Title. I have a fan that is making loud noises. Was told I need to replace the fan and thermal paste on the GPU.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Not necessary to replace the fan. I just bought a 5970 for $200 shipped that had a bad fan making loud noises too. Do what I do and take the sticker off the face of the fan and drill a TINY hole about 3-4 mm offcenter. Stop immediately when you feel the drill fall through. Put in about 5-7 drops of 3-in-1 multipurpose oil, wipe up the excess really good, replace sticker (or put a small piece of packing/invisible tape on the hole if there is no sticker or the sticker is ruined). Hand spin it a couple dozen times. Bam, you have a fan that performs as if it were new.
This works for reference blower type fans, or the regular fans on non-reference cards (or any other DC computer fan really). Done this to about 6 different fans so far, all work like a charm.
Ohhh, this is EXACTLY what I do. Did you read it on one of my posts?. I replace the sticker with duct tape, and then fan is good for at least 6 more months!.
Quite possible. I was scared first time I did it but I'm pretty damn good at it now
. I did see it on the forums somewhere. Whoever suggested prying the fan off of the base of the fan has cost me 3 fans, because I broke the fan each and every time; they did NOT want to come apart with a reasonable amount of force. The "drill a hole" way is much safer imo, and doesn't even require taking the card apart!Personally I wouldn't use duct tape though, unless you got it centered really good. Wouldn't want to throw off the weight distribution.
Yep, normally I pre-cut the circle shape with a blade, and just place it. And, just for you to know, opening the fan by "pulling" it out like you say (prying off the part that has the blades out of the part that has the motor) works for certain types of fans only, I did it with a 9400GT I got paid to repair. The fans that support it normally don't have a "sealed" hole like the fans we use, they're just flat both sides.
