Welcome Center: Which worlds to showcase?

[Ada Radius]

Another thing, for those willing to open their towers, is to replace the power supply with a bigger one that will run your graphics card better. That can enable far higher graphics settings in your viewers without crashing your card or the viewer.

I souped up an old HP that way (with much help from a techie friend, but now I know how to do it), and not only got several more years out of it, but extended the lives of my graphics cards. I left the cover off, which did indeed keep it cooler, and I could also see when the fans were getting dusty and take care of it.
Ada

Hi Sherrie,

The whirring sounds are probably your CPU, GPU and case fans speeding up to max speed in an attempt to cool down your computer due to the heavy load it is in when you're using Ultra mode. When that didn't work well enough your computer automatically shut down when it crossed the max safe temperature threshold in order to not burn out any components.

You can avoid this type of heating problem by getting better ventilation for your computer. If your computer fans can't circulate air then things will warm up quickly (especially in the summer). You should leave your computer case room to breath. If that isn't enough then you can significantly cool things down by opening up your computer case and leaving it open. DO NOT DO THIS unless you know what you're doing, you make sure it doesn't violate your warranty, and you keep away any people, animals and objects that can get inside the case and hurt themselves and/or the computer. Another (more expensive) option is to replace the case and CPU fans with something more powerful (and possibly get a better GPU fan as well).

[Keith Selmes]

Ilan is spot on with the cause of the crash.
Ada has some good ideas too.

Some cases I recall particularly.

1) I upgraded a home built PC with extra parts. It then was overheating, and needed both a power supply upgrade and an extra fan.

2) A PC was on a desk by a large window. It was fine until a bright day in midsummer when it began running loud, then blanked out, clicked, and shut down. Solution was to open the window and and get a cool breeze on it, check it was working OK when it had cooled down, then agree a new and shady location for it.

3) A tower unit was on the floor under a desk. One side was right up against a vertical surface, and a large fan outlet was on that side. As Ilan says, it needs room to breathe.

Our service engineer used to do a lot of fan cleaning, they were collecting dust and it was spoiling their efficiency.

One thing I'm not so sure of, I have tried running computers with the lids off, but it isn't usually recommended.
Apparently fans work better with the case closed.
My current PC is certainly designed so it cools more efficiently with the sides on.

[Dundridge Dreadlow]

the trick is...

never attempt to save money when getting a computer



sigh.

[Sherrie Melody]

the trick is...

never attempt to save money when getting a computer



sigh.

the other trick is don't break the bank trying to get a new computer

[Sherrie Melody]

One thing I'm not so sure of, I have tried running computers with the lids off, but it isn't usually recommended.
Apparently fans work better with the case closed.
My current PC is certainly designed so it cools more efficiently with the sides on.

I'm totally guessing, cause I'm definitely not the type to go nosing around inside the tower, other than to get rid of the dust. But, if I were to stab at it, I would say that when they design the position of the case venting holes (whatever they are called) and designed the direction and position of the fans, they did so to optimize air flow over the components, heat flow away from components. maybe when you take the lids off, heat builds up in areas because the fan now doesn't have the power to draw it away, reduced suction or some such, and so the heat just sits there?

I don't know, it sounded good before i typed it.

[Dundridge Dreadlow]

c'mon, everyone knows computers run on dust and blue smoke.
If you take away the dust, it releases the blue smoke and it stops working.

[Dundridge Dreadlow]

Seriously though, if you plan on cleaning inside the computer, be VERY careful.
electrical static, movement, impact, metal fragments, heat, scratches, the wrong type of cleaning and other stuff can seriously damage the machine.
Once the blue smoke leaves a component, it will need to be replaced.

[Keith Selmes]

maybe when you take the lids off, heat builds up in areas because the fan now doesn't have the power to draw it away, reduced suction or some such, and so the heat just sits there?

Yes, roughly speaking. My current PC especially has a kind of hood or funnel on one side panel that fits neatly over the CPU. Consequently the hot air is vented straight to the outside. Other grilles allow fresh air in. If I left the panel off, the fan would still tend to draw the hot air away from the cpu but not so effectively. In this PC it makes a big difference.

[Paul Wilson]

Graphics cards are the main component you need to look at for a good system.

I have an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 card in my desktop, It allows me to run the viewer with the graphics turned all the way up (that is all the sliders at max) and 4x antialiasing. This is how I run it all the time.

However, my laptop has an Intel® HD Graphics 4400. With this I have tyo turn down the graphics quite a bit and I still get lots of glitches (although with other 3D games I can turn the graphics details up and don't get glitches - it seems like a viewer problem except it occurs in all viewers)

The difference in performance between these two computers shows how important a good graphics card is. You should always do your research on graphics cards and if you can use a computer from someone you know to see how their system works and what card they have.

If you think about it, Virtual Worlds are a visual medium, and it makes sense if you are using them a lot to spend your money and time getting the best components (graphics card and monitor) that you can afford.

[Sherrie Melody]

Sooo, my computer fail took us off topic a ways

Was wondering, maybe Dot could post an updated list, to show pics that are still needed?