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Buzzing Cooling Fan (ahhh!) >_<

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2004 2:56 am
by Neo
Hey, guys.

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

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2004 3:42 am
by Mobius
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.

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2004 6:47 am
by XeonJr
Is it the northbridge fan? They tend to only last 6 months at best these days.

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2004 9:33 am
by MD-2389
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.

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2004 9:48 am
by Warlock
3-in-1 is your frend

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2004 2:54 pm
by AceCombat
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

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2004 9:26 pm
by MD-2389
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.

Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2004 3:04 pm
by AceCombat
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

Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2004 7:09 pm
by Vindicator
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 :|

Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2004 7:33 pm
by AceCombat
oh god, i could only imagine the gunk on those fans :o :?