[GTALUG] Fedora 22 Live Workstation Install - no fglrx - no pdftk

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Russell Reiter <rreiter91 at gmail.com>

Be sure of your diagnosis before applying drastic remedies.  You claim
overheating, and I previously responded on the assumption that this
was a correct deduction.  Now I'll question it: what observation
convince you that overheating is a problem?

Also: I think that overclocking is really just a game.  If it isn't
fun, don't do it.  The cost (in uncertainty etc.) is usually more than
the benefit (subjectively unobservable speed-up).  Don't do it and
then complain about things going wrong!  If I don't think it's worth
your time to do overclocking, I'm sure it's not worth my time to help
you do it.

I think that generally a computer needs to be close to twice as fast
to feel significantly faster.  Of course there are cases where
crossing a threshold matters (eg. playing videos).

| <snip previous>
| > existing solution.  (AMD CPUs came with a disk of stuff instead of
| > paste and it is supposed to be single-use: detaching and re-attaching
| > a heat sink is not intended to work.)
| 
| Could you describe this disk stuff in a little more detail? did you
| get the package locally?

The disk came on the bundled heat-sink supplied by AMD.  It was
perhaps an inch in diameter and a little thicker than a sheet of
paper.  The idea is that it melts and spreads when it is sandwiched
between the HS and the CPU (clamped) and the CPU heats up.  So it
spreads and becomes very thing.  But it isn't supposed to do that
twice.

It's not something that you'd buy by itself.  It may or may not come
with a Heat-Sink / Fan unit (HSF).

I haven't assembled a system in years.  Enough decent off-the-shelf
systems come along.  So the AMD HSF units may come with different
arrangements now.  Here's a random thread about an AMD thermal pad:
<http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=863613>

| I think I am going to change the heat sinc on this unit. The one that
| came with it has this copper pipe threaded through it, Makes it look
| sort of like the headers on the 67 Mustang I once owned. UNlike those
| headers these ones look like all show and no go.

If it once was good enough, why would it not be now?  Dust,
deteriorated contact with CPU, ...?

Does it feel hot when you think that the CPU is overheating?  If not,
there is a problem, I would think.  After all, it is supposed to be
carrying the heat to the air.

| Things got better after I flashed the bios.

My guess is that the BIOS update would not change thermal management,
but we will never know.  (I rarely read much into the manufacturer's
notes about BIOS updates because they disclose little and hide lots.)

| After I switched back to
| GDM Plasma did stop hanging and I got to see that desktop for the
| first time on this unit.

That's good.

| I did read that north bridge switching is not enabled in later
| releases of this boards bios and I have since found there is an older
| bios with this FSB feature available. Although I usually hesitate to
| trim the north bridge clock. If you've got to trim a clock, trim the
| big clock first and see what acts up first.

Don't pick at it!  Use the BIOS defaults or conservative defaults (my
machine doesn't crash so I rarely see the BIOS screen).

| I wish I was better at math :-)

Me too.  But I think you mean arithmetic.  For which I use a
calculator.

| And not so lazy. I reset the cmos without jumpering it off. When I
| reset it I could set the date but not the time.

How can you be prevented from setting the time?  Isn't date and time
one setting?

| My working theory is that the ready state of the cross fire video bus
| consumes too many cycles. This board can drive four monitors. Since
| it's only driving one monitor, my first thought on stabilising was to
| knock the north bridge back a notch.

You need to apply Occum's Razor.  Your explanation is way to unlikely
and complicated for an early theory.

You don't actually have a video card, right?  You are just using the
on-motherboard video, right?  That should not be stressful.

| There are Linux utilities from 2008 on the site; audio drivers and
| stuff and there is a check script:

The fact that it talks about XFree86 means that it is way out of date.
Everyone uses Xorg's X.

| The question for me right now is, can I just add XFree86 libs to get
| quick time?

Don't do that!  Or, if you do, stop asking for help.  You are way off
book.

| Oh yea and whether or not it's worth it to modify the CPU
| heat-sinc.

First guess: not yet.

| I know I haven't unseated it yet. That does't mean it hasn't been
| removed and reseated before this.

True enough.

| I remember I use to be able to find
| little tubes of acetone to clean parts. I guess a trip to Active
| Surplus might find something similar, but I sure don't want to store
| even a litre of acetone at my place, just to use a couple of
| tablespoons of it now.

Acetone used to be available as nail-polish remover.  Small amounts.
In drug stores.

My very few run-ins with cleaning gunk off CPUs and heat sinks
involved paper towels, finger nails, and elbow grease.