fan blades broken off

[cooldog4444]

Hi everyone. i have a gtx 960 2gb from zotac. specifically ZT-90301-10M. when i started up my pc i noticed that one of the fans were at 100% i later found out that one of the sata cable were blocking one fan from spinning. so i went to go move it. and my finger got in the way of the other fan that was at 100%. and broke off 3 blades. out of 11. and it is super unbalanced. what can i do ? i cant find any gpu fans on ebay *that dont take over a month to arrive* and i cant seem to find any after market cooler. also. i bought this gpu 1 year ago at bestbuy. and i lost the box. and the receipt. are there any after market coolers compatible with my card ? all help is appreciated. Thank you!

 

[USAFRet]

You need to replace the fan. There is no 'fix'.

 

[lumineZ]

Send a mail to zotac and ask for a replacement fans and change it yourself.
Or you could try and glue it back on using superglue or that glue (cant remember the name) that "fuses" plastic togetter.

 

[USAFRet]

Even gluing the blade back on, it will still be unbalanced.
Less than it is now, but still not right.

 

[lumineZ]

Even gluing the blade back on, it will still be unbalanced.
Less than it is now, but still not right.

I would agree with you on that one

 

[cryoburner]

Maybe just strap a case fan to the GPU for the time being as a temporary fix. Or, if the imbalance isn't too bad, maybe just leave it as it is. Another option might be to carefully glue the fan blades back in place with some variety of cyanoacrylate super glue, though I can't say how well that would hold up, or whether the fan might make more noise.

Edit: I see the responses to someone else posting the same thing in the mean time, but I don't think the imbalance would be too bad when glued. Super glue works in very small amounts, and shouldn't add much weight to the fan blade.

 

[lumineZ]

Heck just break off the 3 fan blades on the other side to make it balanced again 😀 😀 😀 😀

Hey!!! I am just kidding!!! like I am joking!!! DO NOT DO IT!!!

 

[cryoburner]

Hah! I was thinking the exact same thing when writing my post. Although the fan having an odd number of blades to begin with might complicate things. : P

 

[smorizio]

try looking on mouiser and digikey that sell parts you might be able to buy a set of gpu fan blades. with the blades it not the number of blades but the size of them. (most new gpu should be uses 80mm units).

 

[cooldog4444]

Thank you all for your suggestions. i have looked online and cant find any fans for my specific card. also. i sent an email to zotac. and even called them. and they dont want to send me a new heatsink. so what i did was just unplugged that fan that was missing 3 blades. and now im just running it like that. it does run a little hotter. but it caps out around 75 Degree's with the current fan curve. i guess this is a temp fix that will have to do me until i can get a new gpu. thank you all for your suggestions. i might try superglue a bit later since i do have some. Thanks everyone!

 

[tsnor]

These fans are pretty standard. If you can remove the old one likely you can find an equivalent size fan on amazon by seaching by the fan size.

This add says at least one zotak uses dual 80mm fans. http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Zotac-GeForce-GTX-960-AMP-Edition-2GB-GDDR5-128-bit-PCI-Express-No-box/272804252186?hash=item3f84668a1a%3Ag%3AVVIAAOSw~kZZkNON

If your card happens to use 80 mm fans then you'd look for a page like this one. https://www.ebay.com/b/Video-Card-GPU-Cooling/80151?Fan%2520Diameter=80mm&Type=Fan&rt=nc Try to match thickness.

 

[cryoburner]

These fans are pretty standard. If you can remove the old one likely you can find an equivalent size fan on amazon by seaching by the fan size.

Just make sure the screw holes line up. Some GPU fans will have them positioned differently.

 

[tsnor]

These fans are pretty standard. If you can remove the old one likely you can find an equivalent size fan on amazon by seaching by the fan size.

Just make sure the screw holes line up. Some GPU fans will have them positioned differently.

Yep, and you may end up needing to do some splicing to get the electrical connections working, and may need to so something strange with knife or dremmel to get the fan to fit. But it will work better than glue on the broken fans.

Final thought, see if your card is still in Warranty -- if so it is there problem.

 

[cryoburner]

Final thought, see if your card is still in Warranty -- if so it is there problem.

I kind of think that physically breaking off fan blades probably wouldn't be covered by warranty. Those are intended for defects in the card, not for user error resulting in damage.

 

[tsnor]

Final thought, see if your card is still in Warranty -- if so it is there problem.

I kind of think that physically breaking off fan blades probably wouldn't be covered by warranty. Those are intended for defects in the card, not for user error resulting in damage.

Fan blades should not break off when they hit your finger. Seriously. ".. and my finger got in the way of the other fan that was at 100%. and broke off 3 blades. .." I'd have no trouble claiming manufacturing or design defect for that and asking for warranty service.

 

[cryoburner]

Fan blades should not break off when they hit your finger. Seriously.\

Yes, they should be made of sharpened steel. : D

I kind of agree, in that I've never had fan blades break off like that before, and one of my first thoughts when that was mentioned was that they must have been made of rather thin plastic. I'm not sure I'd necessarily consider that a design defect though, in that you really aren't intended to be sticking your fingers into the fan blades while they are running. Some fans might hold up better to mishandling, but it's not really something that should be expected of the product. Plenty of computer components can break if improperly handled.

And of course, I'm not sure it would be worth the trouble for something as easily fixable as a fan. As you pointed out before, a suitable replacement might be found for around $10, or perhaps the option of repairing the blades could even work. Aside from possibly impacting resale value in the event that one would try to sell the card later on, those could be reasonable solutions. A warranty claim could potentially be worth a try, but chances are that it would be denied, and the manufacturer would be within their right to do so. And according to the terms of Zotac's warranty, the user is responsible for paying for shipping to their RMA facility, so that would likely cost as much as a replacement fan anyway, and you might be without a graphics card for weeks.