

#157
post #104

We had a problem with a robot overheating here in denmark and we had a fridge in the office. We tried to make a copper heatsink but it was still struggling, and so to keep it working so we could develop on other issues, we had a cycle of putting leverpostej from the fridge on it for 30 minutes before replacing it with another. It had the bonus of heating the leverpostej for a nice lunch lol.

Leverpostej FTW :-)

Leverpostej is the most disgusting thing in Danish cuisine. Just the smell of it heating up in the oven gives me nausea, while Danes start drooling in anticipation.

Re: Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Opening it up and vacuum cleaning the fan from dust also can do wonders with old and "broken" laptops as a first step. Tiny bit of WD40 in the fan mechanic is the next, then thermal paste, then replacing parts. (Advice, prevent the fan from spinning while doing vacuum)

As someone else stated, WD-40 is a solvent and a degreaser. It is designed to displace water. In fact, for bearings which need grease, WD-40 can remove the very thing that is keeping the bearings from wearing out! If the fan is very old and no longer works properly, it just needs to be replaced.

"If the fan is very old and no longer works properly, it just needs to be replaced. "

Sometimes it is really complicated replacing them with a danger of damaging stuff, if you have no routine. Then using something to spray is easier to fix it for some time. It helped in my cases, even though I will definitely try something else next time ..

Re: Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)

#160

I have done this. Many years ago I was forced to work with a terrible laptop. It was one of those Dell 5cm thick things that were basically cramming a desktop cpu and gpu into someting that looked like someone had bolted a second box undeneeth a standard laptop. Fans ofc screeming loudly all day. So I had the brilliant idea to just run everyting of an external drive so that when I could work from home, I could seamle…

> but the 127 pages of a product manual I had been writing the last week were gone without backup. This hurts just reading it. How'd it go in the end?

Rewrote the manual from scratch I'm afraid. Second time went faster ofc. Still, a lott of needless double work.
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