Tech Support Help Desk

Most people don’t realize that there is a method to the madness when it comes to cooling off the components within their computer systems that are getting overheated.  The CPU puts off a lot of heat, as well as some other components like the memory, video card, etc.  All of these need airflow (or other cooling systems - some PCs actually use a water-cooled setup) in order to keep thing running right.  One way this is achieved is through the use of the exhaust fan, and the power supply fan.

What most people fail to understand is the way that these components work to draw air through the system to cool it.  Both of these fans actually work to pull hot air out of the case.  There could even be a third fan to push cooler air into the case, but usually this is accomplished by providing ventilation into the case at just the right point.  When done correctly, the cooling system will cause the cooler air to flow right over the components that need it the most, thereby cooling them, while the other fans pull the heated air back out of the computer case.  One of the primary problems with keeping the case cool, however, isn’t with bad system designs or poor fan circulation.  It comes back to operator error, and the failure of someone to replace the expansion slot cover when they pull an old system card such as a soundcard, video capture, etc.

So, it was an interesting study in what can go wrong when a friend of mine called upon me to examine a computer with a expansion slot cover missing.  Notice anything unusual about this particular computer?  Obviously it has been sitting in a place with a lot of dust, as is evidenced by the dust being sucked into the case (remember, the exhaust fans are supposed to pull in cooler air from the vents, NOT from open holes behind the computer!  However, when this system died, it wasn’t from overheating.  As I dug deeper, here’s what I found.  It seems that the place where this computer “lived” was also the home for some other creatures known as mice!  As the mice found the computer to be a nice warm place during the winter months to escape from their cold outdoor lifestyle, they seemed to have had several gatherings inside the computer case.  I was actually surprised that I didn’t find some body remains inside the case.  But, alas, the evidence was clear.  This computer had been terminated by the best laid plans of mice and men.  We did actually pull and salvage the hard drive, but the rest of this machine (the motherboard was actually fried … no POST test, nothing!) went to the graveyard.  In the final damage estimate, the mice won, 1-0.  Here’s the post-op pix: