Computer Headaches

I’ve been having some computer problems for quite a while, but I don’t have the money to buy a new one, or to replace a lot of parts. My problem right now is overheating, so I thought it was time to either do a really good cleanup and replace the thermal paste on the processor, or get a new cooler for it.

My desktop computer is an HP Pavilion Media Center PC ( m7680n) that I got back in January of 2006. By now it’s pretty old, so I thought it would help cool it down if I got a cooler that caught my eye on Amazon.

The cooler in question is a Cooler Master RR-B10-212P-G1 Hyper 212. I like the design, but didn’t pay attention to the actual size, that thing is huge!

I had already placed the order and was looking through some installation videos when I realized the size of that monster, so I opened up my case and it appeared to have enough clearance, according to the measurements in the specs at least.

When I got it I tried to put it in, and while it did have enough clearance and wouldn’t really touch the side door, it’s too wide and it touched the power supply directly.

I was about to return it when I remembered I had an extra case, a big Antec XS1020BII soho case I got years before when I was building a home server. I didn’t have the money to continue so I ended up selling most of the parts I didn’t use, but for some reason I kept the case.

I took the ridiculous task of removing everything from the HP case to the Antec case. It took me a while to figure out how to take everything from the mid-size tower, but I was able to take the whole thing apart.

After taking the motherboard out I tried to install the new cooler. That was hard! I didn’t need much of the instructions, I had already seen a couple of installation videos, but damn, that’s the weirdest design ever!

You have to fight the heatsink moving while adjusting the clamp that holds holds it in to the motherboard, I was worried I had removed the thermal paste by the time I was done, but thankfully that wasn’t the case.

I put pretty much everything back in place, except for the front video inputs/USB box and the card reader, I have yet to find a place for them.

The new case came with a 400 watt power supply, but I had to install the 300 watt pw from the old case because it doesn’t have the new SATA power connectors, and I didn’t want to wait until morning to go buy some adapters.

Right now the case is running pretty cool, it came with 2 back fans, and with the cooler fan facing them directly everything is running pretty smoothly, that’s good because I want to buy a new video card to replace the cheap one that came with my pc.

I really don’t know why HP sells computers with 300 to 400 watt power supplies, that computer cost me $1,500 when I first got it, it should have come with a decent graphics card and a bigger power supply.

The system now gives me a “system fan not working” error every time I restart, so I gotta get me a 600 watt power supply ASAP!