micky wrote:
Old computer, chapter 37.

I wanted to fill you in to how it's going, and ask some questions at the
end here.

I didn't do this earlier because things were piled on my Dell Optiplex
755 (iirc) including the laptop I am using, plugged in to various
things. .

But I've noticed that the computer will repeatedly run for 24 hours,
including playing web radio and video, but some specific actions,
opening Settings for example, makes the computer crash, and I'm thinking
if each time it loads windows into the same parts of the RAM, maybe the
exact same parts, whatever code is loaded to the bad part is what makes
it crash, so it crashes from the same set of actions of mine. ????

I tried Prime and it crashed within 5 or 10 seconds.

So I finally started testing the memory by removing parts of it.

It has 4 2gig sticks in 4 slots.

I removed two of them

Unfortunately I removed sticks 3 and 4 and it wouldn't start.

I'd forgotten what I knew 5 or 10 or 15 years ago.

So I put back the one that had been in a white stick holder and removed
the other one that was in a black stick holder, leaving sticks 1 and 3,
both white.

The computer crashed the first two time before fully loading windows,
probably beforfe the PIN.

So I took out the 2 sticks and put the other 2, that had been in 2 and
4, into instead 1 and 3. Again crashed quickly the first two times. .
So neither pair of sticks seems good.

Maybe I have two bad sticks, one per pair, and I will test one stick at
a time if it will run that way, but I figured I didn't have 2 bad sticks
and I put aside testing for that,
-----

Because the computer crashes often even before I can put in the PIN and
if not that, often before windows fully loads, I've figured it can't
overheat that quickly if the thermal cement is at all good, so that
means it's not the thermal paste. Fair conclusion????
-----

So then I went to replace the fan, something I tried years ago but I
couldn't get the old fan out. I removed 2 screws holding on a cover
and I gradually lifted up the cover, only to find it was attached to the
CPU cooling fins. So I don't know if the thermal paste was in bad
shape before or if I ruined it.

I have a little syringe of Artic Silver 5 thermal paste. It's 5 or 10
or 15 years old, stored in a cool basement. I squeezed a bit out and
it looks and seems the same as I remember it, grey, even colored, nice
looking, like toothpaste but thicker. Too old???????

"The correct amount of thermal paste, which is roughly the size of a pea
or a grain of rice." I think a pea is twice as big as a grain of rice!!
unless they mean a cooked grain of rice but a pea is still. 50% bigger.
?????

The online directions say not to let it squeeze out beyond the edge of
the CPU. But because of the heat sink, I can't see if that has
happened. What to do?

Make sure all power is disconnected before starting work.

1) Wipe off paste on CPU and heatsink.

2) Put half-a-grain of thermal paste, and squash heatsink into it.
Pull heatsink off again. Note diameter of "splotch".
Since you did not put enough on (on purpose), the splotch
should be smaller than the size needed to do the job.

In your head, work out how much bigger the grain would
have to be, for the splotch to fill out to the edge of
the heatsink. Then, add a tiny bit more, so that the "edge"
will be wetted. You need wetting, not because it helps the
thing work, but because it allows step (4) to work.

3) Wipe heatsink and CPU clean again. Apply calibrated amount.
Fasten heatsink with the same pressure as in (2).

4) Now, hold an inspection mirror to the *side* of the
stack. I have that little dental mirror thing on a 45 degree
angle, for inspections. You should be able to see the
color of the paste that is wetting the area between the
heatsink and CPU. It should wet the gap enough, to see
the color, but without oozing out all over the place.

Usually, you can feel by the texture while compressing
the sink, whether there's way too much on there. To
make it ooze out, you need oozing-force.

When I first started applying paste, I was using the
credit card method. But I couldn't really get good
controlled results, because sometimes the spread material
was a little too thick and it oozed out.

Using the "grain-in-the-center-and-then-squash", cut
down on some of the more annoying aspects of application.

The above instructions are for typical Arctic Silver.

There is one thermal paste material that is like
"dry bread dough". It's miserable stuff. The squash
technique won't work. You'll have to Google up an application
method for that, if that happened to be all that came
with a heatsink. I won't say the stuff is "crap", but
it is a trifle consumer-unfriendly. Part of the TP business
is making products that make your customers happy.

Intel makes some stuff that "melts and flows" and
that can't be easily reworked if you wanted to
reuse it. Maybe if you were adept with a blow
torch, you could fiddle with it, but I don't know
how flammable it is. My practice here is to remove it
after it's been used once, and replace with AS
(whatever is lying around). I think I have a second
tube here somewhere. I got a lot of mileage out of
my syringe of AS3. Maybe it separates a bit with
age (so the first little bit from the nozzle isn't
uniform), but it's otherwise good. No complaints.

By the way, I experiences a miracle the other day. I
opened an old can of house paint, and the paint was in
*perfect* condition. Oil based. No skin! Too bad we
can't buy that paint any more. There's only a half cup
left in the can. The paint is 15 years old (I write
the date on each can).

*******

The Q45 has Intel Management Engine. You're supposed to
populate at least one particular RAM slot, so that
the Management engine has some RAM to work with. Even
though the Management engine on refurbs is
(supposed to be) neutered. Later setups, the Management
Engine RAM became even more flexible, such that sticks
could be plugged in any order and it would all work
properly. But some of the earlier Q chipsets, the
RAM method was static and one slot would then be
"blessed" with the duty of supporting Management Engine.

Using that slot if necessary, test the sticks of RAM
one at a time, to make it easier to weed out the
stinkier sticks. If you can manage to find two good
ones, test them in single channel mode. Apparently the
BIOS screen can announce what RAM mode it detected, so
if you need a way to verify mode, you can try the BIOS
screen. A single stick would be single channel mode too.
Just as you can place two sticks in the same channel
and it is still single channel mode.

| | Vet sticks one at a time
stick XXX This is a single channel mode
| |
XXX XXX

| | Single channel mode
stick XXX (part of thorough memtest method)
| | (swap the two sticks, to swap "high" and "low")
stick XXX (swapping the sticks, tests the E810 locations)

| | Dual channel mode
stick stick (when error shows, which stick is bad???)
| | (dual channel mode does not test E810
XXX XXX reserved addresses...)

Paul