3DSciFi

I can also just use Vivaldi on my Windows machine. It's a pretty nice implementation of Chromium with some advanced features.

I've just been playing games. Micropolis (SimCity), SimCity 2000 and SimCity 4. I can't seem to get anything started that I want to keep in any of them.

HAppy easter. Came downstairs today and what do I find .. 

no hot water ... but not frozen pipe, just cold water?

oh look breaker popped. flipped it back on .. still no hot or warm water.

open the closet the HWT(heater) lives in and oh lovely it's flooded the floor cause the HWT has burst sometime last night. It's pissing water out ...  shut the f''' off and call landlord.

> sometime I'm glad I'm renting ... 

now get an HWT on Sunday, in easter, in a Pandemic

Damn, Scott. I hope that gets fixed/replaced for you soon.

Sorry to hear that Scott.
If the US is anything like the UK on a Easter Sunday and never mind the Pandemic.
Everything is closed.
I hope you get it sorted soon.

So the main PC I have been using lately to do all the 3D stuff, has started to play up.
Its mainly the fan on the graphic card, making a loud Nosie like it catching something as it spins.
I have ripped the board out and given it a good clean. Nothing there for it to catch on but still making the sound.
Did a bit a research and found out that the grease on the spindle has worn away.
To fix the problem you need to pop the fan off it motor and add a bit more grease.

Problem is the fan has been screw so tight into the board I have board one of the screw so I can't get it out. (they have used so cheap arse metal for the screw as I did not use a lot of pressure.
So I can't get it off the board so I can pop the fan of the motor.
To get around this I spread a bit of WD40 into try the fan sits and turn it upside down so the excess would full into the fan and then flipped it back so it goes down into the spindle.
Clean off all the WD40 that not need. Plugged it back in and the PC was quite as a whisper again.
Problem is after three days of the PC running for about 12 hours straight, the problem has come back.
If I leave the PC on for about twenty mins the sound goes, but as soon as the graphic card needs to use more juice the noise comes back.

I can't replace the graphic card because it made only for HP PC. Anything that close to it is just below spec and cost over £100. This is not a gaming graphic card.
I have seen an slight older card where the specs are similar which cost £50 but that second hand.
I don't want to replace the card as it just the fan. I might just have to rip the fan off and pop down to my local PC store and find a fan that will fit.
But as the PC Store is not an essential shop with the current crisis, it not open.
I don't want to buy one on line as I not sure of the size I need or if it would have the correct connections for the board.

couple things.

Yeah them screw are soft on some, worse yet they are a special oriental version of the screw that wants a precise fit to get them out without damage .

and . some OEM mfr's use lock tire or crazy glue on them when they build the rig. ( who knows why It's way over kill )

WD40 is an oil and suspended wax when it dries.

can you post pic of the fan / fan mount ?


if you have a spare 90 or 80 mm case fa lying about you might be able to hook it up at full speed until you can get a proper fan.

If you were close by I could have you running again in 20 or 30 min. I have a bunch of spare parts / fans.


Plumber guy is supposed to be here 30 min ago . lol

I'm sorry to hear about that, Dean. Is it one of those HP slim cases? I hate those things. (I have one sitting by my feet right now) They're a bitch to get components for. I hope you can get it worked out.

I hope that plumber gets there soon, Scott.

On the lighter side of sports, I ordered one of these for my main rig six hours ago. (literally, I was on my lunch break at work) It's coming directly from Seagate:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H2F3741/

Anyway, I already got a shipping notification on that.

It's going to be nice when I get it. Not only will it have plenty of storage for Windows and games, but it will also be a leap forward for me tech wise, as all of my computers still have HDDs in them.

Scott let hope here there now.

Chris, yeah it one of those slim cases HP machine, which is basically a laptop motherboard put into a tower.


Anyway, my wife sent me up into the attic to put some crap up there and there was a bag full of PC parts that I had forgot about. Luckily It has the fan needed so I just need to test it and then swap it out.

Quote from: Freak on Apr 13, 2020, 01:15 pmChris, yeah it one of those slim cases HP machine, which is basically a laptop motherboard put into a tower.

The one I have is an older one with a Micro ATX motherboard in it, which is a desktop motherboard. However, the case is so thin that I can't put in anything but a low profile graphics card. Upgrading the power supply is also a pain.

Have you checked to see if your motherboard or CPU includes integrated graphics? While not as good as a standalone card, some of those APUs actually have decent graphics built in.

O it is a Desktop motherboard, but it so compact it like a Laptop's.

Yeah the motherboard has it own graphic card, which I can use, render times go up, but not by that much.
Anyway tested the old/new fan and it works fine. So I have installed it and the PC working great for the moment.

It's good to know you got it working.

Glad you found a fan .  after reading your post i went through my box of old an crazy fans from my .98 inch micro fan to all sorts of crazy fans . my server fans are great but super loud .


// other news

1 HWT replaces with a new one that has a heat-exchanger at the top . Supposed to lower my power bill . From the looks it was not a cheap unit.

2 LOL my forums got hacked . about 4 hrs ago .

total Slavic takeover ... I would say Russian but  ,  could be any Slavic nationality these days.

I will have to purge the site .. it was just for testing and did not get used much.

If i launch a game or product i will need a better more secure forum software.

ah my fave game ...
worth a watch

I spent so many hours playing that game, loved every minute!

same and then I made modding tools.   one was lifED  that attempted to let users edit the funky .lif format they used for their active textures


now the new engine you can make ships in blender

Man, I don't think I had introduced Eric to the wonders of running his own forums even back then ...