[Lt. Ketch]

Last night I finally took some peoples' advice and did something about my computer. I'm excited about it and wanted to share.

For the past three months friends, opponents, and complete strangers have had to listen to me about my computer and its overheating problem. As of last night it had gotten to the point that a long artillary bombardment would overload the fans and down it would go. I was exiting my PBEM games every 5 minutes so that it would save the file. It was bad. And being the drama king that I am, I would lament loadly to anyone that had ears to hear. Everybody I ranted to would says, in one way or another, the same thing, "Clean it out and stop complaining!" My internal response was, "It's a lap top and I don't want to risk breaking it or losing any of the six jillion srews that I'll need to take out."

Last night, I had had it and as my wife and I were already in the process of finding and procuring another computer, I figured I couldn't make the machine any worse than it was. (The CD/DVD drive cover broke off last week to add to the problems it has.) Sitting down with srewdrivers, pliers, pipe cleaners and a straw (the poor man's version of canned air), I proceeded to locate and dislodge every screw I could find. I marked where they went and, in the end, got the cover off.

I kid you not when I tell you that I found a layer of dust and particles 1/8 of an inch (3.2 mm) thick located in front of the exit vent right by the proccessor. It was the accumulation of almost 5 years worth of debris from carpets, couches, tabletops and my clothing. My wife was a little grossed out about it. I got it removed with the pipe cleaners and by blowing it out into the sink. I figured that canned air is better for electorics, but there was a high probably that I wouldn't be able to get it back together the right way not to mention that my wife and I had already given it up for dead, I figured that it didn't matter if I just blew in it.

The results - I got on this morning and finished playing my turn in one game, watched my troops get hit with a leangthy bombardment (fast artillary was off) and even was able to buy the units for a second game without the fan even kicking into high gear. I'm glad that I finally cleaned the machine out, but a now a little sad that I didn't have the guts to rip my machine apart earlier.

Their, you've finally reached the end of this drawn out story. But know you know, if your laptop is overheating like mad (not likely with the new duo and quad cores, but still) clean it out. Now, I can go back to getting my butt kicked in SP again in peace.

Ketch out