Thread: definatly have heat issue, also have silicone encapsulant

Originally Posted by bramlet

so you think that fanning the parts for the few seconds while its booting could solve it? I will probably try something similiar if needed. The board is supposed to be totally passive and it does survive road trips with the music loud. I have a bunch of wires laying right on the amp and they do not melt. I assume they are made not too. I think the heat has something do with my issue based only on observing the conditions when the bios hangs, but I feel its worth noting the setup has in fact survived these long duty road trips just fine.

It doesnt hurt to try..... What happens is the heat sink is designed to allow heat to pass up and out of what ever its cooling. Now if the air around it is also hot, the heat sink is going to try to retain that heat. Once air starts going over the heat sink, it should immediately cool them off.

Also I read that you think it might be the hard drive. I see you have it in a iPhone case. Dont HDD have a tiny special hole that cant be blocked or it damages the HDD. I am curious if this hole has been covered up.

Originally Posted by soundman98

i have never been very keen on passive cooling-- esp. in a cars trunk-- the trunk is full of non-moving air, so i think that it could help to have at least one fan(even a 80mm) blowing across the carputer, and amp. though i don't think it is too much of a problem to have the carputer that close to a amp

for the usb stuff-- that is electronics, anything can happen-- i had a tech call me the other day trying to repair a computer that the display had crazy lines going through it--he tried everything, from a new monitor, ups, computer power supply, motherboard, etc. but in the end, it turned out to be a bad keyboard causing it...

i think that you are off to a good start-- try unplugging things one day at a time, to see if they make any difference.

I agree..... my rear setup is so limited that I have to smash 6 computers, 4 amps, 3 PSU, 6 KVMP switches, and a distance sensor module all back there. Its a very tight space, but I also have 3 huge fans cooling it all so it shouldnt be a big deal. I have always believed in forced air cooling. Taking a small space and using high velocity fans to force more air into a space then it can handle. So far everything is ok. Although the rear area isnt finished so I do not know how it will work. For the main PC though, the idea works. The only draw back from having the amp so close to the PC is possible EMI and whinning noise into the speakers.

The USB point is right..... one device can cause a whole system to run like $h!+. It took me so long to build up my USB device line up.

Test the HDD on another PC, if your other PC doesnt have a SATA port, I recommend a USB to SATA converter. They run like 14.95 or less. I use this to connect my media drive to my laptop to transfer songs and movies.

if you think its cooling then it shouldnt be hanging on the bios screen. heat takes time to travel through the heatsink and raise the heatsinks temperature above the ambient air so I highly doubt its the heatsink. I have my atom 330 board in a case thats about the size of the board itself in my glove box and have had 0 issues with heat.

It should be fairly easy to see if it IS heat. open the trunk....if its not insanely hot in there you are fine. try touching your heatsinks. if they are too hot to touch then it could be an issue but atom boards dont consume much power. i dont think the northbridge is getting stressed too much upon boot (most power consuming component on board)

As far as the amp being too close to the mobo....thats not even close to an issue.

i think the silicone cover on the HDD is a horrible idea. The hole on the HDD is to allow pressure changes inside the HDD enclosure to equalize quickly since the platters spin on a sort of air suspension.

I dont think heat or HDD covers are the issue here but its worth noting what changes should be done to make your design better. I would point towards the USB device connected. Are any usb thumb drives installed....? Is your HDD or possible thumb drive seen as external from the mobo and having issues booting.

Today was the mouses turn to face the music, and it turned out to be the mouse at fault. Apparently the mouse cooks up in the car and hangs the bios. Unplug the mouse and it boots right up no matter the heat. Plug the mouse back in and its good to go. Knowing this makes my problem much less annoying. Thanks guys. I was pretty sure I knew what I was doing making the totally passive choice and I feel vindicated that the crappy Targus mouse was just talking jive to my foxy foxconn.

Originally Posted by surfntomm

i think the silicone cover on the HDD is a horrible idea. The hole on the HDD is to allow pressure changes inside the HDD enclosure to equalize quickly since the platters spin on a sort of air suspension.

When I first had a problem I ended up taking off the ipod jam jacket and rolling it up and squeezing it between the screen door handle and the top of the hdd. good enough for now, but not when I go upright with the board.

Pull off all your USB devices. I had a similar issue with my wifes computer where it would hang on boot and then go. Was NOT a head issue turned out to be a USB device that was causing the issue.

Pull them off and reboot and see if it does it again. If that fixes it, add one device at a time until you find the culprit.

Jay

yeah its the usb mouse causing the headaches see #15

After observing what happens for a few days. It seems unplugging any of the usb devices is often enough to un hang the bios. I have the mouse and powermate plugs still exposed and unlugging either usually works. Still slightly annoying and it prolongs the boot process for sure. I wonder why its happening.

Check your USB settings in BIOS? Make notes of where they're at currently and start going through and changing ones that seem like they'd make sense in your situation. Such as, usually there's "Legacy USB Devices" and if that's disabled, enable it - or if it's enabled, disable it. Save and reboot after each one and see if you can recreate the issue.

If you already did this, I apologize.