What did I miss?

Well I can see it's been a while since i've posted anything on here.  No, I'm not dead; i'm Not lazy I swear; and no I'm not reading your mind.

I had to attend my Friend's wedding the first weekend in September, and boy was it hot!  Fun weekend though, found some interesting carvings at the park where we went discgolfing:

 

Anyway, It's been a busy week or two since.  Back and forth getting new projects going with friends, and trying to clean up and maintain the plethora of computers I have running can get a bit time consuming.

My main workstation needed some TLC, so my friend Mok and I took a compressor to it and blew out all the dust that I could, cleaned up as much dirt buildup and then proceeded to take apart my graphics card and CPU to redo the thermal compound on them.  

Normally, Isopropyl alcohol should do the job on electronics... However, depending on what percentage you use and how much you use, it tends to leave a film, and for critical heat producing components this could be problematic.

This is all we had though.  So, I set about cleaning after I had taken apart my graphics card.

There's the plastic cover that creates the tunnel for the airflow to direct itself into the and out of the heatsink,  and a metal chassis piece that provides much stability to creating pressure and sealing contact against the heat producing components like the RAM and other bits that have thermal pads covering them.  All the thermal pads were dried up and disintegrating so I cleaned all that off.

  

The Heat sink had most of the Thermal compound on it, and was extremely dried up, we could see cracks and dry spots on the heatsink as well as the GPU.

The only thing I worried about was the invisible layer of film residue left behind by the quick-drying isopropyl on the GTX480.

I took the time to cut up some pieces of thermal pads i had laying around from old hard drive kits, and replaced them over the RAM and components that were originally covered before.  The pads I had were pretty thick so once I finished cutting them, I could put the metal chassis back onto the card and then worry about the heatsink and GPU itself afterward.

 

Mok explained to me the finer points of placing Thermal compound in patterns so as not to cause bubbles.

In this Quick link is an interesting video to show what happens with different types of thermal compound and the spreading process when clamping a heatsink onto the exposed surface.

Another thing to be aware of is how the Heatsink's contact surface is shaped (which isn't very easy to spot if u ask me).
The same guy that made the video also made this image for explanation.

So, chassis piece put back together, time to apply thermal compound and get this beast back together!

We got my PC back up and running and kept eyes on the temperatures of everything.  While things were running quite hot at first they've since leveled out to more reasonable temperatures.  Next time only 99% Isopropyl  (license required).

Did I mention we got it up and running just in time to start importing and editing footage from a shoot we did a late night before?  Anyway, I'll be posting a separate topic on that shortly, but first.  The rest of this madness on computer cleaning continued later in the week when I found time to clean out and re-do the thermal compound on two of my server computers.

The first server computer I have is my previous build, an intel core 2 duo with a Geforce 7900 GT card, which I haven't touched since I purchased it.  It desparately needed some new compound!

 

The RAM seated around the chip is completely exposed to the air and apparently doesn't get that hot (most likely due to the speed compared to newer cards - for example the clock speed on the GTX 480 is 1700 mhz), a card this old doesn't run that fast.

Back in it went, and then time for the CPU.  It wasn't so tough, aside from the silly way they mount it!  Had to use some unorthodox methods of push and pull, though I really liked the quick release screws with quarter turn heads.  Very easy!

 

The CPU compound was completely dry, cracked and in desperate need of replacement,  a quick clean job (i'm getting used to this), and back in everything went.

The last thing on the list was the case was removing the broken 200mm case fan.

Clearly cracked down the center, I'm not sure why.  I think I got the case with the fan already broken as the case box was retaped several times when I purchased it from the local Best Buy.  Ohwell, simple fix with some gorilla glue ought to fix this guy right up.

The last machine was an older server I put together running an AMD Athlon XP 2.4 ghz single core with 2 gb of RAM and a cheapo graphics card just for getting a video output.  It's been an awesome machine for it's age and using it as a file and media server, even after all these years of abuse, it's running like a champ!  However, the thermal compound is almost as old as it is, so I took the time to redo the CPU as well.

I refrained from taking pictures because it's just more of the same.  Anyway, on to the next topic; next blog post!

Shexy mods, clamor, and glamour..

Over a month ago, my computer screen decided to go dark.  Now when I say go dark, I mean it literally just went dark.  Most of the time when people have a computer screen that they can't see anymore they assume it just died.  A quick inspection and some research online led me to believe the capacitors, resistor, or some part of the power inverter that powers the CCFL backlights went out, because the rest of the screen still works.  I use the screen's USB hub to operate my kyeboard and mouse, and when I switch screens to my giant HDTV on the opposite wall (extremely hard to work with this particular orientation), the mouse and keyboard are fine.

The last throws of summer are in full swing, everyone wants to constantly hang out and enjoy what's left of it by gaming: xbox 360, or nerding: Magic The Gathering.  Poke fun, mock, and belittle all you like... It's a fun way to pass the time.  Mok offered to help me solve my screen issues and we took it apart to look at the power board.

First time we took it apart was sort of annoying since the plastic shell is a two piece snap-in that holds itself together.  A butter knife did the trick eventually, and we ran into the other problem of having to try and get around the stem for the stand where it connects to the back of the screen.  Once we got it off we disconnected 3 sets of connections that bound all the various components together.

While the particular fashion in which Samsung designed the screen can be annoying to work on because of the molded plastic back shell being cast through the metal bracket that holds the hinge and stem piece for the stand to sit in, we managed to get access to the the 2 boards in the chassis that house the electronics.

Disconnecting the power from the logic board allowed us to easily unscrew the power board and disconnect the two backlight connectors buried in the right side of the chassis.  Once we got the power board out Mok and I immediately noticed one major problem with it.

Not only was the PCB around the resistor burnt black, but the original capacitor had faded beyond recognition and we thus set about replacing it.  A quick stop at "The Shack" and later another visit to get a 60-watt Soldering Iron because of the heavy duty solder used on the board remedied the situation nicely.  We also replaced 8 capacitors i had purchased online from a DIY mod site that matched the main ones that the board relies on.  We stuck the board back in and despite our effort, were greeted with a dark but still functioning screen.  So I ordered a whole new power board on eBay...

A couple of days passed...  Busy with life things, like friendly gatherings, keeping up with my exercises...

Taking care of things at home...  Lazy cats...

More exercising...

Oh... and some more friend time:

S'mores anyone?

Before the board arrived, Mok came over and was curious to check out the backlights with me.  We set about taking apart the entire screen.

Removing the front plastic bezel

Snapping out the metal frame that encases the inner screen components.

For those of you that don't know how an LCD screen works.  There's several layers to the whole thing.  Here's how it goes.  Below you can see the Panel which is covered with a diffusion anti-glare material.

Beneath the actual panel is several layers of Diffuser sheets, think of them as transparency sheets like those used in schools for overhead projectors, except they help to evenly scatter the light instead of being completely transparent.

Underneath those diffuser sheets is a large and thick panel that is somewhat diffusive.

This panel acts like a lens when light is emitted into it from it's sides, it illuminates the whole area scattering the light in all directions and as the light catches on the diffusive surface area, it brightens the whole thing.

These backlights are very tiny, long and thin. There are two sets, a pair on top and a pair on the bottom, which are powered by the power inverter board.

The logic board is connected directly to the LCD matrix panel which controls the various cells in the matrix.

And there you have it.  While we had fun taking it completely apart and reassembling it we found nothing wrong with the CCFLs.  Backlights had absolutely no burn marks, blackened edges or anything that would be akin to failure.

The board arrived, and I have some free time during the day to tackle a quick modification to the plastic shell with my dremel. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that I got the plastic piece completely cut out the shell could be completely removed from the chassis.  I cleaned up everything and took it back inside to remove the old power board and put the new one in.

I quickly and easily took out the old powerboard thanks to the handy removal of that plastic section that bound the shell to the hinge.

Swapped out the old power board, put the new one in, screwed it in place, and reconnected the power to the logic board, and the two CCFL backlight sets. 

Swung the chassis back on top of the screen and connected the data cable to the logic board for the display and the connection for the power sensor on the front bezel piece, plugged the thing back in to some power and tested it out.  The whole thing lit up perfectly so I finished snapping together the shell, put the mount piece back on the hinge and stem and placed it back on my desk.  I hooked my screen back up to my computer and now everything is back up and running!

The rest of this month has been rather slow.  The usual daily exercising, routine job hunting, working on the final bits of the orchestra project commissioned by Trials & Memories which can be found on facebook.  Lots of working on my novel project as well.

School should be back in session, summer is closing to its end, and my guess is if you're reading this late on a school night you're probably chatting with me on facebook!  Hope everyone enjoyed their summer.  Hopefully I'll have more buzzworthy stuff to post on here soon.