Tinker, tinker...
Jul. 25th, 2001 09:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpDrew had to go to Durango, so I asked him to stop by what passes for a computer store there. He picked up a thin 12-Vdc fan for $10 for me.
I just spent the last half hour or so "installing" it in a cassette case and jury-rigging it to the back of my VAIO, where it is held in place by a strip of Scotch tape and the grace of God.
Before installing the fan, I let the VAIO warm up. The unit's fan was not operating, and the plastic in the area of the CPU was not particularly hot, so I fired up Mozilla (the Windows version) and started surfing like crazy. (It was that or play around with a program I downloaded recently that emulates an Enigma machine... anything to pump instructions through the CPU.)
Oh, yeah. I bought a cheap Radio Shack thermometer with a thermocouple that's on the end of a 10-foot wire, intended to be mounted outside and let you know just how hot/cold/whatever it is in the Real World while you're safe in some temperate environment. I placed the thermocouple at the fan exhaust vent and measured a temperature of about 104 deg F.
The plastic over the CPU started getting hot, so I upended the machine and blew hard into the exhaust, which started the internal fan. Within 20 seconds, the thermometer was registering 127 deg F air coming out of the machine.
Leaving the thermocouple in place, I taped the fan/cassette in place and fired my creation up. It is powered by an old Xircom 12-Vdc power supply, with suitable "modifications" (i.e., I clipped off the plug that's supposed to go into some device, long lost, and spliced the end to the wires on the fan.)
Within 10 seconds, the temperature dropped to 113 deg F. In 10 more seconds (the thermometer's cycle time), the temperature had dropped to 106 deg F. Then 96.3 deg F, and eventually down to 83.3 deg F, where it is staying. The ambient air temperature in the room is 80 deg F, so the fan must be doing something, even though there are cracks around where the cassette meets the VAIO's case. After a few minutes, the plastic over the CPU is barely warm.
It's not a quiet unit, nor is it overly noisy (though I'm sure it would drive Galina nuts; she hates the sound of computer fans).
I still have to find that receipt. Circuit City says they can't (won't) issue me a replacement receipt. Another alternative is to write a really strongly worded note to Sony, seeing as I did send in a copy of the receipt when I mailed in my rebate stuff.
I'll probably doodle around with the design of this fan for a while. It'd be nice to have something a little quieter, not to mention a bit more sleek. What I have now would occasion comment, for sure, outside my office.
Time to put the Tom Edison hat back in the closet, though, for the night at least.
I finished Cryptonomicon yesterday. I enjoyed the book tremendously, even though at times I had to read it 3-4 pages at a time. Nothing came together until the last 100 pages or so (which I took at two sittings), and when the dust had lifted, all loose ends were tucked away nicely. Except for one, last heard of experiencing soreness in the knees.
Uncertainty is good.
Cheers...
I just spent the last half hour or so "installing" it in a cassette case and jury-rigging it to the back of my VAIO, where it is held in place by a strip of Scotch tape and the grace of God.
Before installing the fan, I let the VAIO warm up. The unit's fan was not operating, and the plastic in the area of the CPU was not particularly hot, so I fired up Mozilla (the Windows version) and started surfing like crazy. (It was that or play around with a program I downloaded recently that emulates an Enigma machine... anything to pump instructions through the CPU.)
Oh, yeah. I bought a cheap Radio Shack thermometer with a thermocouple that's on the end of a 10-foot wire, intended to be mounted outside and let you know just how hot/cold/whatever it is in the Real World while you're safe in some temperate environment. I placed the thermocouple at the fan exhaust vent and measured a temperature of about 104 deg F.
The plastic over the CPU started getting hot, so I upended the machine and blew hard into the exhaust, which started the internal fan. Within 20 seconds, the thermometer was registering 127 deg F air coming out of the machine.
Leaving the thermocouple in place, I taped the fan/cassette in place and fired my creation up. It is powered by an old Xircom 12-Vdc power supply, with suitable "modifications" (i.e., I clipped off the plug that's supposed to go into some device, long lost, and spliced the end to the wires on the fan.)
Within 10 seconds, the temperature dropped to 113 deg F. In 10 more seconds (the thermometer's cycle time), the temperature had dropped to 106 deg F. Then 96.3 deg F, and eventually down to 83.3 deg F, where it is staying. The ambient air temperature in the room is 80 deg F, so the fan must be doing something, even though there are cracks around where the cassette meets the VAIO's case. After a few minutes, the plastic over the CPU is barely warm.
It's not a quiet unit, nor is it overly noisy (though I'm sure it would drive Galina nuts; she hates the sound of computer fans).
I still have to find that receipt. Circuit City says they can't (won't) issue me a replacement receipt. Another alternative is to write a really strongly worded note to Sony, seeing as I did send in a copy of the receipt when I mailed in my rebate stuff.
I'll probably doodle around with the design of this fan for a while. It'd be nice to have something a little quieter, not to mention a bit more sleek. What I have now would occasion comment, for sure, outside my office.
Time to put the Tom Edison hat back in the closet, though, for the night at least.
I finished Cryptonomicon yesterday. I enjoyed the book tremendously, even though at times I had to read it 3-4 pages at a time. Nothing came together until the last 100 pages or so (which I took at two sittings), and when the dust had lifted, all loose ends were tucked away nicely. Except for one, last heard of experiencing soreness in the knees.
Uncertainty is good.
Cheers...
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no subject
Date: 2001-07-25 08:44 pm (UTC)Good fan hack. But everything works better with duct tape! I needed a quiet fan once to cool the ram on an 8-bit machine that had no fan. I found a 220v muffin fan and ran it at 100v, which slowed it down to where it was almost noiseless.
Will Sony accept a copy of your credit card receipt statement that has the Vaio on it?
no subject
all you really need to do is work in a rubber band, maybe some chicken wire, and nice little mickey mouse sticker to complete your creation...
:)
no subject
I seem to recall reading somewhere - who knows, maybe somewhere here on LJ - that the only two things you need to fix anything are a roll of duct tape and a can of WD-40.
This, on the theory that if something is sticking when it shouldn't, you use the WD-40; in the opposite case, you use the duct tape.
Cheers...
no subject
I have one place left to look for the receipt, and that's inside the plastic bag that holds the rescue CD and the documentation for the unit. I believe that bag is in Houston, where I (probably) left it.
For now, the point is moot. Sending off the unit will do me no good now, as it takes around 2 weeks to get it fixed, and I am going to need this machine when I'm in Houston... departure for which is 11 days off, and counting.
Cheers...