Working Out

Something which most of the IITians don't generally prefer to do is "Working Out". Lots of us play, jog, swim and go to gym but still that's a very small percentage of population in here. I too belonged to the majority; surely, it's a different case that many a times I tried to join the fitness cautious minority but failed big time :D

Before I go into more details of the topic, I would like you to know that this is my eighth semester in IIT which is considered as the most peaceful semester in IIT-life; on an average one class a day and the B.Tech. Project. B.Tech. project is actually a bit tough but IITians do know making complex things simple :P. Hence, all B.Tech. Seniors get a lot of free time. Finally, as this is the last semester, everyone wants to get taste of a fully active IIT-life, i.e. involvement in all possible activities other than studies.

Well, continuing with the topic, now I have become a bit consistent with my work out. Thanks to all the above reasons and also to my dear friend Anshu. These days, I am waking up at 5:30 AM in the morning, believe me its true!! Actually, Anshu wakes me up everyday and then we go for a "Health-Run", an NCC lingo for morning jog, in the IIT-Stadium and from their to gym but if he doesn't wake me up, I bunk work-out of the day. With every passing day, the count is increasing, more and more people are adopting this healthy schedule. Being a victim of over optimism, I can see the day when all of us have become hansome hunks and a number of babes are fighting for us :D

Waiting for that fortunate day, signing out ... Bbye!

Cupping Comp!

Intel Pentium 4, 3 GHz, HT
865GBF Mother Board
80 Gb Hdd
512 Mb Ram

This was the Best Assembled-PC Configuration available in Chennai in July 2004. For a year, it worked really cool but after that it started showing its true color :-( Since then various components of my comp have gone for replacements - 1 hdd, 3 SMPS and 4 RAM replacements!!!

I bought it from Devraj Computers. Devraj is quite famous for its service and is really too good at that. It provides service for all the years you stay in IIT for free. But as it provides free service, almost always its technicians go for temporary solutions. Whenever I approached them, they made my comp work by replacing some component but they never bothered to find out the real problem. And now it's about one and a half years and my comp is still cupping! POOR COMP!!

Some two days before, I decided to find out the solution of the problem myself. Thanks to the DELLruba of my dear friend Amrit Vatsa. I was totally over her :D.

Anyways, continuing with the actual topic, I went to Intel's website and used their online support. I provided them with detailed correct information about my system and its problem. I was quite amazed with the type of response I got! The mails contain exactly what I needed. I wish I would have done that before. But better late than never!

My comp is not working right now, I have sent SMPS for replacement one more time ( fortunately warranty is not yet over ). This time, somehow, I am getting this feeling that the cupping days of my comp are over!

Problem Identified: Overheating of CPU and CPU over-clocking, and due to Over-clocking various other components keep failing.

Solution Provided:

Intel: Changing of CPU cooling system and if that's not possible, try to put 1/2 more fans in the cabinet and change the Grease applied between CPU chip and CPU Heat Sink for better dissipation of heat.
Problem with this solution: CPU cooling system is pretty expensive.... some 40 USD in US.

Some Comp Geeks on Internet: Reducing Clock Frequency.
Problem with this solution: I don't know how to do that. Have to figure that out, if anyone knows ... Plz share.

Enough for now, will try to keep you updated with my progress!