Cyrix cooling (Re: RH5.2 won't install on Cyrix)

Bob_Tracy (rct@gherkin.sa.wlk.com)
Fri, 5 Mar 1999 08:15:46 -0600 (CST)


Alan Cox wrote:
> > Linux "hits" it. Besides inventing methods of cooling off the CPU
> > there is a way of trying some other distribution of Linux. Well,
> > is there a way where I can trick RH to belive that the CPU isn't
> > overheated? Some BIOS trick?
>
> If you fix your hardware. Then you won't need to trick it. If you managed
> to trick the chip into not noticing it had overheated and thus doing a
> thermal powerdown it would just damage itself.

AFTER you take care of getting some adequate cooling in the peecee case
(heat sink w/thermal compound, ball-bearing CPU fan, case fan OTHER than
the puny throwaway in the power supply, etc.), look up a nifty utility
called 'set6x86' and pay particular attention to how you set
suspend-on-halt to drastically reduce the power consumption of your
Cyrix. For me, set6x86 made the difference between having a useful
machine, and getting signal 11's everytime I tried to compile the kernel.
Yeah, I'll be trying something besides Cyrix the next time around unless
they are designing their newer CPUs with a bit more margin in the heat
dissipation department. I'd hate to think what kind of problems I would
be having with a "normal" Cyrix CPU: mine is a 6x86L, as in "low power".

On the plus side, my machine has been stable for well over a year after
taking all the measures described above. Bottom line: the Cyrix will
work fine for you, but you absolutely HAVE to pay attention to the heat
issue or it will eat your lunch. I can envision environments where a
Peltier cooler would be necessary... A year ago when I was seriously
looking into such things, they could be had for around US $30.

-- 
Bob Tracy               |  "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist- "
Firewall Security Corp. |   - Last words of Union General John Sedgwick,
rct@frus.com            |  Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, U.S. Civil War

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