GPU fan dying

[Foil]

Heya, guys. Just wondering what you would recommend for a short-term solution to a GPU fan starting to die. It still seems to keep decent rpms, but I'm not sure how much longer it will last.

I have a BFG 8800GTS 512Mb G92, whose fan is starting to make some odd sounds, like the bearings are wearing out. I'm not necessarily surprised, because I have fairly aggressive fan-speed/temp settings, and over the past couple of years it's been running the fan at sometimes 80% to keep the card cool (when I'm not gaming, I'm running F@H on the GPU).

AFAIK, the card is well beyond the warrany period, so there's no RMA-ing it.

I'll eventually go to water-cooling someday, but that's not going to be for a while.

Any suggestions for something in the short-term?

[AceCombat]

external desk fan? or you could do what i did lol, ill have to get pictures of this too !!



do you have access to some old AT Power Supplies with momentary switches? rig one up with a couple of 80mm or 92mm fans to the 12v rail, strip off the plastic connector of the fan cable, insert the two black wires into any of the two Black GND Leads on a single molex power connector, now put the two red wires into the yellow +12v pin and tape them down with electrical tape, now using the electrical tape, secure them together on the top of the PSU. now get some cardboard and shape it in a 3 sided square \"duct\" around the fans. place it next to your case and let it blow cool air right at your video card.



pictures in a couple minutes: 20:04 Current time

[Canuck]

An aftermarket cooler kit for around $30.00 would outperform and be quieter than the stock cooler;
Humoungus Big link to online store

Big link to website shortened to little link

And I think would look less ghetto unless your into stuffing cardboard into your tower. Certainly safer if you have cats too.

Hope this helped.

[Foil]

Hehe, very cool, Ace. The fan hasn't died yet, but that's certainly something I could rig up if needed (I have an extra fan or two around somewhere).

Thanks for the links, Canuck. An aftermarket cooler is certainly a possibility; I'll probably check my local PC store as well.

In the meantime, I took out the card last night and cleaned the fan. It seems like it helped, at least the noise I've been hearing isn't as loud.

[Grendel]

I got two never used 8800 GTS 640 cooler, at least the fan could be the same. Let me know if you want one.

[Foil]

Thanks, Gren! I may take you up on that.

[BUBBALOU]

pull off the heatsink, remove the fan, remove the protective sticker, pull the retaining clip on the the fan shaft, clean it! add lubricant reassemble.

15 minutes... no guessing

[JMEaT]

I had this problem a few weeks ago and picked up a nice HSF off of NewEgg.

Here is the thread if you are interested: viewtopic.php?t=15969

[Foil]

pull off the heatsink, remove the fan, remove the protective sticker, pull the retaining clip on the the fan shaft, clean it! add lubricant reassemble.

15 minutes... no guessing

Skimmer.

In the meantime, I took out the card last night and cleaned the fan. It seems like it helped, at least the noise I've been hearing isn't as loud.

So far, it seems to be okay post-cleaning. I appreciate the suggestions, guys. I'll bump this thread if it becomes an issue again down the road.

[VonVulcan]

pull off the heatsink, remove the fan, remove the protective sticker, pull the retaining clip on the the fan shaft, clean it! add lubricant reassemble.

15 minutes... no guessing

X2 kinda, I have a laptop cooler. The fan on it was making a hell of a racket, even going out on voice chat, popped it out, pulled back the sticker on the hub and put one drop of oil on it. It's just like new now. Probably did that a couple months ago.