Locking Lomard

[quinterro]

I have a 400mhz Lombard with the DVD decoder option and the original 6GB hard disk.

When I do something processor-intensive for an extended period of time on it the laptop locks up. The fan never appears to turn on to cool off the processor. This occurs with MacOS 9 and X. On MacOS 9 it occurs when paying demanding games. On X it occurs during normal use since X seems to use the machine more thoroughly.

Are there any ideas? Perhaps making sure the metal shield is making contact with the processor....

 

[IPNixon]

Mine appears to do that, too. Usually, when I'm using it, it'll work for a good amount of time (maybe 3-4 hours), then it'll start acting funny.

Once, when I had OS 9 on it, I got the dreaded error saying the cache was (or was going) bad.

If I leave it for a while, I can use it again for about 3-4 hours before it starts acting funky, so it *might* be a heat-related issue. Like you said, make sure all three screws on that heatsink plate cover thingy are fastened, and it is in fact touching the processor.

 

[John8520]

It's either heat related, or the cache is toast, which usually happens because of heat. If you look at the wallstreet and pismo cooling systems you'll notice that they're quite a bit better than the one the lombard has.

 

[Blessed Cheesemaker]

I have several Lombards, and my experience has been that the heat and locking up issue usually seems to precede the cache dying. Of course, other things can be at issue...my experience has also been that it acts weird and locks up once or twice, and then the cache dies, and then the heat and locking up disappears...except the one where the cache seemed to fade in and out over several reboots...

I just got some Pismo's, and I have to say, the heat sink in the Pismo is worlds better than the Lombards. Too bad they didn't make the Lombards a little more heavy duty.

Absolutely make sure all 3 screws are in tightly, and hope the heat shield is doing its job!

 

[IPNixon]

Hmm. Will the heatsink cover from a Pismo improve the cooling of a Lombard, or is what you said here...

[...] the heat sink in the Pismo is worlds better than the Lombards.

...referring to the whole cooling system overall (and not just the cover)?

 

[Franklinstein]

Does the heatshield dealie in a Lombard even contact the cache chips? I don't recall if it did or not. Certainly it's super thin and rather flimsy, plus Apple decided that they didn't want to have the itty bitty fan turn on until a meltdown is imminent.

If the factory heat shield doesn't contact the cache chips, perhaps one could go to a computer hobbyist place and purchase some RAM heatsinks with the self-adhesive backings, cut them to size, and apply them to the cache. Of course, the height of the new heat sinks would probably have to be taken into consideration, but I'd imagine that once properly installed, heat problems would be less frequent or severe.

 

[quinterro]

To my knowledge the heat sink only makes contact with the processor.

 

[sircabulon]

The heat sensor is actually in the processor itself. Replacing the daughter card with a new one should me able to fix your problems.