Alternative to this £50 fan?

[crisb]

Hey Guys,

I bought my ASRock Vision 3D at the end of 2010 and unfortunately the fan has stopped working in the machine a week ago and it switches off after 20 minutes or so.

I emailed their support center and they want £50 for the replacement fan

Does anyone know any UK dealers of this fan - or perhaps an alternative fan that I could put in instead of this one in the box? I don't mind having to run it up higher if it doesn't come with the bit of metal that goes to the GPU?

Many thanks!

 

[txus.palacios]

Just replace the actual fan?

Could you give us the model of the fan? Look for a sticker.

 

[crisb]

The sticker

Hi, thanks for your reply - so I took a snapshot of the fan and all it has is this long number on... not sure if this is helps!!

 

[txus.palacios]

Looks like a serial number, not something we could use. I mean the actual fan. Look at the other side of the fan, there must be a sticker and a big number there that we may find useful. If not, you can always DIY something :3

 

[Bobnova]

Pop it out and see if you can turn the fan. It most likely just needs to be lubed.

 

[CompuTamer]

Pop it out and see if you can turn the fan. It most likely just needs to be lubed.

I agree. If it IS spinning for 20 minutes, i bet the bearings are just heating up and then grinding together until they can't turn anymore. I bet some oil would fix you up.

 

[Conumdrum]

Can you buy an aftermarket air cooler for it? And toss the original.

 

[crisb]

Going to remove & try lubing ...

Hey, as per your suggestions - I'm going to remove the fan and see if I can put some grease on it .. it does move when I touch it via hand but it's worth trying!

By the way - what's an "aftermarket air cooler" ? Can you give me some examples? Which one might work?

 

[Whitefang]

An aftermarket air cooler is an air cooler you purchase separately from the part. They generally give better cooling performance than the stock one.

 

[txus.palacios]

That looks like a very low profile heatsink, and propietary. I doubt there is an aftermarket cooler for that.

 

[Conumdrum]

That looks like a very low profile heatsink, and propietary. I doubt there is an aftermarket cooler for that.

Your right. It's a mini HDMI box. GPU is on the Mobo.

Op: Your gonna have to come up with something different or replace it for 50 if you can't fix the fan.

 

[txus.palacios]

Or just get creative. Zipties, fan, imagination and bam, replacement fan :3

 

[EvilJoker]

ebay?? might b able to find one there.. worth a look

 

[crisb]

Yes!!! Finally get to the fan!

Hey guys, thanks for all your help -- so -- I attacked the heat-sink and undid something like 14 screws, and guess what .. I finally got to the fan buried inside!!!

Now, here it is! Rather than replace the whole heatsync (which is actually fine!) surely I can just replace the fan part inside it??

Here's a picture of the fan ... I tried a UK distributor for this manufacturer but they said they didn't supply this model?!

Any ideas or suggestions gratefully received...

 

[txus.palacios]

Found it here for about 20 pounds shipped, seems to be a hard one to find.

http://www.pchub.com/uph/laptop/676-60453-17815/SUNON-GC125025VH-A-Server-Round-Fan.html

But it's a 55x55 fan, maybe you can get a standard 60mm one and mod it to make it fit?

Also, clean it up and lubricate it. Remove the sticker, remove a plastic thingy that exposes the hub and put a couple of drops of lubricant there. Then try it again.

 

[Conumdrum]

Looking at that pic I can see why it probably died. The amount of dust in the heatsink probably made that fan run at full RPM every time the PC was on. Might want to implement a cleaning every 3 months or so in the future.

 

[emmetfb]

Hi
I followed the advice here about lubricating the fan and now my ASRock Vision 3D is back to its quiet self. Many thanks for the info.

Just 1 thing.
I used WD40 to do the lubricating and placed lots of folded kitchen towel around the fan and turned the computer on after the first blast of WD40: the excess was caught perfectly in the towels. I repeated the process and rebuilt the computer and powered on. And oh bugger Windows wouldn't start and needed over an hour for the repair system to resolve the issue.
Thought for the day: Discinnect the hard drive if you are gouing to do what I did.

Thanks for all the advice; apart from my own stupidity it worked well and now I have a very quiet PC under the TV again.

 

[RnRollie]

WD40 is good for cleaning, not so good for lubrucating
but since its a maglev there are no bearings, so.. it probably doesn't matter

 

[Mandrake4565]

WD40 is good for cleaning, not so good for lubrucating

QFT

 

[emmetfb]

WD40 is good for cleaning, not so good for lubrucating
but since its a maglev there are no bearings, so.. it probably doesn't matter

Thank you for the update. Do you have a recommendation for lubrication? I am getting the odd noise from the fan particularly when the PC is under high load - but not nearly as bad as it was before.