MSI K8N chipset fan

[armax1980]

The chipset fan on my K8N board non-SLI is dying and at times it doesn't spin. Does anyone know of a good replacement heatsink that doesn't stick out too far and getting in the way of the graphic card?

 

[John2583]

I was just messing around with some overclocking today and I realized mine was stuck! Wow I just turned it off. Hope I didn't damage it. MSI K8N Neo4 SLI Is there are replacement or an upgrade heatsink and/or fan combo someone could suggest? I'm going to try and fix it for the time being if I can.. but I doubt it's fixable.. dont know how long it's been stuck. It barely spins when I rotate it manually.. really gummy inside I guess.

 

[John]

1) call or email MSI for a new one
2) pull the fan and sticker over the bushing/bearing and put a few drops of teflon oil on it to free it up
3) http://www.svc.com/vc-re.html

 

[imported_stev]

I have the MSI K8N Platinum (non-SLI) and the fan was gradually making more and more racket. I submitted some tech support queries to MSI and they said the fan should be running around 2500 RPM, which mine and seemingly everyone elses' is running at 5500-6000 RPM. They sent me a new fan for free, of course it continued to run at the same speed, but it was quieter since it was new. I tried running my computer without the chipset fan, which freaked people out on the general hardware forum, but the temp of the chipset according to speedfan was really no different, although I don't overclock or game much. I also touched the heatsink and it was pretty warm, but it did not burn me.

As a compromise, I'm using one of those Zalman wires with a resistor on it that drops the voltage to 5.5 volts, which dropped my RPMs to 4400 (I'm surprised it didn't drop more). Anyway, the fan is quieter and may last longer and the temps are perfectly fine.

I imagine replacing it with some aftermarket cooler is probably the best long-term solution, but I wanted to share my experience. Good luck.