Buzzing Cooling Fan (ahhh!) >_<

Neo · Post by **Neo** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 2:56 am

Hey, guys.

I have a cooling fan in my case that keeps buzzing. Do you have any idea why it does that?

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 3:42 am

Dust. Age. Low Quality.

Pick any combination or permutation.

Remove fan from case, Use soft-bristle brush to clean blades. Remove sticker from impellor centre. Remove circlip retaining the axle. Remove impellor. Use compressed air to clean motor windings. Apply TINY amount of VERY LIGHT oil. Replace impellor. Secure circlip. Place sticker back on impellor. Remount fan. Reboot.

Alternatively: buy high quality, low noice fan like Vantech Stealth.

XeonJr · Post by **XeonJr** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 6:47 am

Is it the northbridge fan? They tend to only last 6 months at best these days.

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 9:33 am

Actually, the thing probably isn't lubed right. Still, it won't hurt for it to have clean blades.

On the back of your fan should be a label sticker. Peel that back until you've gone past the center of the fan. There should be a rubber or plastic stopper. Use an exacto blade to pop that right off. Now what you do is put a couple drops in there and turn the blades a few times until its relatively smooth. Personally, I put a couple more drops in for good measure, but thats up to you. Don't fill it up all the way! Then put the stopper back on and wipe off any excess with a tissue. Then push the label sticker back down and you're good to go.

Warlock · Post by **Warlock** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 9:48 am

3-in-1 is your frend

AceCombat · Post by **AceCombat** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 2:54 pm

i just picked up a boxful of buzzing fans from a discard pile at a computer store, everysingle one works perfectly.

a few needed some bad work, so i lubed and ran them for at least 20 mins (some required a few runs of that proceedure) to allow the 3-in-1 to fully lubricate every surface and get the bearings back smooth

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 9:26 pm

AceCombat wrote:i just picked up a boxful of buzzing fans from a discard pile at a computer store, everysingle one works perfectly.

a few needed some bad work, so i lubed and ran them for at least 20 mins (some required a few runs of that proceedure) to allow the 3-in-1 to fully lubricate every surface and get the bearings back smooth

Yeah, its amazing what those fans can take eh? People throw away perfectly good parts just because it requires a little effort to fix them.

AceCombat · Post by **AceCombat** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 3:04 pm

aint that the truth, plus this guy charges like $0.50 for each fan he has to replace, so i take them, refit and relubircate, give them to a user who has a bad fan and say...."nothing to it" "no charge". and whoevers computer it was walks away happy. with it running silent and just like new

Vindicator · Post by **Vindicator** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 7:09 pm

I was workin on a computer for a friend, he had just bought it from a heavy smoker. The fans were covered with thick, brown sludge and had horrendous dust buildup (ever seen brown dust? it aint pretty). None of em worked right. I dont care if those fans could be salvaged, I wasnt willing to fix em up

AceCombat · Post by **AceCombat** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 7:33 pm

oh god, i could only imagine the gunk on those fans