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  • Motherboard question: LuckyStar LS-486E

    From xbit@21:4/107 to All on Thu Feb 23 16:51:01 2023
    Any idea what this small heat sink is cooling? And I'm wondering if its supposed to get as hot as it does. Like VERY hot. I almost want to put some thermal paste and a tiny fan on it <g>

    http://x-bit.org/retro486/luckystar.jpg
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  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to xbit on Thu Feb 23 22:30:14 2023
    Re: Motherboard question: LuckyStar LS-486E
    By: xbit to All on Thu Feb 23 2023 04:51 pm

    Any idea what this small heat sink is cooling? And I'm wondering if its supposed to get as hot as it does. Like VERY hot. I almost want to put some thermal paste and a tiny fan on it <g>

    http://x-bit.org/retro486/luckystar.jpg

    I'm not sure, but I just did a quick search online, and that appears to be the revision C2 version of the board - There isn't much information on this page though:
    https://www.elhvb.com/webhq/models/486pci/ls486ec2.htm

    Nightfox
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  • From Oli@21:3/102 to xbit on Fri Feb 24 11:30:37 2023
    xbit wrote (2023-02-23):

    Any idea what this small heat sink is cooling? And I'm wondering if its supposed to get as hot as it does. Like VERY hot. I almost want to put
    some thermal paste and a tiny fan on it <g>

    http://x-bit.org/retro486/luckystar.jpg

    I'm not an expert, but it looks like a power transistor to me. How hot is very hot? 100°C or more is usually within their specification. Some thermal paste could not hurt though.

    I have no idea if they are supposed to get that hot on a mainboard, but I guess the heat sink is there for a reason ;). Is the heat sink also very hot?

    ⁂

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  • From xbit@21:4/107 to All on Mon Feb 27 11:33:59 2023
    Re: Motherboard question: LuckyStar LS-486E
    By: xbit to All on Thu Feb 23 2023 04:51 pm

    Any idea what this small heat sink is cooling? And I'm wondering if its supposed to get as hot as it does. Like VERY hot. I almost want to put some thermal paste and a tiny fan on it <g> http://x-bit.org/retro486/luckystar.jpg

    Figured it out: It converts supplied 5 Volt to 3,x Volt for the processor, when configured to do so. So in short, it's the voltage regulator and getting as warm as it does is normal.
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