Tuesday, August 24, 2010

SOFTWARE: That's NOT Hot

Continuing my irregular series on what software auto-loads on my computers, I will remind you that in no way, is this related to something inane uttered by the celeb without talent, Paris Hilton. This article is about SpeedFan.

SpeedFan is different on every computer and it's main job is to let me know if something has gone awry with the interior temperature of my computers. Now, my personal computers all sit on TOP of desks, have plenty of airspace around them and get overhauled more often than MOST people's computers. As a result, they have the opportunity for Patrick to clear out the dust that accumulates. And dust DOES accumulate. It's amazing. Computers are way better dust magnets than you Sunday best whites, shirt or dress. And dust tends to clog up one of the few moving parts in computers … the fan(s).

When you run SpeedFan on a computer, it will tell you a temperature. By default, it shows the system temperature. It's 47 on Popeye, 42 on Nuklon and 39 on Ollie. Not surprisingly, there's more stuff in Popeye than Nuklon. And Ollie's barely a computer terminal these days, doing naught else but surf the internet and watch videos stored on the communal hard drives here.

Now, in normal operation, I'll see those numbers go up a degree or two. Nuklon tends to be the only one that gets up three or four degrees, when burning data backup disks. But when the temp varies by five, I start investigating. In most cases, it's a fan that's quit. And it's ALWAYS a good idea to find out as soon as possible that your computer is in the process of baking.

SpeedFan is like insurance that you have the option of getting for free, but can donate through PayPal for. It's a good idea to get it and forget it.

Until it shows you why you shouldn't ignore it any longer.

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