[oclug] [OT] Cubes

[Patrick Smith]

Dave Edwards wrote:
> On Wed, 2002-10-30 at 10:54, Patrick Smith wrote:
>>Brian Barber wrote:
>>>The G4 Cubes had heat problems of their own.  I heard that a few of 
>>>them actually caught fire.
>>
>>Do you have references for this, or is it just a rumor?
> 
> I think it's legit.  Apart from some stories I've read on news sites, a
> friend of mine has a cube that he had to take in for repair.  When it
> was opened, there was some "meltage" on parts of the case's inside.

What graphics card did he have?  According to 
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/fanless_radeon_Cube_cards.html, some 
people who ordered the higher-end video card (a Radeon) for their Cube 
got a card without a fan, but it seems likely that card is supposed to 
have a fan.  But that page has no reports of flames or melting.

Is it possible his computer had electrical problems?  Was he running it 
without a surge suppressor?

The only reference I can find on the Web to a Cube catching fire is at 
http://www.uoregon.edu/~consult/deptcomp/2000/msg01583.html.  But that 
one seems to have had severe electrical problems first.  I doubt it was 
caused by the lack of a fan.

After running compiles on my machine for an hour, /proc/cpuinfo reports 
the temperature as "46-48 C".  This is not going to start a fire!  Not 
even if the sensor is off by 10 or 20 degrees.

As for Shad's suppression theory, Apple has recalled a power adapter 
based on six reports of it "overheating".  (It would be interesting to 
know how many of those incidents involved actual fires.) See 
http://exchange.info.apple.com/exchange/.  And I'd think organizations 
such as the US CPSC mentioned on that page would be getting involved if 
this were really an issue for Cubes.

There's also no mention of such events on www.cubeowner.com, as far as I 
can tell.  If this were an issue, I'd think there would be.

(Incidentally, the site does talk about how to install a fan in a Cube - 
  which one might want to do after, e.g., upgrading the video card.  And 
both www.cubeowner.com and www.cube-zone.com have links to people 
selling Cubes.)
-- 
patsmith at pobox.com