Do I need both fans on dual fan HD 6950?

[Guest]

Hi all,

Been lurking here for a bit and I need the insight of the community on an issue I have.

I have a Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB Dirt 3 Edition.

One of the fan blades is broken off. It vibrates like crazy and as I understand it will wreck the bushing/bearing due to imbalance.

I have a few questions related to this.

1 - Do I absolutely need both fans? I have a CoolerMaster HAF 932 case so I have tons of airflow. I unplugged the one fan with the broken blade(required removing the heatsink/shroud, I did re-apply thermal paste & re-attached it all) and after a 10min Furmark burn in test my temps maxed out at 79C. I figure that's way more load than actual gaming will put it under, so I'm hoping that I might be OK with just the one fan. Am I incorrect in making that assumption?

2 - Should I try to glue the fan blade back on? I still have the piece. This seems like a bad idea to me as it might fly off while the thing is spinning like crazy.

3 - What do you think of modding/hacking on a similar sized fan? The Zalman ZM-OP1 is a slim profile 80mm and I'm considering taking the plastic shroud off the card and zip tie-ing one of those on as a replacement.

4 - Barring all of the above, can anyone recommend an aftermarket cooler that fits this card?

*EDIT

Thanks for the help.

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

How did you do that then ?
I think the second fan is just for making the system a bit lighter when running, it works as a helicopter blade then. :lol: Sorry, no i really think it matters a lot, the whole cooling set up is designed for two fans i think. The 6950 produces pretty high temperatures and only one fan would not cool enough, even with a good airflow in your system. Don't glue it back on, i don't think you get it balanced and lined so it will destroy itself at high revs or vibrate like crazy. You can try to get an original cooler from the manufacturer, when you tell em a really sad story you maybe, just maybe get a new one for free or reduced fee. Otherwise you can replace it with ; Arctic Xtreme Plus from Arctic Cooling. Don't know what it costs, but it beats having to buy a new card over a year because this one is crispy toast. Don't know about point 3, maybe just try while keeping your hand at the power cord ? Risky, risky.

 

[JDFan]

Contact Sapphire and they should be able to send you a new fan blade (might charge a small fee) - there are just a couple screws in the center of the blade (usually under the sticker that you remove with a jewelers screwdriver (small precision screwdriver) and the blades will come off then replace with the new fan blade and reattach the power cable.

Figure if the card is still under warranty and you tell them you can replace the fan blade yourself - they would usually prefer that to having you send it in for warranty repair (just tell them you do not know why\how it broke)

 

[bystander]

If you can't get a replacement, there is another option. You could remove the fan blade directly across the broken one. Then it would still be balanced. Or maybe remove two, so that all 3 removed blades are evenly spread apart. This should remove any vibration. It might not work as well, but it'll work better than no fan.

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

If you can't get a replacement, there is another option. You could remove the fan blade directly across the broken one. Then it would still be balanced. Or maybe remove two, so that all 3 removed blades are evenly spread apart. This should remove any vibration. It might not work as well, but it'll work better than no fan.

Smart . . .

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the tips everyone, it's all good though.

Managed to exchange for another of the same card.

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

Lucky you, but maybe should have tried that first then ? I searched my . . . off trying to find a replacement cooler that fits . . .

 

[Guest]

Yeah, should've been my first move.

Really appreciate the time you put into it searching.

 

[GreenDutchAlien]

Yeah, should've been my first move.

Really appreciate the time you put into it searching.

Thats oke, i shouldn't nag anyway, i was at work when i searched for it so . . . ( i work at a nuclear power plant and just used the mainframe for the search then ) ( BS offcourse, it would be funny though )

 

[gr3g0s]

ah heck i've done this too, it doesnt vibrate like crazy but i know it will wear out the bearing and eventually fail

i was in my case with the pc running (mining) these fans run at about 50% whilst mining so they werent at full noise

either my finger or the end of the sata cable i was plugging in touched the fan and it stopped, it didnt restart and i saw the blade there half broken off IMHO this is too fragile

have posted on Sapphires FB wall asking about possible replacement fan will post here results for reference of others who do the same stupid thing i just did !!!

hope i can turn my stupidity into something that can help other idiotas like me

EDIT: took the fan out ran a piece of stickytape around perimeter to get blade in place and superglued back in, noticed blade next to it had crack too so it got some aswell, hope this works, gonna be the longest 1hr of my life

Also the screws for this are behind the fan turn the fan and look down through the blades you will see 3 screws use a jewelers screwdriver

 

[gr3g0s]

ended up waiting 6hrs for glue to set and its not too bad, a little out of balance but some fine tuning with some stickytape counter balance & we should be sweet. Full cure time is 12hrs so tomorrow afternoon gonna crank fan speed to 100% have been to 80%

 

[Techgame]

Hi this problem today and ordered a new fan, but as a temp fix I used a very controlled amount of super glue and tweazers to re-attach the blade only need a bit to keep balance and it's good stuff. Been running my fan as if it never fell of at least until I can put a brand new fan on. Just in case you need a small fix while you wait for the post