Repair your noisy cpu and system fans

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wizrulz

wizrulz

GUNNING DOWN TEAMS
Buy some graphite powder and some oil at an auto or hardware store. They come in different packages. For oil, the best is the pen-type as they are easy to handle and only give a small amount at a time. Just about any oil in a pen format will work fine. The graphite powder comes in small plastic tubes. But make sure you get graphite powder, not graphite oil, its too thin for this job! So you need graphite powder in a small tube and oil in a round "pen" that can be squeezed out and placed just where you need it. Also, when the oil is used up in the "pen" you can open it and add your own oil.

First, clean the fan blades off real well. If you have a heatsink with the fan then clean the heatsink off as well. You can even use a bit of your oil and some q-tips for cleaning if needed. Then, take the small circle, it usually has a name on it, but its in the middle of the fan. Peel one edge up carefully and put a very small amount of oil in where you lifted the label up. Now add some graphite powder in the same place where you put the oil, add as much or a bit more of the graphite powder than the oil. Clean off excess oil and graphite and push the label back where it was. You may need a very small amount of duct tape to hold the label in position and to prevent leakage. This is important if the fan is going to "sit up" as opposed to lying flat.

Now put the fan back where you want it and when it starts spinning it may be noisy for a few seconds until the graphite\oil works its way in. Then it will stop and it will stay stopped for many years and you may very well not need to buy a new fan after all!

I experimented a lot with this and this is the very best way to quiet all those fans and have them work well. I have always been a big fan of those removable ide hard drive trays that you can buy. But the fans are the pits, they get noisy real fast. So i had to find a way to fix them as they are very expensive and hard to replace. Now i dont have to. Combo of oil and graphite is the very best, by far. One caution, graphite stains worse than
oil, so be careful! Im talking about staining your clothes and hands.

You can use this system with all cpu fans, video card fans, system fans, and even fans inside power supplies. But one word of caution, its easy to open a power supply and take out the fan, but do be careful as there are voltages there can can hurt you badly. If you dont know what you are doing then wear rubber gloves to get the fan out and to put the fan back in after the
repair!

Trust me, this will work. If the fan spins my method will work for years and I have even fixed fans that were stuck and wouldnt spin! This is better done with the fan on the table but in those cases where you cant or dont want
to take the fan out of the system, thats where the "pen" with the needle comes in again, but i still find a way to get some graphite in as well, graphite is what makes the oil last a long time! And graphite is also an oil, but you need both together for maximum effectiveness. Oil by itself will only last a few weeks or so and then evaporate, and the fan will get noisy again. Its the graphite powder that does the long term job. The oil really only helps to spread the graphite powder around really well so the graphite can do the job!
Hope you do as well as i have with this info!

CREDIT: NORK=> TECH SPOT FORUM

I have taken permission form NORK to post it here. ;)
 
N

nork

Right off the assembly line
wizrulz, thanks for the credit. Shows what a decent person you are. Some would just post it as theirs.
As you can see i just joined. Looks like a pretty good forum! I'll have to have a good look around.
thanks
 
N

nork

Right off the assembly line
I hadnt really thought of it but i guess it would be a good idea. I will try to do some pics in the new year.

thanks
__________
I hadnt thought of that, will try and do so after the new year.
 
Last edited:
OP
wizrulz

wizrulz

GUNNING DOWN TEAMS
nork said:
wizrulz, thanks for the credit. Shows what a decent person you are. Some would just post it as theirs.
As you can see i just joined. Looks like a pretty good forum! I'll have to have a good look around.
thanks
Click to expand...

Hey hi,
I never ever have taken others efforts credit for my self....and this was fully urs ...and now as ur here..u can take care of queries if any....i am happy i am free from that responsiblity
 
n2casey

n2casey

Super Hero - Super Powers
wizrulz said:
Hey hi,
I never ever have taken others efforts credit for my self....and this was fully urs ...and now as ur here..u can take care of queries if any....i am happy i am free from that responsiblity
Click to expand...



That's like a Digitian...... :D :D
 
phreak0ut

phreak0ut

The Thread Killer >:)
Ok, here is one link which has some screenshots and well explained. *www.dansdata.com/fanmaint.htm
 
N

nork

Right off the assembly line
Good pics but he doesnt know about the fact that powdered graphite is far superior for this type of work.
However, thats exactly where to put the graphite, along with a tiny bit of oil as i explained.
I used to just oil them but the oiling job would only last for a few weeks or so and the noisy fan would be noisy again. I figured i had nothing to lose by trying some graphite that i have always used on my car. It worked! And it lasts for years, not weeks like standard oil.
And yes, WD40 is NOT oil. Just use sewing machine oil or any light oil. But, again, just a tiny bit of oil. Thats why i suggest the oil that comes in the small "pen" format.
 
nix

nix

Senior Member
nork, it would be really useful if you uploaded some pics too. i dont even know what the heatsink looks like.
 
OP
wizrulz

wizrulz

GUNNING DOWN TEAMS
nix said:
nork, it would be really useful if you uploaded some pics too. i dont even know what the heatsink looks like.
Click to expand...

i did it on my frnds noisy PC....but didnt take any pics...actually was not planned...;)....but next time if i do it i will surely take few ;)...
 
N

nork

Right off the assembly line
Okay, i will try. I am a bit busy right now with work and i have never uploaded pics or anything else, lol.
Can anyone give me a quick tutorial on how to do that, or is there one here, or is it so easy i should be ashamed to ask, lol?
wizrulz: Did you use my method? If so, and done right, i know for a fact it will work. I shouldnt say that as sooner or later i will run into a fan that is just too badly worn and damaged that my method wont work, lol. But if my method wont work then no other method will either!

thanks
 
N

nork

Right off the assembly line
There are quite a few forums around with my tutorial on it. But i have refined my tutorial so this is the best one. People have posted great success on other forums so lets see what happens here.
thanks



Tutorial: Repair your noisy cpu and system fans

------------------------------------------------------------------

This is not a short-term fix but a fix that will last for a long, long time. The reason i say this is that oiling a fan only doesnt always do the job and it must be re-oiled in a few weeks or so, again and again. My fix is a one-time fix that is 99.9% guaranteed to work.

Buy some graphite powder and some oil at an auto or hardware store. They come in different packages. For oil, the best is the pen-type as they are easy to handle and only give a small amount at a time. Just about any oil in a pen format will work fine. The graphite powder comes in small plastic tubes. But make sure you get graphite powder, not graphite oil, its too thin and runny for this job! So you need graphite powder in a small tube and oil in a round "pen" that can be squeezed out and placed just where you need it. Also, when the oil is used up in the "pen" you can open it and add your own oil.

First, clean the fan blades off real well. If you have a heatsink with the fan then clean the heatsink off as well. You can even use a bit of your oil and some q-tips for cleaning if needed. There is usually a small label in the middle of the fan. It will have a name and other info on it. Peel one edge up carefully and put a very small amount of oil in where you lifted the label up. Now add some graphite powder in the same place where you put the oil, add a fair amount more of the graphite powder than the oil. Clean off excess oil and graphite with a q-tip and push the label back where it was. You may need a very small amount of duct tape to hold the label in position and to prevent leakage. This is important if the fan is going to "sit up" as opposed to lying flat.

Now put the fan back where you want it and when it starts spinning it may be noisy for a few seconds until the graphite\oil works its way in. Then it will stop and it will stay stopped for many years and you may very well not need to buy a new fan after all! Just adding oil will only work for a while.

I experimented a lot with this and this is the very best way to quiet all those fans and have them work well. I have always been a big fan of those removable ide hard drive trays that you can buy. But the fans are the pits, they get noisy real fast. So i had to find a way to fix them as they are very expensive and hard to replace. Now i dont have to. Combo of oil and graphite is the very best solution by far. One caution, graphite stains worse than oil, so be careful! Im talking about staining your clothes and hands.

You can use this oil and graphite powder system with all cpu fans, video card fans, system fans, and even fans inside power supplies. But one word of caution, its easy to open a power supply and take out the fan, but do be careful as there are voltages there can can hurt you badly. If you dont know what you are doing then wear rubber gloves to get the fan out and to put the fan back in after the oil and graphite repair!

It doesn't matter whether the fan uses a ball bearing or a sleeve bearing, long as you can find a way to get some oil and graphite powder inside it.

Trust me, this will work. If the fan spins my method will work for years and I have even fixed fans that were stuck and wouldnt spin! This is better done with the fan on the table but in those cases where you cant or dont want to take the fan out of the system, thats where the "pen" with the needle comes in again, but i still find a way to get some graphite in as well, graphite is what makes the oil last a long time! And graphite is also an oil, but you need both together for maximum effectiveness. Oil by itself will only last a few weeks or so and then evaporate, and the fan will get noisy again. Its the graphite powder that does the long term job. The oil really only helps to spread the graphite powder around really well so the graphite can do the job!

Graphite, i imagine is conductive, but i have never run into a problem. I imagine its because its not conductive enough to cause any problems in that area.

Another thing it does. If you cant get a part to fit in, instead of using vaseline or some other lubricant, use graphite powder. Graphite powder can withstand heat better than vaseline. The only thing, as i said above, it does stain, so you have to be careful with it, wipe up any spills, etc. And, in some cases, you might want to use it with a touch of oil, just enuf to help spread the graphite powder around a bit better and faster.

You can pick up a tube of graphite powder for about $3 or so and theres enough to fix maybe 100 fans or more. Course it works on noisy and sticky doors in the house, anything that needs to slide like windows in wood and aluminum frames. I got an email from a person who used it to fix a sticky key on an old favorite keyboard. It works on just about anything, but, again, be careful as it does stain so its hard to get it out of clothes.

Hope you do as well as i have with this info. And i hope you will report back here when you do the fan repair job so that others will go out and do the same!
Thanks
 
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