My apologies for not having another B&K page posted by now… Just as “Life is that thing that happens while you’re waiting to die” a number of things have come up recently that required my time and cut down drastically on that available for artwork… The most critical (though not unexpected) being the near demise of my decrepit old Mac with it’s wonky video card… (I’m booted up on “Safe-Mode” as I type this – the only way it will still run)…
I have at least partially resolved this issue, by the purchase of a used, yet somewhat less old and decrepit Machine – So for the past couple of days I’ve been installing software and moving files and the like… This might have gone quicker had I kept all my install DVDs in the same place, instead of needing to go search for them hither and yon… Bummer! Still, I should have most of this completed before long and can get back to the artwork this weekend… Hopefully…
In the meantime, any donations for the “Buy Josh a New Mac Fund” can be sent to my secret tax free account in the Bahamas… (just ask for Izzy and slip the money under the counter)…
Humpf! Must be the only online comic in the known universe that makes it hard to send money. Now how are we supposed to be supporting patrons of the arts if you make it so hard to throw some lucre your way Mr. sensitive, shy and retiring artistic person?
Hey, the “Buy Josh a New Mac Fund” was a joke… honest!!
Should any IRS employees be reading this, I don’t really have a secret bank account, in the Bahamas or anywhere! Unless um… you count a jar half full of pennies – and a shoebox full of Bronco Bux…
I’ve got a gallon wine jug full of pennies—took more than twenty years to fill up. I’m working on filling one of those ten gallon glass bottles. Meanwhile, I fill a couple of containers with state quarters and national park quarters—you’ve probably guessed I’ve got a few compulsive habits.
I got a 401k “full” of money that I’ve never seen, invested in stocks and bonds that I’ve never held, backed by the full faith and guarantees of nobody at all, large chunks of which disappear when the stock market gets all wobbly.
Well, Jeeze… I went to TotalDoom.com to get that H.U.D, and all it did was bounce me between this page and some government office calling itself HUD and telling me how to varnish the dog and reupholster the mailbox… Bummer!
That’s a first generation PowerMac that you’ve got, right? Sounds like our Macs are about the same vintage… I’ve been workin’ on a first gen Intel iMac… Just I made the mistake of paying extra for a Nvedia 7600 GT graphix card, which turns out to be a turkey! It chronically overheats… (odd note: Every time I’ve talked to a Mac tech and mentioned the Nvedia 7600 card, they all know about it and it’s problems – even Leo Laport on his tech radio show once mentioned the thing… Seems he had one in a Pro Tower and had to replace it… But if you walk into an Apple store and mention the thing to one of the “Geniuses” at their Genius Bar, you get a blank look – seems they never heard of it… Yup, I’ve tried this on a number of them – not a one ever heard of it! It’s a wonder of the Modern Age!)
Anyway, I’ve gotten so used to the Wonky Graphix Card and nursing it along, when the thing would overheat, then crazy things would happen on the monitor – the image might break up or odd artifacts might appear… Sometimes on reboot the screen would come up lime green with just a ghost of the desktop picture showing through… When that started, about all I could do was pull the plug and let it cool down for a while… So guess I took to blaming other, apparently unrelated problems on it as well… Having the machine stall intermittently was nothing new (I’ve gotten used to saving frequently) but these past few months the stalls were getting getting worse and more frequent — I discovered that disconnecting USB devices often freed up the system – often just unplugging my tablet was enough – if that didn’t do it, I’d unplug the rest… For a while I thought perhaps my USB dock was going bad – so I bought a new one… No luck there! I disconnected everything that I wasn’t using all time, like the scanner and printer… No Luck… I finally got down to just the Keyboard and mouse – the Mac was still locking up frequently… I changed to a different keyboard & mouse… Didn’t help…
By now it was mostly unusable as a drawing machine – then it started locking up midway through it’s boot sequence (something that it had done from time to time, but now I couldn’t get it to boot at all!) Then I recalled “Safe Mode” so tried that – the Machine booted okay and operates pretty much okay (within the Safe Mode restrictions) so seems this latest problem isn’t hardware related… No more frequent stalls – the Graphix Card can still overheat, but as I’m not using drawing apps, it’s not overly stressed… I’ve gone through basic trouble shooting steps like removing all user fonts, turning off any apps that boot at startup, Zapping the PRAM, but none of this helps… I wonder if it may have gotten a rare Mac virus of some sort?? I more or less plan to try reformatting and erasing the OS partition and reinstall OSX… I’ve mostly been putting that off until I have the replacement machine up and going and I’m certain that there’s nothing left, like app settings or special brushes and the like that I need to copy… Some apps need to check their home server to verify their serial number, so you shouldn’t just erase and reinstall them, you need to unverify them first… (Sometimes I miss the days of having all your apps on a stack of floppy disks) Which is why I haven’t reinstalled the OS yet – it’s reinstalling all the apps as well, that’s a lot of work!!
Yep mine is also a first gen intel Mac I just use a NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 vid card. I use mine as a drawing machine as well. And played World of Tanks on it up until their latest update. Which broke the graphics of the game for me.
With your tower you can pop it open and the card is right out in the open where you can replace it if you want… With an’ iMac it’s much more troublesome to take the thing apart… Also, I’ve been told, that because of the motherboard configuration, my card can’t be exchanged for a different type, only the same Nvidia 7600 GT model, which I’ve been told are hard to find these days and would cost much more than the old machine is worth…
Josh, you have done nearly everything to try fixing your computer’s overheating problem. I had a belly top sized little computer that developed problems sort of like yours. The solution: send off to China for a replacement cooling fan, and have a tech guy install it. The problems went away. Best of luck finding and fixing what is wrong.
No room inside the case for an extra fan — though I long have had a couple of small USB powered fans fastened over the exhaust port on the outside – plus another small fan blowing air past the cooling intakes on the bottom of the case… this helps a bit but is not a real solution – especially in the summer heat…
Josh, have you ever looked up something called a Peltier Thermoelctric Cooler Module? In principal you could epoxy a few of these to your computer case, and effectively transform it into an outright refrigerator. It does sound like something that Bunz might have in storage within her magically floating orb. But unlike her you might actually be able to get at the resource in question with only a mild effort. There might be some expense greater than your fans, or a completely replaced computer, but if like me you kind of like the device that you already have, so it might be worth the bother.
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My apologies for not having another B&K page posted by now… Just as “Life is that thing that happens while you’re waiting to die” a number of things have come up recently that required my time and cut down drastically on that available for artwork… The most critical (though not unexpected) being the near demise of my decrepit old Mac with it’s wonky video card… (I’m booted up on “Safe-Mode” as I type this – the only way it will still run)…
I have at least partially resolved this issue, by the purchase of a used, yet somewhat less old and decrepit Machine – So for the past couple of days I’ve been installing software and moving files and the like… This might have gone quicker had I kept all my install DVDs in the same place, instead of needing to go search for them hither and yon… Bummer! Still, I should have most of this completed before long and can get back to the artwork this weekend… Hopefully…
In the meantime, any donations for the “Buy Josh a New Mac Fund” can be sent to my secret tax free account in the Bahamas… (just ask for Izzy and slip the money under the counter)…
Y’know, I looked for a tip jar or Patreon thing on this site…where is it?
Humpf! Must be the only online comic in the known universe that makes it hard to send money. Now how are we supposed to be supporting patrons of the arts if you make it so hard to throw some lucre your way Mr. sensitive, shy and retiring artistic person?
Hey, the “Buy Josh a New Mac Fund” was a joke… honest!!
Should any IRS employees be reading this, I don’t really have a secret bank account, in the Bahamas or anywhere! Unless um… you count a jar half full of pennies – and a shoebox full of Bronco Bux…
I’ve got a gallon wine jug full of pennies—took more than twenty years to fill up. I’m working on filling one of those ten gallon glass bottles. Meanwhile, I fill a couple of containers with state quarters and national park quarters—you’ve probably guessed I’ve got a few compulsive habits.
I got a 401k “full” of money that I’ve never seen, invested in stocks and bonds that I’ve never held, backed by the full faith and guarantees of nobody at all, large chunks of which disappear when the stock market gets all wobbly.
Stick with the quarters.
Well, Jeeze… I went to TotalDoom.com to get that H.U.D, and all it did was bounce me between this page and some government office calling itself HUD and telling me how to varnish the dog and reupholster the mailbox… Bummer!
What model mac do you use? I use one as well currently, a Mac Pro Quad core 2.66 mhz.
That’s a first generation PowerMac that you’ve got, right? Sounds like our Macs are about the same vintage… I’ve been workin’ on a first gen Intel iMac… Just I made the mistake of paying extra for a Nvedia 7600 GT graphix card, which turns out to be a turkey! It chronically overheats… (odd note: Every time I’ve talked to a Mac tech and mentioned the Nvedia 7600 card, they all know about it and it’s problems – even Leo Laport on his tech radio show once mentioned the thing… Seems he had one in a Pro Tower and had to replace it… But if you walk into an Apple store and mention the thing to one of the “Geniuses” at their Genius Bar, you get a blank look – seems they never heard of it… Yup, I’ve tried this on a number of them – not a one ever heard of it! It’s a wonder of the Modern Age!)
Anyway, I’ve gotten so used to the Wonky Graphix Card and nursing it along, when the thing would overheat, then crazy things would happen on the monitor – the image might break up or odd artifacts might appear… Sometimes on reboot the screen would come up lime green with just a ghost of the desktop picture showing through… When that started, about all I could do was pull the plug and let it cool down for a while… So guess I took to blaming other, apparently unrelated problems on it as well… Having the machine stall intermittently was nothing new (I’ve gotten used to saving frequently) but these past few months the stalls were getting getting worse and more frequent — I discovered that disconnecting USB devices often freed up the system – often just unplugging my tablet was enough – if that didn’t do it, I’d unplug the rest… For a while I thought perhaps my USB dock was going bad – so I bought a new one… No luck there! I disconnected everything that I wasn’t using all time, like the scanner and printer… No Luck… I finally got down to just the Keyboard and mouse – the Mac was still locking up frequently… I changed to a different keyboard & mouse… Didn’t help…
By now it was mostly unusable as a drawing machine – then it started locking up midway through it’s boot sequence (something that it had done from time to time, but now I couldn’t get it to boot at all!) Then I recalled “Safe Mode” so tried that – the Machine booted okay and operates pretty much okay (within the Safe Mode restrictions) so seems this latest problem isn’t hardware related… No more frequent stalls – the Graphix Card can still overheat, but as I’m not using drawing apps, it’s not overly stressed… I’ve gone through basic trouble shooting steps like removing all user fonts, turning off any apps that boot at startup, Zapping the PRAM, but none of this helps… I wonder if it may have gotten a rare Mac virus of some sort?? I more or less plan to try reformatting and erasing the OS partition and reinstall OSX… I’ve mostly been putting that off until I have the replacement machine up and going and I’m certain that there’s nothing left, like app settings or special brushes and the like that I need to copy… Some apps need to check their home server to verify their serial number, so you shouldn’t just erase and reinstall them, you need to unverify them first… (Sometimes I miss the days of having all your apps on a stack of floppy disks) Which is why I haven’t reinstalled the OS yet – it’s reinstalling all the apps as well, that’s a lot of work!!
Yep mine is also a first gen intel Mac I just use a NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 vid card. I use mine as a drawing machine as well. And played World of Tanks on it up until their latest update. Which broke the graphics of the game for me.
With your tower you can pop it open and the card is right out in the open where you can replace it if you want… With an’ iMac it’s much more troublesome to take the thing apart… Also, I’ve been told, that because of the motherboard configuration, my card can’t be exchanged for a different type, only the same Nvidia 7600 GT model, which I’ve been told are hard to find these days and would cost much more than the old machine is worth…
Josh, you have done nearly everything to try fixing your computer’s overheating problem. I had a belly top sized little computer that developed problems sort of like yours. The solution: send off to China for a replacement cooling fan, and have a tech guy install it. The problems went away. Best of luck finding and fixing what is wrong.
No room inside the case for an extra fan — though I long have had a couple of small USB powered fans fastened over the exhaust port on the outside – plus another small fan blowing air past the cooling intakes on the bottom of the case… this helps a bit but is not a real solution – especially in the summer heat…
Josh, have you ever looked up something called a Peltier Thermoelctric Cooler Module? In principal you could epoxy a few of these to your computer case, and effectively transform it into an outright refrigerator. It does sound like something that Bunz might have in storage within her magically floating orb. But unlike her you might actually be able to get at the resource in question with only a mild effort. There might be some expense greater than your fans, or a completely replaced computer, but if like me you kind of like the device that you already have, so it might be worth the bother.