Possibly the dumbest question I will ever ask

[frau kaleun]

...until next week.

So I decided to open up my case and give the insides a good cleaning out and also to see if I could figure out why my floppy drive (yes I still have one so sue me :O:) wasn't able to read any floppies.

In the process of scaring away the dustbunnies I unmounted all the fans to give them a thorough cleaning. Only with the big square case fan that mounts over the vent on the back of the case, I forgot to pay attention to which side faced which way so after I cleaned it I couldn't remember which way it went when I started to put it back (it will mount facing either way).

Sadly I cannot find a diagram for the innards of this thing at the online support site, but everywhere I check indicates that 1) usually these go up with the manufacturer's label facing the inside of the case and 2) it's an exhaust fan, so when it's running the air should be blowing out the back of the case, not into the case.

However I have it back up with what appears to be the manufacturer's label facing the inside of the case, and it's running, but it's blowing air into the case and not out the back vent.

This IS supposed to be an exhaust fan, right? When it's running and I put my hand up to the back vent, I should feel a stream of air being blown OUT of the case, and not the other way 'round.

[Gerald]

You've a fan in the front that push the air, and at least one of the back side, where the excess heat goes out,right?

[jumpy]

hehe

yer, the fans at the rear of the case should be extractor fans - most fans have 2 direction arrows on them somewhere to show airflow direction and rotation of fan blades.
What you're looking for in case ventilation is constant airflow from the front of the case (sometimes with additional fans on the front, top or sides to push air into the box) to the rear.

[frau kaleun]

Well I'm turning this one around, I'm pretty sure that's how it was before... anyway that's will get the air blowing out the back which is what it should be doing.

[Madox58]

Maybe you should change your Sig to say......
Angry Wombat Pirate say's Fan direction goes where?
:haha:

[frau kaleun]

Maybe you should change your Sig to say......
Angry Wombat Pirate say's Fan direction goes where?
:haha:

:rotfl2:

It's a good thing I enjoy this sort of thing, as frustrating as it gets sometimes.

I am off work all next week and our holiday party was this afternoon and everyone was asking "so what are you doing on your extra time off?" and I'm saying "well, I'm gonna clean out the inside of my computer, try to figure out what's wrong with the floppy drive, and then switch my computer over to Windows 7 64-bit, upgrade my drivers, and reinstall all my programs!"

They all just nod and back away slowly. :O:

The floppy has still got me stumped, I've eliminated the power supply and connecting cable as culprits - switched them both out and still nothing. It shows up as installed hardware that is working properly, there are no driver updates available, but when I click on Drive A I get a message telling me I need to put a disk in the drive. When I do, nothing happens. The drive doesn't read the disk. I think it may be shot.

The only thing I can think to try is to uninstall it and connect up the floppy drive from my old computer, which was still working when I took the thing apart a year ago. If that drive works then I'll know the newer one is dead.

I guess I'll replace it with something, but I don't know what. It's not like I really need it, I mean I had this rig for almost a year before I ever noticed a problem and that may have been the first time I ever popped a disk in there. I still think it's handy for small file transfers but given the availability of portable USB drives it is a bit of a dinosaur.


EDIT: Yep, the old drive works fine. New one must be kaput. Now I have to decide whether I put the old one in the case or find some newfangled thing to put in that drive bay...

[Castout]

Umm the back is an exhaust fan.

Don't tell me you call yourself a sub simmer without knowing why propeller is shaped as such :D

Umm calm down and take a look at the fan shape and imagine how the shape is supposed to drive out the air inside. :salute:

[frau kaleun]

I think I've got the fans figured out, the one over the front of the motherboard pulls air in, the one on the back of the case pushes it out.

I'm working now on what to do about my empty 3.5" drive bay. I either have to put something in there or cover up the hole on the front of my case where the floppy drive access was, or both.

I dunno, if I can just find a suitable front cover plate for the drive bay I might spring for a 3.5" HDD.

[onelifecrisis]

Actually it doesn't matter which way round it goes, as long it's going the opposite way to all the other fans! :03:

[Castout]

Actually it doesn't matter which way round it goes, as long it's going the opposite way to all the other fans! :03:

You're going to confuse Frau :O:


I'm working now on what to do about my empty 3.5" drive bay. I either have to put something in there or cover up the hole on the front of my case where the floppy drive access was, or both.

I dunno, if I can just find a suitable front cover plate for the drive bay I might spring for a 3.5" HDD.


Umm if you keep the old case cover when that floppy drive got installed you could try that. But more often than not it got discarded. One way is to put the old floppy drive back or get a new one in or cover the hole with tape but that won't be pretty.

[frau kaleun]

The floppy drive came with the system, so I don't have the cover plate that would go back over that slot. Anyway I just got a USB port bay hub that will fit, it's about the only thing I could find that would go there and still be useful, at least in theory.

[Castout]

Aaah I'm used to building my own PC so I get to choose the case and get to keep any pried case cover.

Good to hear that. Hope it will fit just fine.

[frau kaleun]

Aaah I'm used to building my own PC so I get to choose the case and get to keep any pried case cover.

Good to hear that. Hope it will fit just fine.

It does. :yeah:

[Madox58]

You want pretty.
:haha:
I sacrifice 'pretty' to get performance!
But I'm Viking in that area.
:yep:
Need more cooling?
It's winter out so a small hole in the wall should do the job!
(Don't tell the Wife! Vikings only fear thier Wives!)
:rock:
A bit of duct tape and some tubes from butt wipe paper?
GREAT cooling fix.

[Gargamel]

Here's what I got:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820223109 Or actually something close to it. Just check out their card readers page to figure out what you want exactly.

Or just buy another floppy drive for a couple bucks and use that if you still want to.

[McBeck]

Yup....get a card reader instead :D

[Tessa]

Though this suggestion probably comes too late, it might provide the answer to why the floppy wasn't working. When cleaning out the case use a vacuum (even the big one will do, just use the smaller attachments if you don't have a small computer vac) to get rid of all the dust bunnies and other garbage. Use compressed air sparingly as it can propel dust into crevices of components that can wear out fan bearings prematurely or ruin hard drives if there is an excessive amount (caked on dust), if you let the CO2 rip and then jump away from the ensuing dust cloud that exits the case. Dust + small moving parts = impending failure/doom; compressed air can force dust into theses places which is what can ruin them (maybe not immediately, but will wear them out at a faster rate).

Just in case (would assume you aren't one) but if you smoke, don't do it around your computer. The ash + dust buildup in a smoker's case can be dowright nasty. While back my mom's computer started having parts die out on her all of sudden, upon opening the case it looked like an ash tray inside. Told her that I was surprised it was running at all and to never smoke in there again (which she ignored until she was forced to quit smoking).