what happens when the fan on my video card stops working?

[bagaki]

I have a radeon 64MB DDR VIVO and the other day my digidoc started beeping because of high temps on the temp probe connected to my main vid card. I thought nothing of it, because it was a hot day, and ignored the temps (they reached 69 C when they are usually @ 39 C). The alarm went off again today, so i cracked the case. My fan had stopped on the video card. It had been running like this for about 4-5 days now. How bad is this? I never noticed any real performance issues and it never locked my system up or anything. I have since got the fan working again (not sure why it stopped) and am wondering if i was to need a replacement, where i would be able to find one?

What happened if your video card overheats?

Thanks

bagaki

 

[Actaeon]

You get a big mass of silicon.

Some Cards run better w/ and w/o a Fan.

Your Radeon came with a fan for a reason. Use that logic.

 

[jcmkk]

I wouldn't want to run my video card without a fan. You probably won't be able to find a direct replacement, but you can get an aftermarket hs/f for your card. I suggest Thermaltake's chrome orb.

 

[bagaki]

i am thankful that it did not fry, i left it like that for a few days.

how hard is it to install an aftermarket hs/f? how do i take the old one off? just kind of pull it off? what holds the oem hs/f on to the card?

wow, lots of questions in that line

bagaki

 

[Mavrick007]

Originally posted by: bagaki
how hard is it to install an aftermarket hs/f? how do i take the old one off? just kind of pull it off? what holds the oem hs/f on to the card?

It's not hard to install a hsf onto a video chipset at all. I would suggest either getting the card hot and trying to separate the hsf off with a credit card under and then slide a flat head screwdriver under and twist it up a bit, or you can also put it in the freezer, I hear this works as well. You don't want to pull it off directly, you want to pry it gently and then pop it off. It's probably just glue that they put it on with in the first start.

If you want to replace it, get a blue orb hsf or something with a small 40mm fan and some Arctic Silver Adhesive cause it does have some heat dissipating qualities, but better yet it will "stick" the hsf on if it's not mounted with pins on the pcb. Arctic Silver regular heat paste will not stick the hsf on. If you can't find some of the adhesive, then I would suggest getting some crazy glue and glue each of the 4 corners of the hsf or gpu and put a dab of heat paste in the center.