Broken chipset fan on Asus A8N-SLI mobo

[Negatyfus]

I think I read on these forums once how bad the Asus A8N-SLI chipset fan is. It seems to be completely dead now. It's the one with the Asus logo, right next to the PCI-e slot, so I assume it's the chipset fan. Sometimes it will try to rotate and make one hell of a racket, but eventually it gives up and remains still. If I nudge it a little, it rotates for a fraction of a second and stops.

I've heard people here tell me that the fan actually isn't actually necessary for the chipset and passive cooling should be sufficient. I suspect I've had *no* cooling for over a year (except for what passive cooling the defective fan might provide), as I neglected this fan and the noise it occasionally made. I'm wondering how bad this actually is.

I mean, there have been no problems so far and I'm not very experienced in taking apart my motherboard. It's probably a simple affair, but do I actually risk damage with the broken fan?

 

[zagood]

1. Remove fan.
2. Do some thermal testing with Prime95, 3dMark06, etc. and record your temperatures.
3. Get back to us with results.

-z

 

[buzzsaw13]

Call ASUS and they'll replace it for free

 

[Operandi]

The nForce4 is really one of the hottest chipsets there is. That tiny Asus heatsink is nowhere near enough to cope with the heat output with out its fan. Frankly I'm surprised your system is even stable.

The best option is to replace it with a larger passive heatsink that will be able to handle the heat of the nForce. Passive heatsinks make 0 noise and can never fail I recommend this Zalman.

 

[Negatyfus]

I've used my computer without chipset cooling the entire night yesterday. Not one crash or sign of instability. This has been going on forever. I'll do some testing for you and check back with the results.

I've never even taken the motherboard out, so if I'm gonna replace it I'm probably perfectly capable of breaking it just by looking at it.

 

[letdown427]

If it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is.

 

[NokiaDude]

I highly recommend the Swiftech MCX-159-R. I have it on my A8N-SLI Deluxe and it's a fantastic cooler.