My PC must be getting old...

[oshunluvr]

Twice last week I had to remove and re-install two pieces of hardware!

First it was a USB 3.2 case mounted interface. One of the ports stopped working and dmesg suggested is was a "bad cable?" I powered down, pulled the USB motherboard connector and re-inserted it. On powerup, all worked as before.

Then a few days later, I walked into my office and the screens were black and unresponsive. A hard reset revealed a BIOS code (via mobo mounted LCD) that meant "no graphics device found". This started my heart beating faster! My video card is water cooled and not exactly easy to get to without draining the water system. I feared days of work to even find out if it was OK or not. Fortunately, when I opened the case, I was able to release the video card from it's slot enough and re-seat it. Again, powerup worked normally.

The above reminds my of the "olden days" of computing when excessive heat often caused random malfunctions. Almost anytime you had what looked to be was a mechanical failure, taking everything out and re-installing was the first trouble-shooting step required. This PC build is almost exactly 4 years old.

[Snowhog]

4 years isn't exactly old, but aging of components occurs at different rates. An 'old school' approach you might take, given that removing/reinserting these components worked, is to clean the contacts on all board component that are inserted onto the motherboard. The 'old school' approach is to use a pencil eraser.

[kc1di]

Heck my newest rig her is over 6 years old still working well I'm getting old and forgetful at times though.

[Snowhog]

I'm getting old and forgetful at times though.

Don't try my 'old school' approach to your memory! Removing ones brain to clean its contacts almost always ends poorly!

[jlittle]

My desktop is from 2016. Its PSU died last year, and it has a 3 year old cheapo NVMe. A project for this year was going to be a new build, but...

[claydoh]

My new Intel Arc GPU came with an anti-sag device, basically a rod on a magnetic base and an adjustable arm to support the thing.

The card quite literally is the max length for my case, so the arm either hits a GPU fan, or a front case fan, lol

It doesn't look like it needs support and doesn't seem heavy, but I know better. Either I need to grind off some of the base of the support or make/get some sort of L-bracket I can screw to the front of the case. I can see the card drooping and getting loose down the road

I wonder if some sort of support would be useful for your setup?

[oshunluvr]

I wonder if some sort of support would be useful for your setup?

I appreciate the suggestion.

My card is an AMD RX580, so not a long card. Also - besides a very solid back plane (it's an "open" case) - there are two rigid (vs. flex tubing) water lines; one that goes up and connects to the CPU waterblock and the other faces down and turns directly to the reservoir.

On the other hand, the GPU waterblock is quite large and heavy so that might be a factor.

Since it's been fours years since I touched the water system innards, I'm leaning toward just a one-off moment. If it happens again, I'll probably have to address it.

Here a pic. Kinda hard to get a good one because it's below my desk, but you can see the GPU in the lower half of the pic.



You can kinda see the waterblock is on the lower side of the video card and almost as long as the card itself. It has a metal plate that transmits the heat to the acrylic piece that the water flows through.