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I need to replace a small fan on the motherboard

F

Felecha

Golden Member
ABIT KT7RAID.

There's a small fan in the middle of the board, not the CPU fan. Three times now over the last year or so I could hear it growling a bit so I took it off and put a tiny drop of 3-in-1 oil into the shaft, and it went back to smooth and quiet. This time the oil job only lasted a day before it growled again, so I wonder if I really need to just replace it.

I took it out and went to radio shack, and they have a fan exactly the size, but in looking over the specs the sales guy noted that mine is 0.08A and theirs is 0.13A.

Is that a problem?
 
The power consumption won't be a problem. I'd worry about a Radio Shack fan using cheap sleeve bearings, and still being overpriced.

The KT7...wasn't that a KT133A chipset motherboard?
Those things didn't run especially hot - you'd probably be fine with a passive heatsink. Something like this.

I actually use this sucker on my NF7-S motherboards, minus the fan. I drilled holes in it and sliced two corners off so that it could be mounted, and so that it would fit on the board. Seems to work just fine.
 
I ran my KR7A without a fan and it has no troubles, the fan also decided to die once, and I didn't even notice. Ran fine without the fan working for a long time.
 
Hah..that's an old t-bird era socket a board right? KT-133 chipset IIRC.

Anyway, I had the fan die on mine years ago as well. I swapped out a tiny little 486 CPU fan (from a 486 sitting in the closet 🙂) and all was well.

Sorry I can't offer too much advice, but I can tell you that I did exactly this and the board has run just fine for the subsequent 3 years.
 
chipset fan on my asus a7v died years ago...in fact, i can't even remember when it *did* spin...but haven't had any problems with it. i wouldn't worry too much
 
Well, I would be happy to just let it go of course. Radio Shack wants $12.99 for theirs. There is a very shallow heatsink that the fan mounts to.

It has an Athlon TBird 900.

And I have a couple of old retired machines that I have occasionally scrounged from. Maybe there's a fan there

Thanks, all
 
They had fans on chipsets that old :Q

You should be fine with just about any 40mm fan. If its supposed to use more Amp, then it'll just spin lower rpms. The problem would be if you found one that used less amps than the current one is rated, that would blow it out.
 
Originally posted by: L3p3rM355i4h
They had fans on chipsets that old :Q

You should be fine with just about any 40mm fan. If its supposed to use more Amp, then it'll just spin lower rpms. The problem would be if you found one that used less amps than the current one is rated, that would blow it out.
Click to expand...

The KT7 was one of the first motherboards with active cooling. At the time it was a "feature" however mine was loud as well. You can stick just about any heatsink on there, the chipset won't put out heat like the new ones.

Originally posted by: Budman
this is all you need.

http://www.zalmanusa.com/usa/product/view.asp?idx=71&code=014
Click to expand...

That is overkill for such and old chipset, the ZM-NB32J would be lots, however I see the larger 47J is actually $3 cheaper at newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118214
 
Adding heatsinks is something new to me. Would it be a standard size and will there be standard holes on the board for screws or however they attach?
 
There should be a couple of mounting holes around your chipset. If there isn't then your current heatsink will be attached with thermal glue.

If there are mounting holes, you just remove the current pins, put some thermal paste (such as Artic Silver 5, or any other thermal paste) thinly on the chipset, then mount the new heatsink.

If you don't have mounting holes I'll have to bail out - I have never used thermal glue nor do I know where to even get it.
 
Passive cooling sounds fine. My ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe's chipset fan died a week after I got it. I saw the death coming, but my temps didn't get too bad... like 65C was the highest I'd ever seen it get, but that was the one time in the 85C ambient temp. in our Florida room, with W40k DoW running for like 3 hours and multitasking, etc. (i.e. computer abuse).
 
Well now I'm home and can look at it again. There is a heat sink that has a depth of maybe a quarter inch or more, and it's mounted kitty-corner to the chip, that is it's rotated 45 degrees from the orientation of the chip, and there are no mounting screws. So I dont see how I could remove it without breaking something - it must be glued on?

So I did the oil trick again, and it's fanning nicely, but I will probly have to just let it die if it dies. Or get the replacement fan after all.

 
It's probably got a mild thermal adhesive on it, or else thermal tape. Gently twisting it back and forth will probably get it to release.
 
Do I need to worry about what I touch (besides grounding myself before touching anything)? I've done SOME stuff inside my computer, like changing cards and installing hard drives, but not a lot of experience.
 
If you don't have mounting holes I'll have to bail out - I have never used thermal glue nor do I know where to even get it.
Click to expand...

FWIW, Arctic Silver sells a thermal epoxy that's good for exactly this purpose.

However, your motherboard should have the necessary mounting holes.
 
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