On the subject of heat (or "Angie! BE COOL!!")

[Joey Special]

My computer almost fried itself.

Now, this is not a RaiRO specific problem, but I'm hoping that someone up in here happens to have some knowledge and is generous enough to share. Here's the situation:

(SHORT VERSION: My computer crashed when it almost overheated, I think. SCROLL DOWN)

Everytime I log on to Ragnarok, it seems my cooling fan has to work a little harder than normal. In the past this troubled me, but after years of on-and-off playing and no incidents I just accepted that when I play RO, my computer is gonna get a little (more) noisey.

However on the day of September yesterday, two-thousand thisyear, "incident" occurred. I was running about in Rachel, talking to every npc I could find, and trying to figure out how to enter the sanctuary. If my computer was struggling any worse than normal, I did not notice. As I was talking to a certain young lad (I believe his name was Phobe), I hit the "next" or "close" or whatever button on the npc dialogue, and my screen went BLACK.

In fact, my monitor's LED changed from green to yellow, as in "hooked up right, but not receiving signal." Most alaming of all, my computer began to emit some urgent sounding beeps. After a few moments of bewilderment, I hit the power button, and she eagerly went silent. After a few minutes, I tried turning it back on. The beeps sang out again, and I could hear the cooling fan lurch into overdrive, seeming to accelerate indefinetly. It did not take long for me to hit the button again.

After a more lengthy pause, when I could be assured that the machine had throroughly cooled, I tried once more, and found it to boot up as normal, with only a few extra grumbling clicks from the hardware.

(SHORT VERSION: Begin reading again.)

Things seem to be even keel now, but I am reluctant to try RaiRO again without learning what I can. If you have any tips on how to get my computer to be cool, please condescend to share them.