stupid physics question

[Kali]

it is 99 F INSIDE my house right now. Can that damage anything related to my computer? Is it better to leave it on and run the fan (don't fans generate heat too?) or shut it down until it cools off this evening?

[HopeHoops]

1. If you aren't using it, you might want to shut it down.

I've only had two machines die from what I suspect was heat. One was old, so I'm not sure that's what caused it to croak (motherboard died). The other one apparently just lost the hard drive, but it was really weird. This was about ten years ago.

I had four Sun Sparc 20's, two or three of my own 368/486/P90 machines, and my NT box from work all networked and up 24x7 in my living room. My wife had a medical emergency to deal with (her father) so I was working from home to look after the kids. It was late July or early August and hot as hell. I don't remember why I didn't have the AC on, but it might just have been to offset the electrical usage of all of those machines (big monitors).

Anyway, I had the NT box set up with the Windows maze screen saver using the psychedelic-color Mandelbrot set surfaces. If you've never seen this one, it works its way through the maze until it reaches the end and then produces a smiley face that nearly fills the screen. The smiley face rises up from horizontal to vertical. I came downstairs one morning and moved the mouse to wake up the NT box. Just as the monitor came on, the smiley did its rise up thing and the machine froze. That was the last remotely functional thing that machine did until I got the replacement drive. I was lucky that I had backed up to one of the Sparcs before going to bed the night before.

It occurred to me shortly after the death scene that the temperature in the living room was easily in the 90's, maybe more. Fortunately the Sparc stations were a bit more robust and, curiously, The Win 95/98 machines (two of which I built myself) were able to handle the heat when the Dell "server class" NT machine could not. I think something other than the drive was compromised as well as that machine would freeze up randomly after that - reboot required. It never did that before the smiley face incident and it was running the same version of NT afterward.

So if you aren't using it, there's no harm in shutting it down. The fan will keep it cooler than running it without a fan, but turning it off will keep it much cooler (and you won't hurt anything with it off even at 100). Running it when you don't really need it both uses electricity (minimal if it is in sleep mode) and generates heat (again, minimal in sleep mode), but if it runs background tasks while "sleeping" and the hard drive is spinning, that's going to produce heat. I've got my machines configured to spin down the drives when the machine is sleeping, but some virus/malware checkers will run in the background during those periods and Windows update will activate the machine at its appointed time.

On Edit: That was NOT a stupid question.

[Kali]

4. I will probably shut it off in the afternoons

coming up on summer thunderstorm weather anyway so it is a habit I need to get back into - need to remember to unplug thing though, I don't trust surge suppressors out here, it can really pop sometimes

[HopeHoops]

7. I use APC UPS units and I've never lost a machine to an electrical storm.

I've got them all over the house - they're great for keeping alarm clocks and bed lights running when the power goes out.

[struggle4progress]

2. The ability of the fans to cool cpu, ram, videocard, etc depends on ambient air temp

So your machine WILL run hotter when the room is hotter

I carefully monitored temps on one of my machines last summer, with and without my AC, and a cooler room really made a difference

At least one of my machines acts wonky when it gets too hot

If it gets way too hot, you can damage cpu ram videocard etc but I think most modern machines will defensively shutdown -- also many good modern cpus thermally monitor themselves and limit their speeds when they start to overheat

When it gets hot inside my place, I limit lightbulb use, make sure I've unplugged stuff like TVs that draw power even when off, etc

[Kali]

5. so the hard drive would be ok? I guess that is the most important thing

I wonder what temps storage media degrades? DVDs and so forth?

[struggle4progress]

8. Hard drive may not work right if it gets too hot:

the arm for the head may change length slightly, lubricant may evaporate and so on

Optimal temp range depends opn drive, I think

If you have drives with SMART, you can probably monitor their temps

[BlueJazz]

3. Damn ..I'm worried about YOU....not the computer. 99 degrees !

[Kali]

6. oh me too!

used to have a cheap above ground pool, but had a freak flood that wiped out the whole area it was in including my pump and other equipment. It was already 10 years old and past it's normal life I think. But I may try one more liner and a used pump next year, as I just can't take this shit.

I am soaking in the turned-off hot tub and/or staying wet with the shower but it isn't like a nice cool pool.

Usually there are just a few weeks of super-high temps but I think we are breaking some records this week. UGH!