Re: sticky bit, powersaving & hdd spindown

[Krzys Majewski <majewski@cs.ubc.ca>]

Damien <bitwise@repose.cx> writes:

> i've been working on a stand alone music player for the last couple of months.
> it's currently a bit loud (being based around an old p166 with a very noisy
> hdd & powersupply fan.

I can't help  wondering if you could do away  with the hdd altogether,
e.g. booting  the thing once  and for all  from floppies. The  P/S fan
solution I've  posted before -- if  it's an old and  wimpy machine and
you're daring you could maybe try even more extreme things like nuking
the fan  altogether. (Check your household fire  insurance?) Along the
same lines,  you could try disabling the  CPU fan as well  if you have
one. I ran my PIII-500E for a few hours with the CPU fan unplugged and
it didn't even blink.  It seems to me that there is  a bit of room for
trial and  error here,  especially if  you can afford  it: if  the CPU
overheats,  the  machine will  crash.  Whether  this  damages the  CPU
permanently  I  don't  know,  any  electronics types  here  that  know
anything about this?  

All in all, it may be simpler and cheaper to buy a hardware MP3 player
from the store down the street, but a good hack is a good hack. 

-chris