Loyal fans...
25 Oct 2016 16:30:15 UTC
Topic 202236
(moderation:
Finally it happened a CPU fan stopped turning.
I noticed some strange behaviour after a restart - only two tasks running (normally four) and strange video effects, tasks exiting with errors etc.
Sensors showed RPM=0, so off with the case side and sure enough a hot cooler and a stiff fan, not the usual flick and spins for a few seconds.
It's 5.5 years old, and my first cruncher which has has a few upgrades in it's life (a second GPU then a i3 -> i7 upgrade recently). It is approaching the 100M mark, so it will get a retirement overhaul if the memory goes in, it may get some more memory 4GB-> 8GB to handle the GW tasks and an o/s upgrade. I haven't decided on its long term fate but until recently is was happily in the 100K RAC mark.
So what to do... i have some stock i7 and i3 coolers and i could go down the franken cruncher route. I checked Arctic cool, and a replacement fan could be had for under 3 pounds, so i decided that was the best solution.
Alas they are out of stock https://www.arctic.ac/uk_en/spare-fan-freezer-7-pro-rev-2-freezer-7-pro-freezer-64-pro.html
I dropped then an email asking... then I remembered Gary had repaired some fans of his fleet, (*) so i decided hey it was broken what's to lose?
So after removing the assembly, the bearing didn't wobble it was just resistant to turning so i decided just pull and sure enough, the fan came off. and the spindle was covered in a rather sticky ex lubricant i guess. So a bit of cleaning inside and out with some cotton wool buds, some lubrication and click back it went and it's not perfect but rpm is now much higher 1900 (it had been maximum of 1100 for some months) and the CPU is back at 100%.
I shouldn't complain, the fan has been running non stop for 4000 hours and the average speed probably just over 1000 pm. That's about 2.9 billion rotations, and if it were a wheel that would have travelled roughly a half million miles!
See how long that lasts...
(*) what is collective noun for crunchers? - herd / flock / flotilla / armarda / botnet / sumnation
I have an old GTX580 where
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I have an old GTX580 where one of the fans died a year ago.
Read about people getting their fans working by adding a drop of oil so I figured I'd give it a shot. The fans on the card does not have any access to the rotating part so I drilled a small hole and fed it some oil. Worked like a charm.
About two weeks ago it died again. Another drop of oil and now it's spinning happily again.
AgentB wrote:(*) what is
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Munchkin
AgentB wrote:... I remembered
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Exactly!!
I have re-oiled fans for CPUs, GPUs and PSUs for quite some years now. My experience has been that as long as the bearing hasn't worn too much, a re-oil will last at least 6-12 months and quite often even longer. You can tell 'too much wear' by a 'rough' feel when you spin the blades by hand, accompanied by a 'rough' sound, as well as just the wobble. With GPUs where the fan is too far gone, I have a couple where I've 'zip tied' an old server fan (or similar) to the heat sink. These fans seem virtually indestructible and do a better cooling job than the original. I can easily do these sort of patch up jobs because there's only a single GPU in an open case so there's always plenty of room for 'bolt on' bits.
I probably do PSUs the most. With the open computer cases, it's very easy to feel when a PSU is running too hot. I have lots of a particular PSU I bought in bulk around 7 years ago which seems to have a fan that 'dries out' after about 4-5 years. I would have re-oiled the fans in a lot of them by now. I have also done a lot of bulging capacitor replacements in these units so I usually make sure to re-oil the fan while I'm at it.
Cheers,
Gary.
Logforme wrote:... The fans
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I've done some of that type of fan too - there's no removable plug/bung, just solid plastic. I have a fine set of wire drills (hand operated) that I use to drill through the plastic to create a hole just large enough to insert a fine disposable diabetes syringe. I fill the syringe with sewing machine oil and insert the needle until it touches the bearing and then slowly squeeze the oil in until the space is full of oil. I pull the needle out and plug the fine hole. Seems to work very well.
Cheers,
Gary.
I have had several fans with
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I have had several fans with problems with the video cards the last couple years but just repaired them since I was just getting the card to slow down and not do the GPU's but the only fan that mattered that croaked on me with a CPU cruncher was 13 years ago when a P4 1.7 with a real cheap fan froze up and I was not home that day and for some reason it booted up and the fried the CPU (I did leave it plugged in so I guess I won't do that again)
The stock fans with any of the ones I rebuilt into crunchers are alway worth about $5 and I never got one from that company again and it hasn't happened since.
Just an update, the RPM now
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Just an update, the RPM now is hitting the dizzying 2100rpm so back to 100%, cpu running at 52C.
I kept a log over the last 200 days every 10 minutes monitoring temps and fan speeds of various things, and the CPU fan speed had gradually declined over about the last month.
Of course Artic have just emailed me back saying they are in stock now!
I guess i should reply and say thanks but i fixed it?
Interesting timing in my
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Interesting timing in my case. I have a custom desktop PC which I built a few years ago, in a case chosen as much for size/portability as any other parameter. It has always presented heat issues, but the problem has become more acute of late, as I ramp up crunching for the cool season here. Just yesterday, I found myself reading an interesting pair of posts on Tom's Hardware entitled "How To: Properly Plan and Pick Parts for an Air-cooled PC" from 2011. The comments sections contained lively discussions regarding technicals as deep as positive and negative pressure, and other varying points of view. Some comments referenced such McGyver-type solutions. In related Googling regarding same, I even saw where someone had zip-tied a pair of case fans to a GPU, and professed better thermals than the original/OEM solution. Maybe I will not go that far . . .
Article links:
Part 1
Part 2
I re-oiled some cheap fans at
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I re-oiled some cheap fans at the end of the '90s / early 00's. But around 2005 I went for Artic Cooling fans with fluid dynamic bearings, rated for insanely long runtimes. None of them are willing to give me any reason to upgade to more modern fans with sophisticated profiles.. they're just simply working :)
I've bought a bit less than 10 fans, but only about 5 of them are running 24/7 since 10+ years now.
MrS
Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002
ExtraTerrestrial Apes wrote:I
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Reminds me of these Scyth fans I bought in 06 with Sony's Fluid dynamic bearing. Rated 150,000hrs, running 24/7 and no issues over all these years. They are 120s used as case and cpu cooling fans. Even replaced a junk fan out of my PSU with one. They are great, though they don't offer that particular line anymore. Switched to Noctua Industrial fans for my current builds, hoping for similar results.