Is this safe?

Toxage

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2005

Is it safe to leave my computer on afking in nine rings for the duration of the guild wars event?

I am worried that my computer might overheat and catch fire or damage itself .... So far I have left it on for 18 hours.

FXCW

FXCW

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Feb 2008

London,UK

Passionate Kiss of Nosferatu

R/

It should be perfectly safe.

Kumu Honua

Kumu Honua

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2008

Have you dusted the inside in the last few months?

The only real way you should have to worry about your computer catching fire is if it's filled with dust and cobwebs, and your house is like 100 degrees or so.

The dust and webs are what would catch fire and cause the problems.

Computer components are functional to ~140 degrees. More than enough for normal situations.

Agent Mold3r

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2007

Death Legion Of Cantha

W/Rt

There is about a 72.6% chance that your computer will catch on fire after 20 hours.

Malice Black

Site Legend

Join Date: Oct 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Agent Mold3r
There is about a 72.6% chance that your computer will catch on fire after 20 hours.
Don't be daft.

A friend of mine who d/l movies has his running 24/7 all year round. He has no issues.

Kumu Honua

Kumu Honua

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2008

My computer has been on for 3 weeks, 2 days, 12 hours, 52 minutes.

No fires here.

BLOODGOAT

BLOODGOAT

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2007

long a

Mo/

I never turn my computer off...

Lazerath

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Sep 2007

Cumbria, UK

Destiny Of Awekening [DoA]

Mo/

Never Had A Computer Fire And It's Been On (A Side From Upgrade Downtime)
A Good 2 Years Plus.
Also Run A Server Computer For A Website And As Media Center. Never Been Of For Over 4 Years.

You Can Run A Computer Forever, Just Helps To Clean Them In Which Case A Detachable Side Panel Is Useful.

What I Will Say Is This, Have Some Pressurized Air. Got Thermometers In My Machines And An Alarm Sounds When They Do Get To Hot. Spray With Air Not only Lowers Temp But Cleans At The Same Time

Brianna

Brianna

Insane & Inhumane

Join Date: Feb 2006

I never turn mine off, this one has been on for over 1 week straight now without rebooting, and is on 24/7 anyways.

Tarun

Tarun

Technician's Corner Moderator

Join Date: Jan 2006

The TARDIS

http://www.lunarsoft.net/ http://forums.lunarsoft.net/

It's perfectly safe to leave it running.

Enko

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2006

VA

Mo/

unless your computer was made before thermal protection, your computer should power itself off after it reaches the threshold that's set in your bios (which is well short of catching fire) so you should be fine.

Admael

Admael

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

California

Xen of Heroes

Sorta related but, I had a friend who used a single loop to cool her two graphics cards, the pump failed and the graphics card overheated and melted the water blocks. Those two cards were ruined.

zamial

zamial

Site Contributor

Join Date: Apr 2006

Usa

TKC

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Admael
Sorta related but, I had a friend who used a single loop to cool her two graphics cards, the pump failed and the graphics card overheated and melted the water blocks. Those two cards were ruined.
reason 1,896,234 NOT to use water cooling.
electronics + liquid = disaster in the making.

Snograt

Snograt

rattus rattus

Join Date: Jan 2006

London, UK GMT??0 ??1hr DST

[GURU]GW [wiki]GW2

R/

To be fair, that failure wasn't liquid related. The pump failure was as likely as a fan failure which would have had the same effect.

I agree with your overall dislike of water cooling though - it's not enough of an improvement over fan + heatsink to bother with.

Liquid Nitrogen, on the other hand...

Painbringer

Painbringer

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2006

Minnesota

Black Widows of Death

W/Mo

Is your house wired properly or old? If you have everything coming out of one plug with old wiring you may want to shut it off. Feel the cord close to the plug are they warm or HOT to touch. If hot shut it off and reconfigure how you have things pluged in. Computers take little juice compaired to other things but if you have a surge protector running everything (tv light speakers etc..) check it to be safe.

Snograt

Snograt

rattus rattus

Join Date: Jan 2006

London, UK GMT??0 ??1hr DST

[GURU]GW [wiki]GW2

R/

My Ma used to moan about the electricity bill and me running my PC at all hours. I used to tell her it used less electricity than a lightbulb. Which was true.

It isn't true any more - a constant half-kiloWatt wouldn't be too far fetched. That's a lot of juice.

Brianna

Brianna

Insane & Inhumane

Join Date: Feb 2006

If I had water cooling I wouldn't leave my computer on 24/7, just to be safe.

However with fans, I have it under control, so I leave them running.

Water cooling doesn't suck if you know what you are doing - sounds like Admael's friend just had a very unfortunate mishap, and like Snograt said, It could have been the same with a fan. However there is no reason to use water cooling unless you over-clock, it's really only reserved for advanced users anyways who want to push it to the limit.

For example, my north-bridge fan died on my other computer the other day, and I came home and it was rebooted - little did I know that the fan was dead at that time. I was thinking someone was tampering with it. Now if it wasn't for the feature in the BIOS that shuts the computer off when it gets too hot - could easily say there may have been something more serious.

Which reminds me, I need to enable that on this computer's BIOS, but I'm not really in any rush to do it.

Admael

Admael

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

California

Xen of Heroes

Quote:
Originally Posted by zamial
reason 1,896,234 NOT to use water cooling.
electronics + liquid = disaster in the making.
It wasn't the water that ruined the cards, it was just that it overheated. And since GPU temps aren't rated (machine won't shutdown because the GPU is too hot) the computer just kept running with no cooling for the GPUs.

To be honest, it's not a reason to stray away from watercooling, but infact a reason to use two pumps... ya know, in case one fails :>

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brianna
For example, my north-bridge fan died on my other computer the other day, and I came home and it was rebooted - little did I know that the fan was dead at that time. I was thinking someone was tampering with it. Now if it wasn't for the feature in the BIOS that shuts the computer off when it gets too hot - could easily say there may have been something more serious.
If you're getting high temps on your NB, it could be the heatsink wasn't sat properly. You could try resitting it, a lot of the boards of my series were shipped with improperly sat NB heatsinks, resulting in 100C+ temps, even with the fan :<

Brianna

Brianna

Insane & Inhumane

Join Date: Feb 2006

It's seated fine. It was just shutting off in a peak hour of the day (Here it gets REALLY hot mid-day) all other times it is just fine without the fan, but undesirable for me.

So I pointed an 80mm fan towards its general direction, and put one of my old punk patches under it to dampen the sound and vibration from it, and its running fine now. later I'll find a replacement.

NeonXero

NeonXero

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2007

Pennsylvania

Leaked Aggression [grr]

D/W

Just ordered a new heatsink and some Arctic Silver tonight - so that will go in my PC when I get back from college
Speaking of seating issues... they're bad.

P.S. Sweet avatar Admael, haven't played that game in a whhhiiillleeeee

Blackhearted

Blackhearted

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jan 2007

Ohio, usa

none

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Snograt
My Ma used to moan about the electricity bill and me running my PC at all hours. I used to tell her it used less electricity than a lightbulb. Which was true.

It isn't true any more - a constant half-kiloWatt wouldn't be too far fetched. That's a lot of juice.
Maybe under a load, yes. But when idle most machines(except those with like 3 video cards or something else bigger than normal) wont draw even a fifth of a kilowatt.