Perhaps my posts to Hot T thread can be moved here, but regardless, I am serious now…I know, how can a cartoonist ever be taken seriously, but this time I mean it…my baby is cooked and I need help.  I took the case apart to dust off the fan (following Groove’s excellent illustrated procedure, but advice: print procedure before doing!)  I broke one post cause I forgot about screw #14 - hell, I remembered 13 screws and thought I was home free:

I don’t think that will be a problem; it’s the least of my worries now.

My concern is that the fan WAS sticking.  I blew out the assembly with the ONE can of compressed air (used) in the entire country of Nepal, found under a counter at Digitech office in Durbar Marg.  Then, with a little push it started working when the cpu temp was over 58. But what I noticed was that as soon as the fan starting running, the HDD temp started to rise!  This coupled with the fact that on boot I get this bios error code:
“Resource Conflict - PCI Network Controller in Slot 03, Bus:02 , Device:0B, Function:00” makes me think I’m finked.

So now I am sitting here working with my baby tr3 looking a bit bare bones (I start the fan manually when cpu temp reaches 58!)

:idea: What should I do now?  Is there a procedure online for taking the fan assembly apart and cleaning/replacing? I’m sure it’s still sticking .

Also, would it help to reseat the wifi card?  I remember getting this error a year ago and then it went away.  I was in tland at the time, on the beach, so perhaps it is a heat related problem.  If it is a resource conflict perhaps it has something to do with the ALPS upgrade I also did recently.  I noticed that in the Bios, it inits the mouse then the wifi card.  I guess there is no way to reallocate resources (IRQs) to test, right?  I guess that’s the defintion of plug and play :wink:

Two other things I noted:
1) the cowling for the fan was not secured around the gray bezel frame, and I am pretty sure I did not dislodge when taking apart, looks like a factory QA problem.
2) the harddrive temp continuously wants to rise above 70 unless the CPU fan is running, still, when running, the temp hovers at around 67. Ambient temp is a factor, cause I can bring the HDD temp down by setting up a room fan aimed at the TR.  Then it goes down to   Arg.

Well, as always ur techical advice is my baby’s lifeline…
jigs

ps I have CHC running at Dynamic Switching, with no custom voltage settings made/set.  Is this the optimum low heat setting?

Wow, jigs.  I did not know your situation was this critical.  There must be a way to get that fan working.  I hope the TR being all opened up like that is helping a little.  I am certain there are some TR surgeons on this forum.  Many here have cracked the case open numerous times. 

Alas, I am not one of them, but my heart goes out to you, dude. :(

[quote author=“TruthSeeker”]Wow, jigs.  I did not know your situation was this critical.  There must be a way to get that fan working.  I hope the TR being all opened up like that is helping a little.  I am certain there are some TR surgeons on this forum.  Many here have cracked the case open numerous times. 

Alas, I am not one of them, but my heart goes out to you, dude. :(

Thanks TS for that!  I was thinking “were has the love gone” here for a moment. Yes, having the case open like this has stabalized the heat problem, plus it just turned fall here overnight in the Himals, so ambient temp is way down.  Right now I am researching/troubleshooting the Lan2100 3b adapter resource conflict, I am going to reinstall the drivers from the sony website first, see if that helps, but BIOS is not seeing the adapter, so not sure if that will help there.

I also notice a BIOS update on this page: http://esupport.sony.com/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=PCGTR3AP1&upd_id=1421&os_id=7
but i am leary there…my model # is actually PCG-TRFOURAP1 and not PCG-TR3AP1, which is really strange as that model is not listed anywhere!

Well, hoping a TR surgeon responds soon or this intern is just going to go ahead and slice and dice….
:shock: jigs

whoA, almost screwed up. can’t find the 2100 3b mini drivers on the sony site, only 2200bg!!! was that?  i did find the original intel driver on the intel site, but they say there to go to the sony site to get the driver :evil:

While waiting for experts to respond, I am wondering, just what causes heat rises in a TR…i am sitting here with nothing else to do but watch CNN on the TV card, and also monitor Chp rises and falls in CPU/HDD temp. So I am wondering:
1) does CHP interfere/conflict/or overide the settings in Powerpanels cpu settings?
2) What are the major factors in temp rise:
    HDD activity
    CPU usage
    Mem usage
    DVD drive usage
    Voltages used by CPU
    What else?  any softwares?
3) having the case open overnite has decreased all my heat problems (or was it setting chp to adaptive AND powerpanel to adaptive). Things are pretty much stable now as far as heat goes and no matter what i do in the list above does little to increase or decrease heat today. strange this problem.

Well, I have now operated on the TR and I am happy to report the operation was a great success!  Digging into the depths of the baby I found that the wireless card had slipped it’s hinge on one side of the mem-card-like bracket.  I suspect this was causing the heat (lucky there was not a meltdown) and I am sure it was causing the resource conflict mentioned above.  See illustration below:

The entire TR is now back together and operating better then ever (I carefully the fan blades) and my temps are at the max 54 for the cpu and the HD is at 59 (still a little hot?  well I suspect they just are).

So, no thanks to the experts :wink: (but many thanks for groove’s illustrated wireless replacement procedure) everything is well. Okay, back to some really serious sh*t: cartooning…
jigs

Sorry for not responding sooner. I wasn’t sure exactly what you could check without really looking at it. Dusting the insides was definitely a good thing. At first I was thinking prolonged overheating might have permanently damaged your system but I guess that’s not the case.

I’m not sure how the wireless card got unhinged…unless it was like that to begin with. At least your problems went away with that. Given the age of your TR I figure the hard disk must be starting to age a bit. I worry about the one in my TR1AP all the time since it’s 3 years old and has gotten a lot of use. It’s also a little more audible than when it was brand new. Although it’s under warranty, I want to change the hard disk out anyways so that I don’t have any unexpected downtime.

At any rate, at least you now have the fan unit to keep it cooler and your ambient temps are going down. That helps a lot.

[quote author=“gr00vy0ne”]Sorry for not responding sooner.

no prob groove, i know u are there 4me.

[quote author=“gr00vy0ne”]I’m not sure how the wireless card got unhinged…unless it was like that to begin with. At least your problems went away with that.

I think it came that way from the factory.  I’ve had that error before but it always went away. Have u noticed that the clip on those brackets are bent down at an awful angle? I guess that’s to keep the card super tight - but geezzz!

[quote author=“gr00vy0ne”]Given the age of your TR I figure the hard disk must be starting to age a bit. I worry about the one in my TR1AP all the time since it’s 3 years old and has gotten a lot of use. It’s also a little more audible than when it was brand new. Although it’s under warranty, I want to change the hard disk out anyways so that I don’t have any unexpected downtime.

yeah me too, mine has been on for almost 2 year everyday and its starting to whine about it. I have the op to order some parts this coming week and have them delivered from DC to nepal.  Can u recommend a harddrive upgrade/online supplier? And I am thinking about turning this TR into an internet server for my apartment building, should I upgrade the wireless card? or just go for a wired system with a router?  wire here is cheap.  my brotherinlaw is opening a music studio downstairs and also downstairs is a friend who needs internet. I have broadband connection and everyone wants a piece of that!

[quote author=“gr00vy0ne”]At any rate, at least you now have the fan unit to keep it cooler and your ambient temps are going down. That helps a lot.

it’s cooled down to a brisk 66f here overnight, and october gloom is in full swing, just like LA june gloom. r u still in marinadelray? funny, I listen to john and ken over the internet on kfi internet - it’s just like being there!anyway, let me know about getting parts? do u have an extra wifi or anything else?  now that this box is dymystified for me, I have no problems in tearing it apart and souping it up.  I wish I had a spare for backups as it’s still my primary PC after all this time—adrenilin rush everytime I tear it apart! :o

thanks,
jigs