While I was watching TV earlier the lights went dim for a fraction of a second (as in waned to almost nothing as opposed to the occasional flicker) and the aircon unit also briefly switched off and then back on again. So coming into the study I wasn’t surprised to see my computer off, even though the other one was on. However when I went to switch it on it beeped a few times and there was an error message about the “Computer Fan” overheating or somesuch thing. Thinking my CPU fan had died I quickly wiped all the dust out between the fins, but I still got the error, and the CPU fan was spinning fine. I immediately looked at the BIOS fan and found it difficult to spin with my finger. Hoping that the bearings hadn’t seized (are BIOS fans standard items or specific to each mobo?) I looked for a way to prise the heatsink/fan assembly off, and quickly unscrewed some tiny screws I could just get at between the fan blades. The fan started moving around but it was trapped between the heatsink cage and a cheap looking aluminium shroud that only covered the edges of the fan, but seemed impossible to get off.
It wasn’t until I shone a lamp into the case that I could see that the fan was screwed in from the otherside, which would require unscrewing the entire mobo – yeah fuck that -_- So i took my little cutter/pliers and cut the shroud at the thinnest points and then fatigued the four sections off, which left a surprisingly clean break right at the base where it was fixed to the heatsink. The fan came out easily, only being held in by the screws, but even after unclogging the dust it was stiff to move. So I unpeeled the back sticker and added in a drop of WD40, and then some proper machine oil (since WD40 evaporates too quickly to lubricate for a long time) and Lo! the fan was spinning OK. Putting it back in everything started up just fine, so thankfully it seems the bearings had only dried out, not completely seized up – but let this be a warning to you – next time you clean out your PC think about taking a few more minutes to peel off the central stickers on all of your fans and just add a few drops of machine oil (Singer is what I used).
And now the real reason you’re here:
Dick in a Box
(You’ll need to click on the movie to bring you to the Youtube page – it has been officially removed from Youtube, but as always
Comedian Movie Trailer
….while we’re on Youtube links – the announcer is Hal Turner. I don’t remember hearing anything about this movie – it came out in 2002.And I figured these belong here too, since I’m just passing them on from an email Slay sent me:
The Herald Sun’s 25 Best Newspaper Headlines of 2000
