I have just sourced a cheap Hercules GeForce3 Ti500 card from someone.
The person who I got it from said it was 2nd user but he hadn't had
time to test it. When I used it in my machine there would be several
display problems and distortions, not responding at all on one
occasion. The display became worse after several boots so I took the
card out to have a look. On inspection I quickly found out that the
fan had seized up and wouldn't roatate. Are the problems I described a
typical of over heating of the card or is there most probably some
other fault? The rest of the card seems to be in good working order
with no physical damage.

If I do need a new fan what options do I have? The Thermaltake crystal
orb cooler looks suitable but im worried its a bit OTT for me. It
looks like it would generate a lot of noise and takes up the PCI slot
space beneath it. Would it be possible to get another matching fan for
this card or is there a slower graphics card fan I can purchase for
this? Thanks for any help.