Until a few minutes ago, I didn’t even know the video card (nVidia GeForce 2 GTS) in my computer (Dell Precision 330) had a fan. It started making noise last night: a humming that wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t waver somewhat randomly, like a car trying to climb a snowy hill. mmmmmmmMMMMmmmMMMMmmmmmmMMMMMmmm
I opened up the case, blew out the dust of all the fans and tracked down the source of the noise. I removed the video card, gave it a good blast of canned air, hoping that that would stop the noise. But no. Still there.
I may be able to get used to it (although other problems in my life have put me close enough to the edge that this might just nudge me over into full-blown insanity), but the question is, could ignoring this cause other problems? I presume that the card overheating from insufficient cooling could cause it to fail, or they wouldn’t have provided the fan. If that happened, I wouldn’t be any worse off than if I decide now to replace the card because it’s annoying.
But could a failure cause problems that would cascade to other components in the computer? Am I safe in using it until it fails (assuming it doesn’t drive me nuts first), or should I replace it pro-actively?
I’m 99% sure that if you just use it until it blows up, you won’t hurt anything else in your computer. You’d just have no video and then need to get a new video card.
Yeah, right.
The fan is to cool the vidieo processor. A new fan cost about $10.
What does a new video card cost?
Fan replacement is usually a simple task.
spingears: Thanks. I assumed that I couldn’t replace the fan. I’ll look around, but if you happen to know of any resources that can help me do that, I’d appreciate a pointer.
(In the meantime, the noise appears to have stopped. :smack: I don’t know if that’s because it “fixed itself” or because the fan has just stopped. I’ll look later.)
I had a fan on my old Geforce 4 ti 4600 start buzzing like that - I ignored it, and what do you know, the card died. Everything else in the system is fine though. Worst case is that you have to buy a new card; you can pick up a cheapo basic card (but at least as fast as your current card) (with passive cooling) for $30-$40 or so.
Most of the time, if the fan goes it’s just going to take out the video chip, and if the video chip decides to go poof it’s just going to take out the video card, but it’s not guaranteed. Potentially, you could take out the bus controller chip on the motherboard, and depending on how it fails, the failure could cascade to other motherboard components as well. The worst case, which I have actually seen once, is that a component catches on fire and actually blows flame all through the case, causing other components to catch fire and you end up with some major damage.
Unfortunately, Video Card fan replacement can range from trivial to impossible. Most nVidia cards I’ve owned are nearer the impossible end. There seems to be trend toward the fan/heatsink/funky logo unit being a single monolithic unit added with micro-screws which are impossible to find, access, or remove.
You might get lucky with a GeForce 2 because it’s a relatively old card. The cooling (in fact, entire card design) varies by manufacturer as well.
If you can’t replace the fan (it will be pretty obvious once you get the card out and look at it), all is not lost. New GeForce 2-4 video cards can be had starting at about $30, maybe less used. A huge advantage of the nVidia cards is that they all use the same driver, so the new one will just “drop in.”
Very often there’s no need to replace the fan. Unpeel the label just enough to see the bearing, and drop 2 or 3 drops of machine oil into the hole. Put the label back, using tape if necessary, so that the oil doesn’t drop out (many video fans are run inverted).
I have saved over a dozen fans in this way, some of them running for another 2 or 3 years 24*7.
Replace the sticker to keep dust out of the bearing. Any excess oil wil NOT stay in the bearing. Capillary attraction will retain all that is needed. Too much is TOO much.
Marcus and spingears: Thanks. I just lubed the fan, as you suggested, which I had also found out about in my Googling. So far, so good. I’ve bought a replacement card as well, but if this one doesn’t start making noise again in the next week or so, I’ll return the new one to the store (unopened, of course).
I had assumed that in this throw-away age there was no option to repair such a minor part. It’s nice to see that there are still some things one can take care of oneself, even in a computer, without calling in an expert or just throwing out the whole component. Of course, it has to be something with moving parts, like a fan, but still.