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Dipstick heater for a computer?

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coldplugs

coldplugs

Darth Vader
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This situation reminds me of stories I've read about pre-heating the coolant & oil in old Bugattis on cold days. My “work” computer simply won't start on cold mornings. The room is often about 57 degrees first thing in the morning and over the course of a month I've had trouble getting it running. I hit the power button and everything looks fine but Windows hangs in mid-boot.


The procedure then is to turn it off and run a small under-desk space heater next to it for a while and to crank up the room heat. Once it gets to about 65, the computer starts normally.



If I get things heated up ahead of time, there's no problem getting the computer running.


It appears that one of the 2 hard drives (in the “Raid array”) is a bit balky. Maybe I need lighter oil?


I haven't checked but suspect that the operating temperature range for the machine is 60-90 degrees or thereabouts. My notebook computer has no problems at much lower temps.
 
Obviously you're starting work too early in the morning.
 
Sadly i am the only dipstick around my computer.
 
Maybe if you had one of those high-end water-cooled computers you could get a block warmer. :friendly_wink:

I remember using an electric dip stick heater on my TR3 over 40 years ago. My landlord used to think it was funny to see a car plugged in overnight and would kid me about it being an "electric car". Back then I was usually hand-cranking the TR3 and this was the only way I would have the strength to spin it fast enough.
 
Put it under a small cardboard box with a light bulb. PJ
 
Run a hair dryer on the hard drive for a few minutes before boot-up... and do a clone of that drive. Soon.
 
He might need an oil change Doc, that 20/50 is a little stiff this time a year! :highly_amused: PJ
 
DrEntropy said:
Run a hair dryer on the hard drive for a few minutes before boot-up... and do a clone of that drive. Soon.
Click to expand...

Good point.

It's cloned constantly, sort of. It's one of two in a RAID array. I'd be more eager to replace it if the computer wasn't so old. Just replaced the other machines w/ shiny (and tiny) new Dells and hope I can scrape up the $$$ to replace this one soon.
 
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