The fan on the cheap PCI-X graphics card in my Linux box is failing. It's a little (40mm I think) fan mounted into the heatsink.
Does anyone know if these can be replaced? It may only be a cheap card but it still seems silly having to pay for a new card just because the fan is dying!
Or is there any way to rejuvenate a fan?
On 8 March 2010 13:39, Mark Rogers mark@quarella.co.uk wrote:
The fan on the cheap PCI-X graphics card in my Linux box is failing. It's a little (40mm I think) fan mounted into the heatsink.
Does anyone know if these can be replaced? It may only be a cheap card but it still seems silly having to pay for a new card just because the fan is dying!
Or is there any way to rejuvenate a fan?
-- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG
A quick search on ebay shows loads of 40mm fans for around 2 and a half quid. May be of help depends on the type of heat sink it screws onto.
Cheers, BJ
On 08/03/10 14:29, John Woodard wrote:
A quick search on ebay shows loads of 40mm fans for around 2 and a half quid. May be of help depends on the type of heat sink it screws onto.
It's the heatsink that's the issue. It's a custom thing with a circular cutout for the fan, which is screwed down into the heatsink in two places.
I wondered if anyone had every found someone who sells anything other than the square-frame 40mm fans, or who had managed to rejuvenate one which was (apparently) coming to the end of it's life.
Since I don't do any gaming I might just pull the fan off and see how hot it gets without one, or would that be unwise?
On 08 Mar 14:49, Mark Rogers wrote:
On 08/03/10 14:29, John Woodard wrote:
A quick search on ebay shows loads of 40mm fans for around 2 and a half quid. May be of help depends on the type of heat sink it screws onto.
It's the heatsink that's the issue. It's a custom thing with a circular cutout for the fan, which is screwed down into the heatsink in two places.
I wondered if anyone had every found someone who sells anything other than the square-frame 40mm fans, or who had managed to rejuvenate one which was (apparently) coming to the end of it's life.
Since I don't do any gaming I might just pull the fan off and see how hot it gets without one, or would that be unwise?
Sounds very similar to the chipset fans on board on some ASUS motherboards, heatsink literally just a circle, fan screws with 2 screws opposite each other on to the heatsink?
I've "temporarily" repaired a fair number of them on the motherboard... but never found somewhere to get an actual replacement fan. There should be a sticker on the back of the fan, take that off and squirt lots of WD40 at it, then play with the fan until it loosens off, you can now apply some grease if you've got it, otherwise cover the hole back up, plonk it back in place, and you should be alright for at least a couple of months.
Cheers,
On 08/03/10 14:59, Brett Parker wrote:
Sounds very similar to the chipset fans on board on some ASUS motherboards, heatsink literally just a circle, fan screws with 2 screws opposite each other on to the heatsink?
Not quite; the screws are not opposite each other. But otherwise correct.
It means that repair is surely the only option.
I've "temporarily" repaired a fair number of them on the motherboard... but never found somewhere to get an actual replacement fan. There should be a sticker on the back of the fan, take that off and squirt lots of WD40 at it, then play with the fan until it loosens off, you can now apply some grease if you've got it, otherwise cover the hole back up, plonk it back in place, and you should be alright for at least a couple of months.
Thanks for the tips, I'll try and give this a go tonight.
Mark Rogers wrote:
On 08/03/10 14:59, Brett Parker wrote:
Sounds very similar to the chipset fans on board on some ASUS motherboards, heatsink literally just a circle, fan screws with 2 screws opposite each other on to the heatsink?
Not quite; the screws are not opposite each other. But otherwise correct.
It means that repair is surely the only option.
I've "temporarily" repaired a fair number of them on the motherboard... but never found somewhere to get an actual replacement fan. There should be a sticker on the back of the fan, take that off and squirt lots of WD40 at it, then play with the fan until it loosens off, you can now apply some grease if you've got it, otherwise cover the hole back up, plonk it back in place, and you should be alright for at least a couple of months.
Thanks for the tips, I'll try and give this a go tonight.
Personally I wouldn't use WD-40 without replacing the lubricant you wash out with something else, it may get the fan working quite well initially but WD-40 is more solvent than lubricant so it washes out what little is left and then evaporates itself, leaving a mostly dry bearing. Bike shops sell a spray lubricant for chains etc which works quite well...something lithium, graphite or ptfe based would do the trick. Just watch where you get it and try to contain it just to the fan bearings because it may be conductive.
Can you put a photo up somewhere of the fan in question...I do have old gfx cards etc kicking about so might have something that fits.
Whether you can run fanless depends on the GPU. Things like old low spec GF4's etc were happy enough without one most of the time....as were the northbridges on those mainboards Brett was taking about (unless you were overclocked). You can also buy aftermarket GFX Heatsink Fan units that are mostly universal..but you might end up spending more than a cheap replacement card would be.
On 08/03/10 16:24, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
Personally I wouldn't use WD-40 without replacing the lubricant you wash out with something else, it may get the fan working quite well initially but WD-40 is more solvent than lubricant so it washes out what little is left and then evaporates itself, leaving a mostly dry bearing. Bike shops sell a spray lubricant for chains etc which works quite well...something lithium, graphite or ptfe based would do the trick. Just watch where you get it and try to contain it just to the fan bearings because it may be conductive.
I agree that getting rid of the existing lubricant without replacing it probably isn't wise. I'll see what I can find - I was going to go with just grease but maybe I'll try and find something a bit better.
Can you put a photo up somewhere of the fan in question...I do have old gfx cards etc kicking about so might have something that fits.
Not sure how well these will come out, but: http://www.more-solutions.co.uk/files/08032010323.JPG http://www.more-solutions.co.uk/files/08032010324.JPG
Whether you can run fanless depends on the GPU. Things like old low spec GF4's etc were happy enough without one most of the time....as were the northbridges on those mainboards Brett was taking about (unless you were overclocked). You can also buy aftermarket GFX Heatsink Fan units that are mostly universal..but you might end up spending more than a cheap replacement card would be.
It's an nvidia -based card, and I'm using the proprietary nVidia drivers.
How do I go about finding out the temperature that the card is running at?
On 08-Mar-10 16:24:52, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
Mark Rogers wrote:
On 08/03/10 14:59, Brett Parker wrote:
[...] I've "temporarily" repaired a fair number of them on the motherboard... but never found somewhere to get an actual replacement fan. There should be a sticker on the back of the fan, take that off and squirt lots of WD40 at it, then play with the fan until it loosens off, you can now apply some grease if you've got it, otherwise cover the hole back up, plonk it back in place, and you should be alright for at least a couple of months.
Thanks for the tips, I'll try and give this a go tonight.
Personally I wouldn't use WD-40 without replacing the lubricant you wash out with something else, it may get the fan working quite well initially but WD-40 is more solvent than lubricant so it washes out what little is left and then evaporates itself, leaving a mostly dry bearing. Bike shops sell a spray lubricant for chains etc which works quite well...something lithium, graphite or ptfe based would do the trick. Just watch where you get it and try to contain it just to the fan bearings because it may be conductive. [...]
All this reminds me of the time I recovered a keyboard that had gone belly-up following a major coffee spill (i.e. drenched; the cup was accidentally dropped onto it).
I took its bottom off, and immersed the whole thing in hot water for several hours, shook "dry", and repeated.
Then I put the whole thing on top of a very warm radiator for a couple of days.
Then it was fine.
And it also comes back to me that I once "undid" an "rm -rf *" in / as root. I was under the false impression that I was already in the directory that I wanted to rm -rf.
When I saw the first messages about what it was deleting (like /bin) I was momentarily gobsmacked. Then a bright light flashed, and reminded me that filesystem changes get cached for a while, before being periodically (every 30 sec on that system) written out to the drive.
So I rapidly reached for the reset button. On reboot, everything was still there. On the basis that "rm -rf *" had been running about 10 seconds before I caught on, I reckon I landed on the right side of 2 chances out of 3 ...
Ted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 08-Mar-10 Time: 17:05:06 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
On 8 March 2010 17:05, Ted Harding Ted.Harding@manchester.ac.uk wrote:
All this reminds me of the time I recovered a keyboard that had gone belly-up following a major coffee spill
Then it was fine.
And the iPod buried in ice for most of the winter season ...
http://robulack.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/ipod-emerges-from-ice-and-still-wor...
And it also comes back to me that I once "undid" an "rm -rf *" in / as root.
So I rapidly reached for the reset button. On reboot, everything was still there. On the basis that "rm -rf *" had been running about 10 seconds before I caught on, I reckon I landed on the right side of 2 chances out of 3 ...
Ooh, that's fortunate. I ordinarily try not to interrupt a command even if I've realised belatedly it was a mistake. Very quick thinking tho - not sure I would have had the presence of mind to consider the cache that quickly.
I'll file that story under "things worth knowing that you wish never have cause to know" ...
:)
Peter.
On Mon, Mar 08, 2010 at 02:59:54PM +0000, Brett Parker wrote:
be a sticker on the back of the fan, take that off and squirt lots of WD40 at it, then play with the fan until it loosens off, you can now
No, don't do that, WD40 is the wrong thing to use as it will wash all the lubrication out of the fan bearings. I'd suggest something more like 3 in 1 oil.
Adam
Hi all,
Oil plus centripetal force ... I don't want to see the results of that inside a computer case: Especially any oil containing graphite.
Most modern bearings are designed to run dry or with grease rather than oil inside the bearings.
This reference may be useful. http://ixbtlabs.com/articles2/cpucoolersinquestion/fans-inquestion-augus t2k2.html
Regards,
Tony
Confidentiality: This e-mail and its attachments are intended for the above named only and may be confidential. If they have come to you in error you must take no action based on them, nor must you copy or show them to anyone; please reply to this e-mail and highlight the error.
Security Warning: Please note that this e-mail has been created in the knowledge that internet e-mail is not a 100% secure communications medium . We advise that you understand and observe this lack of security when e-mailing us.
Viruses: Although we have taken steps to ensure that this email and attachments are free from any virus, we advise that in keeping with good computing practice the recipient should ensure they are actually virus free.
Any views expressed in this email are those of the individual and are not necessarily those of the company or any of its subsidiaries.
Registered Office: Freemantle Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk, NR33 0EA England. Registered in England Under Company Number 00226536
On Mon, Mar 08, 2010 at 05:12:50PM -0000, Tony Tibbenham wrote:
Oil plus centripetal force ... I don't want to see the results of that inside a computer case: Especially any oil containing graphite.
Erm, why not? You'd only use one or maybe two drops under the sticker that will stop any oil leaking out.
Adam
You can get products like this...
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CM-008-LL&utm_sourc...
Hi Mark and all,
On a quick guess is this the Nvidia 5250? I've had one of these cards and my fan broke too, its running in a linux pc at the moment.. I used a load of small stick-on heatsinks, and a PCI slot cooler... and it does the job, keeps it fairly cool.
I bring this up because I spent a serious amount of time looking for a fan to replace it, but there was certainly no viable option that I could see at the time, so if it turns out that it is the same card and you get a fan would be interested in where from etc.
Also:
You can get products like this...
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CM-008-LL&utm_sourc...
-- Regards, James ;)
- Do you have one of those James? I'm looking for a PCI slot cooler that will draw air into the case, as want to put this next to my GPU which is pulling air into itself to. Any clues?
Cheers as ever guys
Alex
On Mon, Mar 08, 2010 at 01:39:45PM +0000, Mark Rogers wrote:
Does anyone know if these can be replaced? It may only be a cheap card but it still seems silly having to pay for a new card just because the fan is dying!
Yes you can replace them, there are various kits available many for people who want to overclock their gfx card. Although, depending on what your card is and how old it is replacing it may be a more sensible option.
Adam
On 08/03/10 17:14, Adam Bower wrote:
Yes you can replace them, there are various kits available many for people who want to overclock their gfx card. Although, depending on what your card is and how old it is replacing it may be a more sensible option.
I was thinking along those lines, although as you say probably expensive. Where do I look, though?
The existing card is probably not much more than a year old, and it replaced one that failed in a similar way. Spending money on a better fan, or a box of cheap fans, might suit me quite well!
On Mon, Mar 08, 2010 at 05:21:46PM +0000, Mark Rogers wrote:
I was thinking along those lines, although as you say probably expensive. Where do I look, though?
The internet? :)
(ok, try http://quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/vgacoolers for starters)
Adam
-
Adam Bower -
Alex Scotton -
Brett Parker -
James Bensley -
John Woodard -
Mark Rogers -
samwise -
Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk -
Tony Tibbenham -
Wayne Stallwood