Question Problem on a single fan on Lian Li Galahad 360

[Maysblind]

Good afternoon,

A few days ago my city had a power outage and my PC was turned on making it shut down improperly without power.

Since that day, one of the three fans - the fan closest to the tubes on my Lian Li Galahad AIO 360 - stopped working properly. It rattles a lot and spins out of sync. When I shut down that fan stops right away and the others take a few seconds as per usual.
I made this video as an example nowadays makes more noise even.

View: https://youtu.be/zMOSKCPPdtw


A friend of mine told me that the power outage burnt the coils of that fan and it must be replaced. Do you agree?

I found this on ebay: Lian-Li UNI FAN AL120 120mm should it fit there? Is it compatible? I couldnt find proper information about what fans should be used to replace it. Any tips on the process of swaping them?

Thanks a lot

 

[Paperdoc]

The description and video suggest that fan's bearings have failed, but I cannot figure why a power failure would cause that. Nor do I understand how a burned motor coil could cause such mechanical symptoms. However, I DO agree that fan is dead and should be replaced.

It is not clearly stated on the Lian Li website which fans are supplied with their Galahad 360 system (not their Galahad AIO UNI Fan SL Edition), but by their photos it certainly seems to be exactly the ones you found on eBay - the Lian Li UNI Fan AL.

 

[Maysblind]

The description and video suggest that fan's bearings have failed, but I cannot figure why a power failure would cause that. Nor do I understand how a burned motor coil could cause such mechanical symptoms. However, I DO agree that fan is dead and should be replaced.

It is not clearly stated on the Lian Li website which fans are supplied with their Galahad 360 system (not their Galahad AIO UNI Fan SL Edition), but by their photos it certainly seems to be exactly the ones you found on eBay - the Lian Li UNI Fan AL.

Thanks a lot for your insight, since noone else is responding I think I'll do just that, order that one UNI Fan and try to replace the faulty one. Or do you think it would be better to replace the full set of 3 fans?

I will need to work on the PC for today and tomorrow, should I continue using it with the fan like that or is it too dangerous? What can I do in the meanwhile to keep using the PC?

Do you think I will be able to replace them myself or is it too advanced?

Best regards @Paperdoc,
Maysblind

 

[Paperdoc]

You should be able to replace that one - there appear NOT to be any indications of failure or stiff fans in the other two. From the instruction manuals I can see a couple of tricks you need to recognize.

1. There are three identical fans on the rad, but only one needs replacing. The manual is not clear, but it appears they may exist in two forms (at least, when they are sold as a set of three). Each fan has NO cables attached to it, but each also has two different contact sets on opposite sides of the fan. A set of three fans comes with three cables. Each of those can connect to the contact pad on ONE side of one fan, and provides two cables to reach mobo headers. So you can outfit all three fans with their own cable sets. ALTERNATIVELY, you can daisy-chain the three fans by pushing or sliding two fan edges together so that the contact pads on one connect to their mates on the next. Then you get a strip of three fans connected together and ALL fed by the cables from the first fan only. In your case, OP, with all three fans side-by-side on the rad, I suspect they have used that daisy-chain connection system for them and the group has only one set of TWO cables to connect to fan headers. Look closely at the rad fans. Is that correct - only one pair of cables to feed the complete set?

2. ALSO, before doing anything else, observe closely how the fans are oriented on the rad - which side is "out"? The replacement must be installed that way.

3. It appears that the long bolts and nuts used to fasten the fans to the rad ALSO are how that entire assembly is attached to your case (at the top??). If that it true, then you may be able to remove ONLY the four bolts around the failed fan and leave the rest with the rad in place. However, that may depend on the detail of how the fans and their cables are done. In systems like this with three fans fastened to each other to make electrical connections, that entire set may be assembled before the whole set is fastened to the rad. In such a case, you may have to remove ALL the bolts so you can separate from the rad the complete 3-fan set as one assembly. That would likely mean the rad also comes loose from the top frame temporarily. Not really a problem. THEN you would need to disconnect the end fan that has failed from the rest of the group. IF that also happens to be the fan that has the cable set attached to it, you will need to remove that cable attachment and install that in the replacement fan as you connect that one to the two good ones. NOTE that this fan MUST be turned the right way (AND blowing the right direction) so its correct edge connector can mate with the one on the next fan.

4. With the three fans and one cable set now assembled, re-mount them plus the rad back into the case top using all the bolts and nuts.

IF by some chance the fan wiring is NOT daisy-chained, so that EACH rad fan has its own pair of cables to mobo headers, that would change some details of the process, but most of it is the same either way.

Until you can do this, you can just leave the failing fan in place. Although you won't have maximum cooling capacity with one less rad fan, your system will work just fine unless you are really stressing it with high workload. IF you are worried, you could remove that fan and re-install the remaining two good ones, but that's a lot of work.

 

[Maysblind]

@Paperdoc thanks A LOT for your help. You truly deserve the Embassador title. Keep it up, your answers trully helped.

Aparently the fan started working fine in the next day... I still ordered the replacement one and when it fails again i'll replace it using your tips on this answer.

Apreciated,
Maysblind

 

[Paperdoc]

Glad to hear the problem is solved, at least temporarily, and you have a plans for later.