DescentBB

Well, I have a small problem, the motor in my fan for my GeForce 4200 128MB Madusa card just died. It seems my puter left me a little holiday present of it's own for me. Does anyone know where I can look to get this replaced? I don't like the idea of just placing an off-market fan on it. I would rather just buy the fan FOR this particular model.

Any of the aftermarket cooler sites can hook you up. In the mean time you may consider using a drop or two of light machine oil (3in1 or sewing machine oil) placed in the bearing assy under the sticker on the bottom of the fan. Working it in between drops. You'd be supprised how many times this fixes a dried up fan.

There's nothing wrong with using after market coolers for your video cards as long as the cooler is compatible with your card. Both of my cards have aftermarket coolers, and they're considerably nicer then the cheap refrence coolers that came on them in the first place.

I don't know if you're interested in spending $20 some dollars on an old video card, but the Silencer line of coolers are very nice. Cool better then the small stock sinks, are quieter, and exahust the hot air directly out the back of the case. I have one on my 9800, and I'm quite happy with it.

There are also a line of coolers that are built much like the stock GF4 TI coolers, but are made of copper. I can't seem to find them on Newegg anymore, but this is one of them.

As far as a stock fan, you'd probably have to RMA the card.

Yeah that Thermaltake worked great on my 4600.

STRESSTEST wrote:Any of the aftermarket cooler sites can hook you up. In the mean time you may consider using a drop or two of light machine oil (3in1 or sewing machine oil) placed in the bearing assy under the sticker on the bottom of the fan. Working it in between drops. You'd be supprised how many times this fixes a dried up fan.

i did this for that GFFX 5600 fan that seized up on me. worked great, then the "El Cheapo" plastic that was used decided to warp and become deformed. so i had to make a temp fan mount with the zip ties untill i got my hands on a decent fan to mount properly

Stress- I tried that last week. Worked well for about a week. Then I played the Doom 3 demo and it stopped funcioning right in the middle of the demo. :\ I checked the fan, you can blow on it and it spins but plug it back in and run Doom 3 and it doesn't budge. The motor must be shot.

As for after market fans, the biggest thing I'm worried about is getting the heat sink off being that they are usually epoxied on. How do you take them off without ruining the processor?

BTW, if I go aftermarket, I might as well get good fan so that I can overclock that sucker.

mob-messenger wrote:As for after market fans, the biggest thing I'm worried about is getting the heat sink off being that they are usually epoxied on. How do you take them off without ruining the processor?

Most Ti4200s have heatsinks that are attached by a pair of push pins. Undo those and gently twist the heatsink off.

Unless your manufacturer skimped on you, it should be held on by two pins that poke throught the other side of the card. You just use a pair of needle nose pliers to pinch the end together so that it'll slip back through the card. The after market coolers will use a similar system of pins or bolts that pass through the card.

There probably will be some sort of thermal compound between the chip and the heatsink, and you'll probably have to clean that off with a razor blade.

mob-messenger wrote:As for after market fans, the biggest thing I'm worried about is getting the heat sink off being that they are usually epoxied on. How do you take them off without ruining the processor?

Dude, I walked you through it over ICQ last night...

I know MD, I am simply looking for a few more opinions on the subject.

3 in 1 oil is the foshiz for low speed fans, the other one I use is high speed lubricant with teflon. just depends on the fan