Non standard CPU fan

Hi,

My CPU fan is failing fast - it starts at less than 600rpm and gradually
works its way up to 1800ish RPM whereas it should run at 2500rpm. It gets
worse on a daily basis. I've taken it out and cleaned it to no avail. I
know I can oil it but it will only be a matter of time before it fails
again.

I'd like to buy a new fan BUT it's a very non-standard fitting.

The whole heatsink/cooler unit is one of these http://tinyurl.com/yvh2wl
(the link is to a shop which now seems to be out of business) and the screws
are placed in a rectangular formation rather than square.

I'm not keen to replace the whole unit as the heatsink is fine and I
understand that there is some risk with this process but as I can't get hold
of a suitable fan has anybody got any suggestions which may help me?

Thanks,

Kroma

"Kroma" wrote in message
...
Hi,

My CPU fan is failing fast - it starts at less than 600rpm and gradually
works its way up to 1800ish RPM whereas it should run at 2500rpm. It
gets
worse on a daily basis. I've taken it out and cleaned it to no avail. I
know I can oil it but it will only be a matter of time before it fails
again.

I'd like to buy a new fan BUT it's a very non-standard fitting.

The whole heatsink/cooler unit is one of these http://tinyurl.com/yvh2wl
(the link is to a shop which now seems to be out of business) and the
screws
are placed in a rectangular formation rather than square.

I'm not keen to replace the whole unit as the heatsink is fine and I
understand that there is some risk with this process but as I can't get
hold
of a suitable fan has anybody got any suggestions which may help me?



Here is what I've done from time to time. It works absolutely fine...
but it's an add-ball solution.

I remove the old fan and clean the dust from the heat-sink fins.
Then a make a bracket from some spare sheet metal scraps...
and mount a *case fan* directly above the cpu cooler with the air flow
directed
downwards toward the cpu.
About 1/4 inch above the cpu cooler will do fine.
(Fan bracket is mounted to the cabinet...usually in an existing hole)

In the ones I've done...the fan runs slower (and thus quieter) than the
original fan...
yet has ...if anything...better cooling.

I've had a number of machines running for many years now and have not had a
problem...
though I'll be the first to admit it may look a little funny!

"Kroma" wrote in message
...
Hi,

My CPU fan is failing fast - it starts at less than 600rpm and gradually
works its way up to 1800ish RPM whereas it should run at 2500rpm. It
gets worse on a daily basis. I've taken it out and cleaned it to no
avail. I know I can oil it but it will only be a matter of time before it
fails again.

I'd like to buy a new fan BUT it's a very non-standard fitting.

The whole heatsink/cooler unit is one of these http://tinyurl.com/yvh2wl
(the link is to a shop which now seems to be out of business) and the
screws are placed in a rectangular formation rather than square.

I'm not keen to replace the whole unit as the heatsink is fine and I
understand that there is some risk with this process but as I can't get
hold of a suitable fan has anybody got any suggestions which may help me?

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=353438

On Sat, 3 Mar 2007 14:20:38 -0000, "Kroma"
wrote:

Hi,

My CPU fan is failing fast - it starts at less than 600rpm and gradually
works its way up to 1800ish RPM whereas it should run at 2500rpm. It gets
worse on a daily basis. I've taken it out and cleaned it to no avail. I
know I can oil it but it will only be a matter of time before it fails
again.


False logic.
If you had oiled it in the first place, it might've ran just
as long as it did the first tour of duty, and you wouldn't
be risking complete fan failure by continually using it.

Either lube it, or left the system turned off till you had a
replacement. If you want to avoid this situation in the
future, either buy a decent dual ball bearing fan, or lube
the sleeve bearing fan next time instead of letting it run
until it's dry.



I'd like to buy a new fan BUT it's a very non-standard fitting.

The whole heatsink/cooler unit is one of these http://tinyurl.com/yvh2wl
(the link is to a shop which now seems to be out of business) and the screws
are placed in a rectangular formation rather than square.

It's an odd shape, but is it an odd dimension (width) or a
standard 60 or 80mm, or less common but still obtainable,
70mm?
It looks like it might be possible to attach a normal fan,
with different screws or wire-ties to hold it down if
necessary. It might require taking the plastic frame on the
bottom off too.



I'm not keen to replace the whole unit as the heatsink is fine and I
understand that there is some risk with this process but as I can't get hold
of a suitable fan has anybody got any suggestions which may help me?


You can lube the current fan or replace it with closest size
standard fan, there is nothing exceptionally difficult about
what you're trying to do. If you lube it, use heavy weight
oil not very thin and it will run for quite a long time,
"IF" you hadn't let it run for so long like it was... so now
it's life depends on just how bad it is, but any way you
look at it, if you are going to keep using the system it
should be lubed immediately, as a preventative measure until
you can install a replacement fan or heatsink-fan combo.

The situation you are facing is a good reason not to buy
heatsinks that use proprietary fans. However, some of
Arctic Cooling's products have a fairly long warranty, you
might contact them and see if they can send you a fan if you
want another one just like it - but frankly since it is
failing and you dont like to relube it, it would seem better
to get a fan that isn't subject to this short lifespan
instead.

"philo" wrote in message
. ..


Here is what I've done from time to time. It works absolutely fine...
but it's an add-ball solution.

I remove the old fan and clean the dust from the heat-sink fins.
Then a make a bracket from some spare sheet metal scraps...
and mount a *case fan* directly above the cpu cooler with the air flow
directed
downwards toward the cpu.
About 1/4 inch above the cpu cooler will do fine.
(Fan bracket is mounted to the cabinet...usually in an existing hole)

In the ones I've done...the fan runs slower (and thus quieter) than the
original fan...
yet has ...if anything...better cooling.

I've had a number of machines running for many years now and have not had
a
problem...
though I'll be the first to admit it may look a little funny!

I'm coming to the conclusion that this is my only option now. Maybe I could
take the current fan to bits, saw the 'frame' down to half the width with a
hacksaw and attach a new case fan to it (with electrical tape?) then, create
a sandwich of old fan frame - new fan - heatsink? I may need to chop off a
few bits of the new fan frame to allow space for the screws though. This
way I can put the screws in their current places.

It will look funny but I don't mind - hopefully the case will remain firmly
shut until I next upgrade my memory.

Kroma

"meerkat" wrote in message
...

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=353438


Thanks for the link but that is the ultra version of the fan - a completely
different size to the non-ultra version.

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/cpu2.php?disc=1&idx=28

If anybody can find a link to an available Super Silent 4 I'd be over the
moon!

Thanks,

Kroma

"kony" wrote in message
...

Either lube it, or left the system turned off till you had a
replacement. If you want to avoid this situation in the
future, either buy a decent dual ball bearing fan, or lube
the sleeve bearing fan next time instead of letting it run
until it's dry.

I know, I know. I didn't fit this, it came with my PC. I've never had to
upgrade, swap or even touch my cooling system before and there was no
warning that it had started to fail (no noises or anything) until my
motherboard started to warn me.

The situation you are facing is a good reason not to buy
heatsinks that use proprietary fans. However, some of
Arctic Cooling's products have a fairly long warranty, you
might contact them and see if they can send you a fan if you
want another one just like it - but frankly since it is
failing and you dont like to relube it, it would seem better
to get a fan that isn't subject to this short lifespan
instead.

I have contacted Arctic and they pointed me to an ebay store of theirs.
Unfortunately, it lists many fans but not this specific one.

Kroma

snip



I'm coming to the conclusion that this is my only option now. Maybe I
could
take the current fan to bits, saw the 'frame' down to half the width with
a
hacksaw and attach a new case fan to it (with electrical tape?) then,
create
a sandwich of old fan frame - new fan - heatsink? I may need to chop off
a
few bits of the new fan frame to allow space for the screws though. This
way I can put the screws in their current places.

It will look funny but I don't mind - hopefully the case will remain
firmly
shut until I next upgrade my memory.



As long as it works, that's all that matters
however it would not really be all that big a job not too expensive to just
replace the entire
cpu cooler assemby with a new one



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

On Sat, 3 Mar 2007 23:20:21 -0000, "Kroma"
wrote:


"kony" wrote in message
.. .

Either lube it, or leave the system turned off till you had a
replacement. If you want to avoid this situation in the
future, either buy a decent dual ball bearing fan, or lube
the sleeve bearing fan next time instead of letting it run
until it's dry.

I know, I know. I didn't fit this, it came with my PC. I've never had to
upgrade, swap or even touch my cooling system before and there was no
warning that it had started to fail (no noises or anything) until my
motherboard started to warn me.

.... you write that you know, but you don't write that you
lubed the fan, rather that it's still struggling to fail...
so I'm not quite sure if you know the main point I was
making... that it's only a two minute job.


The situation you are facing is a good reason not to buy
heatsinks that use proprietary fans. However, some of
Arctic Cooling's products have a fairly long warranty, you
might contact them and see if they can send you a fan if you
want another one just like it - but frankly since it is
failing and you dont like to relube it, it would seem better
to get a fan that isn't subject to this short lifespan
instead.

I have contacted Arctic and they pointed me to an ebay store of theirs.
Unfortunately, it lists many fans but not this specific one.


Did you measure the mounting dimensions?
Like I wrote previously, it's probably a standard size, just
an unusual looking frame, so a standard fan might work fine,
merely needing different screws "maybe" (It's hard to tell
from the linked picture as it isn't very good nor very
informative).

On 3 Mar, 14:20, "Kroma" wrote:
Hi,

My CPU fan is failing fast - snip
I'm not keen to replace the whole unit as the heatsink is fine
snip

the heatsink itself - a chunk of metal, doesn't normally fail. Not to
my knowledge anyway!

Why exactly don't you want to replace the "whole unit"/HSF?
Replacing the HSF is standard procedure.

Personally, i'd probably buy a new one than even go through the hassle
of oiling the thing! Infact i'd probably have bought a second one
initially anyway as a spare. And MAYBE oil the broken one - for fun.

What do you do when your hard drive or motherboard dies? get out a
soldering iron? More power to you if you can do it. But how long does
it take? 10 hours ? 2 weeks? a month of sundays?