GPU fan bearing cleaning

[emogoch]

Hey guys

Sounds like the fan on the graphics card in my server box is slowly dying. Still spinning, but making a little more noise than usual. The box seems to pick up an in-ordinate amount of dust, so I think the bearing in the fan just needs a reasonable cleaning. Otherwise I'll just replace the card with an older one. No big deal, since I only RDP into the machine anyways.

You guys got any suggestions on how to clean the card? It's an old Geforce 2 TNT. Thanks

 

[Pain]

You probably don't even need a fan on it. You aren't using the card to draw anything, so it's probably not getting as hot as if it were runnings games, etc. Just take the fan off of it and see. Sometimes I've also taken the fan off and glued another HS in the middle of the existing HS using thermal epoxy. You can also just remove the fan and put a slot fan beside the card and that should work fine too. Or, I also leave the slot cover beside the video card off, so air is pulled in across the video card. There are many ways to rig it up.

But, to be honest with you, this is why I keep old 4-8 meg video cards around, to use in my servers. They draw less power and don't need fans.

What I would not do is spray wd-40 or oil on it. if you can put a pin-head size drop of grease on the fan bearings then do it, but don't use oil cause the fan will just spray it all over the inside of the computer and collect even more dust.

 

[slvr_phoenix]

All good suggestions. You might even be able to just unscrew the fan from the heatsink on the card and try to clean it and/or replace it.

Of course it could be wear on the bearing itself causing the extra noise, not just it being dirty...

 

[Pain]

Yeah, and of course the last suggestion is to get a little fan with a molex connector on it and screw it to the HS, or glue it or tie wrap it, or twist tie it, or what ever will hold it in place so it blows on the HS.