[judelle]

I really don't know what the thing is to do right now. It seems foolish to attempt to run at what appears to be high temperature according to that SpeedFan program ... so I am leaving the cover off which lets me run at 44C. Hopefully the Dell Diagnostics will arrive tomorrow and will re-measure the temperatures. At this point I have the PC working because I reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled XP. I did this to rule out spyware and that kind of thing and then focus on the hardware itself.

This is one of those tiny compact cases that Dell used briefly. It looks really neat and fits into a small desk area well. This is actually a replacement PC. The original one actually did pretty much burn up ... it destroyed the hard drive (the data reconstruction company said that it appeared to have gotten too hot), damaged memory and the mother board. Once all of those pieces were replaced, the power unit failed. It was a pretty poor experience and I was no longer patient with Dell sending me parts every day to install. So they replaced the PC. The replacement Dell sent was this 5100C, their next generation but still a compact case.

The other complication is that it is a SATA drive. I am just beginning to think that SATA drives and compact cases are not meant for each other.

My current plan is to wait to test tomorrow with the Dell Diagnostics. Got any better ideas?

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i'd like to wait and see what that diag-disc tells you..and...in my opinion...going with the small form factor systems...just opens up too many places for problems (hard to upgrade, they get hot, you can lose them if you're not careful )

[dsenette]

i'd like to wait and see what that diag-disc tells you..and...in my opinion...going with the small form factor systems...just opens up too many places for problems (hard to upgrade, they get hot, you can lose them if you're not careful )

[judelle]

I'll never buy another compact case version.

[dsenette]

good idea

[The Skeptic]

Hi judelle,

You started this thread with a computer that slowed down. Regardless of temperature, how is it running now after formatting?

[judelle]

Boot and performance are improved. I am still installing software so haven't gotten it back to carrying its full load. Nevertheless, performance seems promising at this point. Maybe I am paranoid but, after my other compact version Dell burnt up, I am still concerned about the temperature. Since the re-format I have not let this PC reach the over-heat point (by keeping the side off the case and turning it off at night and whenever I don't think I will use it for an hour or more so it gets a chance regularly to cool down). Maybe I am being too careful with it?????

[dsenette]

well...if you had a drive physically damaged by heat already...then your concerns are valid...you could put a fan...like a small house fan...next to th e machine with the side off blowing air in there...that would probably help....but...short of finding a way to add another fan to the system...those temps aren't likely to get better....i'd almost contact dell...and complain about their architecture and all that jazz..and see if you can complain to a high enough person...ya never know...they might admit defeat and send you the same system...just in a bigger case...

[The Skeptic]

Thanks for the information. Your caution is understandable but the improved performance indicates that the problem lied somwhere else. I think that I would close the computer and watch closely the temperatures. If they stabilize at between 40-50 degrees I wouldn't worry. If they exceed this range I would take precautions. There is another very good, little, free, software called Everest Home Edition. You can download and run it and watch temperatures under Computer > Sensor. This will give you another indication for tempreatures to cross-check with SpeedFan.

[The Skeptic]

Just last note: I looked at Western Digital for operating temperatures of Sata HD. Operating temperatures are in the range of 5-55 degrees C. That gives you a good indication to where you stand with the ventilation of your computer. Seems to me that there is not much to worry about.

[judelle]

Thanks ... the info that temperatures are okay at 55 and under is reassuring.

[Townes]

is speedfan very accurate?

[dsenette]

depends on how accurate the sensors on your motherboard are...if the sensors are accurate and compatible with the speedfan software..then the results should be 100% accurate...as far as the data that is being reported by the sensors is concerned