Question re sata cables

[gene heskett]

On Wednesday, October 06, 2010 11:09:44 am Basil Chupin did opine:

> On 07/10/2010 00:50, gene heskett wrote:
> > On Wednesday, October 06, 2010 09:42:56 am Ric Moore did opine:
> >> On Tue, 2010-10-05 at 23:48 -0400, gene heskett wrote:
> >>> Greetings;
> >>> 
> >>> I have a pretty expensive ASUS M2N-SLA Deluxe motherboard, and I am
> >>> having lots of log messages from the sata stuff, disconnects and
> >>> reconnects/resets virtually anytime the cat walks by.  Reaching in
> >>> and just touching any of the cables will fill a couple pages of the
> >>> messages log.
> >>> 
> >>> Has anyone else encountered this, and if so where did you obtain the
> >>> replacement cables that stopped this particular PITA.  Or, are we
> >>> stuck with it till the "Next Great Thing"(TM) comes out?
> >> 
> >> I had to put a dab of silicon at the connection. The socket
> >> male/female connection is dicey. That fixes it. A loose solder
> >> connection was suggested, but if that was the case, the silicon fix
> >> wouldn't have fixed it. Ric
> > 
> > It has also occurred to me that the box hasn't had its annual D&C
> > operation this summer, as noted by the cpu temps running in the 40-55
> > range, in C. So I probably should disconnect it, wheel it to the
> > front deck (its a big tower on wheels) and take the 90 psi air hose
> > to it.
> 
> *NO*! You are joking of course? Say you are...please say yes :-) . Of
> course you are....you're one of Ric's gang, aren't you? :-) .
> 
Far from it Basil.  But I do block the fans from spinning when the aiur 
hits them as 10k rpms can't be good for the bearings in them.

> A brush with natural bristles like horse hair but not with artificial
> bristles to clean up some of the accumulated gunk and then some blowing
> with CANNED air - but NOT a 90psi air hose! (unless you use it from a
> safe distance like 4 feet or so away) - would get the job done. You will
> need to remove any fans (except those in the PSU) and give them a good
> clean with the brush/canned air (possibly even disassemble them and
> grease/oil the spindles?).

In my 60+ years of electronics maintenance, one thing I've found, 
particularly for sleeve bearing motors, is that it is only a couple of days 
from 'oiling' them to burned up lube and locked up again.  The OEM oils are 
generally chosen to be compatible with the metallurgy, and short of having 
the makers own can of oil handy, its best to just replace the stiff fan, 
with a fresher ball bearing model.  They can generally be oiled a few 
times, but also won't need it near as often if the dust seals aren't 
damaged.
. 
> >    And pull the heat
> > 
> > sink, clean the by now fried artic silver off and replace it.
> 
> Wouldn't do it - leave it alone. It's meant to "fry" to make a close
> seal between the cpu and the heat sink. In fact if you read the
> instructions they state that it takes a few days for the artic silver to
> start doing its job while the heat "fries it" to form a good seal
> between cpu and 'sink.

And every time I have done that, I have lowered the cpu's operating temps 
by 15 to 20C, which creeps up gradually as the dust accumulates in the heat 
sink fins again.  Make no mistake, cleaning it up to a lox clean state, is 
not for the lazy, it takes serious scrubbing with Shepard Q-Tip and acetone 
to do a decent job of cleaning.  If you can still see a film after the 
acetone dries, then it is _not_ clean enough.  I now have some microfiber 
cloths I use on my plastic glasses, and since they will not scratch, they 
may be the ultimate scrubbing tool, but costly as the silicon will not wash 
out of them ever.  It doesn't bother me to use up 50 q-tips though.  One 
dip in the acetone, clean with it, toss.  Never put it back in the acetone 
or alky being used for solvent as it will contaminate the solvent.
 
> Just remove the fan, clean it, and clean the fins of the heatsink - then
> put back the fan.
> 
> I do all this every 3-6 months.
> 
> Have never, ever, removed the heatsink, and have never used a 90psi air
> hose :-) .

And I have, hundreds of times.  When one buys computers for the news dept 
of a tv station by the pallet, you get very poor quality cpu coolers in the 
typical e-machine.  But one should use a bit of common sense too.  Spinning 
a fan up to 20k rpms just because it sounds neat is a sure way to cause 
that fans failure a few weeks on down the log.  I have one, very high speed 
ball bearing fan on the XP-1400 Athlon that runs my milling machine (using 
emc, its great and free) that has been turning about 6k rpms, 24/7/365 for 
about 10 years, still going strong in an environment that could be full of 
microscopic alu shavings so fine they are a breathing hazard.  When cutting 
alu, and asking it for a mirror finish which requires that the cuttings be 
flushed with a continuous stream of air to get the cuttings away so they are 
not recut, marring the surface, I usually run the dust collector to just to 
pull some cleaner air into the shop building its in.  That fan has never 
been touched to oil it, but that cpu and heatsink combo has now been on 3 
motherboards.  Needless to say, its a thermaltake.

FWIW I have used the horsehair paintbrush too.  Its inability to get into 
the small places has caused more circuit damage than I ever did with the 
air hose as long as the compressor tank isn't allowed to become 
waterlogged.  If it spits water at you, that water contains all sorts of 
contaminates that must then be removed.

> BC

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
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		-- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love"