stuffy heatsink, master/slave question

[sniperruff]

i have a retail HSF that came with the athlon 1700 Palomino. i built this system at august

i have dusted out the case once in a while, but i can see that the heatsink is somewhat stuffed with dust clusters

the compressed air won't let me blow downwards, only horizontally, or the "white stuff" would come out

idel temperature have rise from low 40's to 50

any idea how i should unstuff my heatsink?

another question: is it necessary to set the master/slave jumpers on my cd drives?

i have a HD on primary and CDRW and a 40x cd-rom on secondary. the cd-rom is stuck at PIO mode. if i switch the cd-rom to UDMA mode then the HD on primary became PIO mode!

i currently set ALL the drives on CABLE SELECT

is cable select the problem?

thanks a bunch

 

[nolovenohope]

Here is what I'd do if I were you:

Clean out your Heatsink fan. Do this by detaching the fan from the Heatsink, and using a vacuum cleaner w/ the brush end piece so the brush end piece will get the dust loose and the vacuum cleaner will suck it up.

I'd put the HD and CD-RW each on their own cable because the fastest you can go is the slowest device, which would be the CD-RW in this case. And yes, I would set the jumpers correctly. So you'd have them set each to master:
HD set to master on Primary
CD-RW set to master on Secondary

 

[godmare]

Originally posted by: nolovenohope
Here is what I'd do if I were you:

Clean out your Heatsink fan. Do this by detaching the fan from the Heatsink, and using a vacuum cleaner w/ the brush end piece so the brush end piece will get the dust loose and the vacuum cleaner will suck it up.

I'd put the HD and CD-RW each on their own cable because the fastest you can go is the slowest device, which would be the CD-RW in this case. And yes, I would set the jumpers correctly. So you'd have them set each to master:
HD set to master on Primary
CD-RW set to master on Secondary

With the cleaning method, compressed air would be better, but a vacuum will work if necessary. Definitely put the drives on seperate channels, but I see no problems with leaving them on cable select. Frankly, with a single device on each channel, setting the jumpers or leaving them as is will have no effect.

 

[sniperruff]

the retail fan has some screws on it but it seems real tight. is it possible to unscrew the fan?

i will try to set the jumpers once i have time asap i think

i already have the HD and cdrw on a separate channel. the cd-rom is on same channel as cdrw so i dunno what happened
i have:
1) try new cables
2) make sure i attach cable tightly
3) i've even formatted my HD and reinstalled WIN2K
4) flashed BIOs

 

[godmare]

Originally posted by: sniperruff
the retail fan has some screws on it but it seems real tight. is it possible to unscrew the fan?

i will try to set the jumpers once i have time asap i think

You could unscrew the fan, too, if you want- will save the heartache of mounting the HSF just be sure not to strip the heatsink or mounting point when reinstalling.

 

[nolovenohope]

Compressed air is good for what I consider "loose dust" like dust bunnies and what not, but once you have "settled dust" which is when a layer of dust has formed, compressed air will never get it completely clean. That is when you gotta use the vacuum with the brush end.