Queen’s Public Service Announcement: HEAT!

It’s gettin’ hot in here…ohgodwhathaveidonenowitstuckinmyhead…

Anyhoo…as the weather gets warmer in the Northern Hemisphere one thing we’ve got to watch out for is HEAT and your computer.

I’m having a feeling that a lot of peeps that are having recent crashes/freezing problems and blaming it on SL bugs are in fact running their machines too hot.

Even if they are oldbies at this SL thang, Windlight makes your graphics card work a WHOLE LOT HOTTER, so many people might not be expecting this. And it seems everybody and their mom has laptops these days, which are harder to keep cool. I happen to be a geek that cares for you, gentle readers, and I have both a desktop and laptop to give you both perspectives.

If you’ve got a desktop, you have a lot more control and you can easily open ‘er up (its ok, you wont hurt anything if you are careful) and check things out.

For SL the most important fan is on your video card! Your CPU also has a fan that is tre importante. And if you have a desktop, you should have a few other fans inside too. Basically your CPU and video card create the most heat, and the hot air will just lie there on top of your video card and/or motherboard, which is bad, m’kay? What you want to do is push that air towards the back to your power supply fan where it pushes it out the back vent.

Check for extreme heat by touching the case and feeling the air coming out of the back vent. If it’s boiling hot that’s bad! Make sure you have enough air flow in the room you’re working. If it’s hot you should be hearing fans working inside your computer. If you don’t hear fans, that’s bad! (unless you have the super quiet fans and if so then most likely you’re a geek so this whole entry is preaching to the choir, or a good reminder at least ) When it’s hot my G5 sounds like a freaking jet engine, I kid you not. I don’t mind it tho…it’s doing the Lord’s Work 🙂

For the desktop users….In desperate situations I have placed a normal floor fan directly in front of my desktop (most desktops have front vents). My boyfriend has his computer open all the time and has a fan literally blowing directly onto/across his video card. This is a bit crude, but will do the trick! Be sure to check that the fan on your video card works OK (with your case open, start your computer and watch the fans). Your CPU also has a fan. If any of these fans stop working, your computer can react in a number of ways, including freezing up completely, acting glitchy or freezy or suddenly just shutting down with no notice. The shut down is to save the precious parts! Because if you run it too hot for too long, it will ruin your video card or chip which is expensive to replace and no one wants that. There are also some desktop cases that come with gadgets plus softwares to help read the temp and warn you if it’s too hot. When your fans are dying they tend to make a lot of noises, so don’t ignore those noises! Those ball bearings do give out, but don’t worry, they’re like $3 to replace! Much cheaper than buying a new video card.

If you have a laptop…well, it’s bit more difficult (don’t be opening up your laptop!) but there are still things you can do. For about $20/30 or so you can invest in a laptop stand thingy (and yes, that IS the technical term). They come in a billion different kinds, some just elevate (which is very important), some are metal with a fan to act as a heat sink and will cool things off quite nicely! If you have an (Intel) Mac laptop (MacBook or MacBookPro) you already know how freaking HOT they can run…so download an free app called SMC Fan control which gives you control over your internal laptop fans. Whenever I run SL on my MBP I ALWAYS run SMC Fan Control. The app won’t let you mess things up, in fact it never lets you turn the fan off or lower than what it would normally run, but does allow you to run them super high and keep things reeeeally nice and cool. If you can’t control your internal fans, the most important thing you can do for a laptop tho is ELEVATE. Get the dern thing off your desk/lap and let the air flow under and over. If it’s still too hot get a regular fan and place it next to your elevated laptop blowing from left to right or right to left (across your laptop, if you will). Feel your laptop and find the “hot spot” (Usually there’s a few definite hot areas) and try to point the fan toward those.

So just remember folks…when it comes to computers, HEAT IS NOT COOL.

OMG I’m terrible. Just terrible.