Curse

Toxage · Apr 27, 2008, 09:06 PM // 21:06

Is it safe to leave my computer on afking in nine rings for the duration of the guild wars event?

I am worried that my computer might overheat and catch fire or damage itself .... So far I have left it on for 18 hours.

FXCW · Apr 27, 2008, 09:08 PM // 21:08

It should be perfectly safe.

Kumu Honua · Apr 27, 2008, 09:16 PM // 21:16

Have you dusted the inside in the last few months?

The only real way you should have to worry about your computer catching fire is if it's filled with dust and cobwebs, and your house is like 100 degrees or so.

The dust and webs are what would catch fire and cause the problems.

Computer components are functional to ~140 degrees. More than enough for normal situations.

Agent Mold3r · Apr 27, 2008, 09:28 PM // 21:28

There is about a 72.6% chance that your computer will catch on fire after 20 hours.

Malice Black · Apr 27, 2008, 09:40 PM // 21:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agent Mold3r

There is about a 72.6% chance that your computer will catch on fire after 20 hours.

Don't be daft.

A friend of mine who d/l movies has his running 24/7 all year round. He has no issues.

Kumu Honua · Apr 27, 2008, 10:07 PM // 22:07

My computer has been on for 3 weeks, 2 days, 12 hours, 52 minutes.

No fires here.

BLOODGOAT · Apr 27, 2008, 10:41 PM // 22:41

I never turn my computer off...

Lazerath · Apr 27, 2008, 11:09 PM // 23:09

Never Had A Computer Fire And It's Been On (A Side From Upgrade Downtime)
A Good 2 Years Plus.
Also Run A Server Computer For A Website And As Media Center. Never Been Of For Over 4 Years.

You Can Run A Computer Forever, Just Helps To Clean Them In Which Case A Detachable Side Panel Is Useful.

What I Will Say Is This, Have Some Pressurized Air. Got Thermometers In My Machines And An Alarm Sounds When They Do Get To Hot. Spray With Air Not only Lowers Temp But Cleans At The Same Time

Brianna · Apr 27, 2008, 11:15 PM // 23:15

I never turn mine off, this one has been on for over 1 week straight now without rebooting, and is on 24/7 anyways.

Tarun · Apr 28, 2008, 03:12 AM // 03:12

It's perfectly safe to leave it running.

Enko · Apr 28, 2008, 05:20 AM // 05:20

unless your computer was made before thermal protection, your computer should power itself off after it reaches the threshold that's set in your bios (which is well short of catching fire) so you should be fine.

Admael · Apr 28, 2008, 05:47 AM // 05:47

Sorta related but, I had a friend who used a single loop to cool her two graphics cards, the pump failed and the graphics card overheated and melted the water blocks. Those two cards were ruined.

zamial · Apr 28, 2008, 03:25 PM // 15:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Admael

Sorta related but, I had a friend who used a single loop to cool her two graphics cards, the pump failed and the graphics card overheated and melted the water blocks. Those two cards were ruined.

reason 1,896,234 NOT to use water cooling.
electronics + liquid = disaster in the making.

Snograt · Apr 28, 2008, 05:19 PM // 17:19

To be fair, that failure wasn't liquid related. The pump failure was as likely as a fan failure which would have had the same effect.

I agree with your overall dislike of water cooling though - it's not enough of an improvement over fan + heatsink to bother with.

Liquid Nitrogen, on the other hand...

Painbringer · Apr 28, 2008, 05:44 PM // 17:44

Is your house wired properly or old? If you have everything coming out of one plug with old wiring you may want to shut it off. Feel the cord close to the plug are they warm or HOT to touch. If hot shut it off and reconfigure how you have things pluged in. Computers take little juice compaired to other things but if you have a surge protector running everything (tv light speakers etc..) check it to be safe.

Snograt · Apr 28, 2008, 05:54 PM // 17:54

My Ma used to moan about the electricity bill and me running my PC at all hours. I used to tell her it used less electricity than a lightbulb. Which was true.

It isn't true any more - a constant half-kiloWatt wouldn't be too far fetched. That's a lot of juice.

Brianna · Apr 29, 2008, 03:00 AM // 03:00

If I had water cooling I wouldn't leave my computer on 24/7, just to be safe.

However with fans, I have it under control, so I leave them running.

Water cooling doesn't suck if you know what you are doing - sounds like Admael's friend just had a very unfortunate mishap, and like Snograt said, It could have been the same with a fan. However there is no reason to use water cooling unless you over-clock, it's really only reserved for advanced users anyways who want to push it to the limit.

For example, my north-bridge fan died on my other computer the other day, and I came home and it was rebooted - little did I know that the fan was dead at that time. I was thinking someone was tampering with it. Now if it wasn't for the feature in the BIOS that shuts the computer off when it gets too hot - could easily say there may have been something more serious.

Which reminds me, I need to enable that on this computer's BIOS, but I'm not really in any rush to do it.

Admael · Apr 29, 2008, 03:52 AM // 03:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by zamial

reason 1,896,234 NOT to use water cooling.
electronics + liquid = disaster in the making.

It wasn't the water that ruined the cards, it was just that it overheated. And since GPU temps aren't rated (machine won't shutdown because the GPU is too hot) the computer just kept running with no cooling for the GPUs.

To be honest, it's not a reason to stray away from watercooling, but infact a reason to use two pumps... ya know, in case one fails :>

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brianna

For example, my north-bridge fan died on my other computer the other day, and I came home and it was rebooted - little did I know that the fan was dead at that time. I was thinking someone was tampering with it. Now if it wasn't for the feature in the BIOS that shuts the computer off when it gets too hot - could easily say there may have been something more serious.

If you're getting high temps on your NB, it could be the heatsink wasn't sat properly. You could try resitting it, a lot of the boards of my series were shipped with improperly sat NB heatsinks, resulting in 100C+ temps, even with the fan :<

Brianna · Apr 29, 2008, 04:05 AM // 04:05

It's seated fine. It was just shutting off in a peak hour of the day (Here it gets REALLY hot mid-day) all other times it is just fine without the fan, but undesirable for me.

So I pointed an 80mm fan towards its general direction, and put one of my old punk patches under it to dampen the sound and vibration from it, and its running fine now. later I'll find a replacement.

NeonXero · Apr 29, 2008, 04:52 AM // 04:52

Just ordered a new heatsink and some Arctic Silver tonight - so that will go in my PC when I get back from college

Speaking of seating issues... they're bad.

P.S. Sweet avatar Admael, haven't played that game in a whhhiiillleeeee