Spring Cleaning!

[BambiBoomZ]

Spring Cleaning!

Hewlett-Packardians,

[Note: Those in a hurry can skip to the last paragraph]

In the last several months, it seemed that the CPU temperature, especially in z620_2 had crept up., in z420_3 less so.  It seemed odd that both systems had a similar situation.  The z420 AIO liquid cooler works very well in z620_2; when first installed in 2017, the XTU overclocked Xeon E5-1680 v2 would start at about 27-29C and settle in to an idle of 33-35C. However, as time has passed this changed to starting at about 32-37C and settling into 43-46C - +10C.

This seemed to affect the system in that the added voltage in XTU to maintain 4.3GHz on all eight cores of the E5-1680 v2 had to be increased with the result that, under stress in rendering, XTU would kick off and revert to the stock clock speeds.

Those events were accompanied by higher temperatures- but only in the high 60's C: it was protective but mysterious as the situation had changed.

This was disturbing as the added overclocking  voltage-needed for stability at 4.3GHz on all cores meant voltages up to 1.45V might be degrading the processor over time.  However, it’s a sustained 1.5V and above considered to cause degradation.  Lately both systems have been running at 4.2GHz to avoid XTU sudden rebooting. The other cause considered was that the AIO liquid cooler was becoming clogged with debris- the pump and the finely sintered Copper heatsink assembly within, and/or  possibly that it was losing fluid due to the permeability of the rubber fluid lines. However, those lines are quite short.

Then, yesterday, when adding yet another drive to z620_2- there are six now, I noticed that the front, lower case fan appeared to be full of cotton balls. To make a long story a little less long, that fan was packed with carpet fluff and the fan blades were dense with dust. Checking the rear case fan, the situation was similar, the shroud memory fans, not too bad, and the liquid cooler though was remarkably clean, both fan and radiator. The GPU (MSI GTX 1070 TI Aero) blower-style fan was not too bad as it has a cleaning every so often.

I removed the front, rear, and shroud and cleaned the fans and thoroughly cleaned the case inside. This involved cotton swabs, a couple of small brushes, and microfiber cloths. Result: at the moment under very little load: CPU = 35-41C, GPU = 27C: about a -2C change. The fan noise is also reduced, probably as the dust causes turbulence on the fan blades.

Next, z420_3 had the same treatment. The z420 allows for very easy removal of the front panel (push the green marked three plastic tabs and it sort of hinges off) so the panel  had a good cleaning inside and out. That system sits on a wood floor instead of carpet and had far less fluff infestation, but results were noticeable, about 5C lower CPU (Xeon E5-1650 v2 @ 4.2GHz) temperature. That one had a bit of a hiccup as removing the z420 front case fan- difficult as there are a lot of heavy cables in that area- caused a tug on the front USB header, which caused an error on startup and paused booting. Fortunately it had not broken a wire or a connector pin and a quick push on the connector cured it.  the next operation is to remove the z620 front panel- not as straightforward as for the z410- and check on the situation there.

> In summary, there can be a good benefit from a thorough Spring cleaning for the system. Have very good lighting, a variety of suitable implements (cotton swabs and little brushes), take your time, and the cleaning can help restore performance, run a bit quieter, and, importantly, run cooler in the coming hot weather.

BambiBoomZ

HP z620_2 (2017) (R7) > Xeon E5-1680 v2 (8C@ 4.3GHz) / z420 Liquid Cooling / 64GB (HP/Samsung 8X 8GB DDR3-1866 ECC registered) / Quadro P2000 5GB _ GTX 1070 Ti 8GB / HP Z Turbo Drive M.2 256GB AHCI + Samsung 970 EVO M.2 NVMe 500GB + HGST 7K6000 4TB + HP/HGST Enterprise 6TB / Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 sound interface + 2X Mackie MR824 / 825W PSU / Windows 7 Prof.’l 64-bit (HP OEM) > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)

[ Passmark Rating = 6280 / CPU rating = 17178 / 2D = 819 / 3D= 12629 / Mem = 3002 / Disk = 13751 / Single Thread Mark = 2368 [10.23.18]

HP z420_3: (2015) (R11) Xeon E5-1650 v2 (6C@ 4.3GHz) / z420 Liquid cooling / 64GB (HP/Samsung 8X 8GB DDR3-1866 ECC registered) / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB/ HP/LSI 9212-4i > Samsung 860 EVO 500GB + HGST 4TB / ASUS Essence STX + Logitech z2300 2.1 / 600W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (HP OEM ) > Samsung 40" 4K

[Passmark System Rating: = 5644 / CPU = 15293 / 2D = 847 / 3D = 10953 / Mem = 2997 Disk = 4858 /Single Thread Mark = 2384 [6.27.19]

[SDH]

Bambi,

Agree with spring cleaning.  I have a tip.... for those of us with an air compressor in our shop it can be a very efficient way to keep things clean.  The big tip is to be careful where you are blowing.  Never directly at the speaker.  And, use a bamboo skewer to slip it in between fan blades you're blowing on.  Without holding those fans from spinning they can over-rev and hurt the bearings.  I've been doing this for years now on many HP workstations and no damage to report.

Elevating the workstation off the floor about a foot or even 6 inches really cuts down on the influx of dust and dander.  I've had a few friends ask for help with their workstations and swear there is a whole cat worth of hair inside.  For those I start outside with my leaf blower, gently.  Not kidding.

[BambiBoomZ]

SDH,

I appreciate your mentioning cleaning with air pressure.  Besides fans, one needs to take care when dealing with cleaning PCB's- the motherboard,  GPU's, and soundcards  as the tiny resistors and capacitors can snag on cloths and be damaged.  GPU's as they have the back of the PCB upwards and often have a lot of area exposed, can accumulate a good amount of tiny dust particles. Air pressure is a much better solution for these situations. That was in mind two months ago  during the laborious preparation of seven systems from 1998 to 2006 for sale.  

Recalling for years seeing "cans of air" for sale brings up the subject of an efficient and economical way to clean with pressurized air.  A can of air can be $6-11 and who knows how long that lasts and the ecological aspects.  There are some small, purpose-made compressor air cleaners for electronics, for example (not an endorsement):

https://www.newegg.com/metrovac-ed50018-3-datavac-electric-duster-white/p/N82E16896329004?Descriptio...

> but these can be rather expensive- $80-$160  Except for painting models and smaller craft items,  there aren't too many other uses for the traditional graphic design /model-makers airbrush. A dedicated compressor / air cleaner for home or small office use may be more expensive per use than the cans of air.

I'd also mention with regard to fans if cleaning manually, to use as little angled pressure on fans as possible:  not to apply pressure to one side or the other. And, as you mentioned, those are proportionally quite delicate, low tolerance bearings in the fan motors.

Elevating the system is also a good idea and I'm going to shift a couple of the 1964 encyclopedias from the Samsung 40" 4K monitor to z620_2 for that that purpose.

BambiBoomZ