My internet gateway computer at home is set up to email me it's ip address every hour so I can connect to it whenever I want at work. Well, yesterday it stopped sending emails. I was concerned. When I got home it was still functioning as a router nut I could not type anything on the keyboard. Then I noticed that the case was very hot. When I opened it up the hard drives were burning hot.
Why would hard drives get so hot?
The processor is a 200Mhz Pentium and it has a heat-sink and a fan. I'm not sure if the fan was working or not but I have another like it that does not have a fan and the heat-sink works fine.
Now the computer will not turn on at all.
I am baffled. Has anyone experienced this before?
Could I have over worked the processor playing my on-line games?

is the computer very small and for how long have you been running it?

Yeah. It is an old HP desktop. It has been running for about 3 months straight.

and the computer doesn't turn on??
thats strange
what happens when you press the ON-Button?

Nothing. When i get home tonight I will try again. The funny thing is it was working as a router up until the minute I turned it off. There was messages on the screen about my hard drives. It seem The memory and the processor must have been working fine. Why would the hard drives get so hot?
Thanks

normally , a PC can run over 10 years without problems. but if the computer is very small and no fresh air can get into the computer it could get very hot
and hardrives don't like it hot....

Thanks. It was against a walll and books were stacked on top of it. Lesson learned.

Yu can keep your hardd rives cool the same way you do for your processor. There are even special fans for surface mounting (see the overclocking section of your favorite computer parts store). Soulds like another fan is a good idea. Be sure to create an airflow. Get creative if you have to (a piece of cardboard in the right place to direct air, for example). Who cares what the inside looks like of it functions, right? Good luck.