Help! One of my fans went out

About a week ago, one of my pc fans went out. There didn't seem to be any over heating or anything, but today, I finally called the shop where I bought my computer from and told the shop owner exatcly what happened, and he told me that from what I said, it's possible that the CPU chip could be damaged. He said that I didn't have the expertise to look into the problem and to bring my pc in. I was wondering if anyone here could help me out with this so that I can skip the shop visit along with the accompanying fee. I can provide the system specs and any other bit of information that you may need. Let me know if anyone can help me or if I need to make a visit to the shop.

 

How is the fan conected to your pc. Is it a 3 of 4 pin. The diffrence being that the 3 pin fans are controlled buy the motherboard and the 4 pin fans are just pluged into the power conector and can replaced by any body

 

No you dont need to go to the shop!

You will probably end up buying a full new heatsink/fan combo,what you need to do is find out the size of the fan by measuring one edge,then buy another one,small stuff like wierd sized fans I usually go to a computer fair for,they have boxes of them for 50p each,but if you cant find one you could buy an aftermarket cooler,you can get new ones really cheap,but that means taking heatsink off the cpu and properly fitting a new one,as apposed to removing 4 screws to replace the fan alone.post your specs anyway,If its a hot chip there may have been damage but if its working its probably ok.

How long have you had it?Fans usually die of old age,has your warranty ran out?

 

Were is the fan located that went out.

 

System specs would be wonderful man. Are you on the problem machine now or another one?

 

Re: How is the fan connected to my pc?

Sorry, but I don't have a clue. I've never opened up my pc and I don't have an owner's manual. I bought it used from a sales/computer repair shop and no type of booklet or anything came along with it.

 

it might be good if u can take a picture of ur open pc case and post it here... and how do u know that your fan died on you?

 

Re: damaged chip? and I own a used pc

Rikky, first of all, you lost me when you mentioned the "measuring one edge,then buy another one,small stuff like wierd sized fans" and "but that means taking heatsink off the cpu and properly fitting a new one,as apposed to removing 4 screws to replace the fan alone." Second of all, how would I know if there's been any damaged done to my chip? Third of all, my pc is used and I've had it since August 2004 and my warranty(90 days) has worn out. Also, I want to mention that I'm pretty busy on my pc, so that has accounted for the use of the fan.

 

Are you somewhat mechanically inclined?? If so...we can probably walk you through it!!

If you take the side off of the case, you will see which fan is not running!! The computer has to be running ofcourse!! If you will notice along the back edge of the case, there will be two or three screws usually, just take them out and the side can be removed by sliding it back about one inch and then it should pop off!! Or if it is a one piece case then obviously you have to remove the screws all the way around the back side of the case and then pull it back a bit and then you should be able to lift the case off of the frame!!

Now locate the fan that is not running (keeping in mind, not to reach in and fidget with anything while the system is running)...is it located somewhat in the middle of the motherboard, probably towrds the top (the big circuit board that takes up most of the back side of the case), or is it a fan that is fastened to the case?? Are the wires coming out of the fan going to a little bitty connector that is plugged into the board, or are there 4 wires going to a plug that is about 1 inch wide, which should be plugged into the wires coming out of the power suppy (the box at the inside top of the case, where the power chord is plugged into on the outside of the case)??

Now in order for us to know what kind of socket your cpu is, if it is the cpu fan (so we know how the heatsink is attatched to the board) somewhere on that big board, should be printed the make and model of the board, usually in letters big enough to read without using a magnifying glass!! What is that?? You might have to get a flash light and look deep inbetween some of the stuff that is attatched to the motherboard!!

Let us know if you are confused, and what you come up with so far!!

By the way...it is ok to leave the system running and use it while the case is off!! Just don't allow anybody or household animals to be snooping around in there!!

Please forgive me if I've dumbed it down too much...didn't mean to insult your intelligence, just didn't know how much you do know about the internals of a computer!!

Roger

 

Re: System specs

Yep, I'm presently on the problem machine. Also, I'll copy and paste my specs below, coursety of Belarc Advisor:

Operating System
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 (build 2600)

Processor a
733 megahertz Intel Pentium III
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Drives
27.37 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
17.00 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

CDM-P523 V2.3C [CD-ROM drive]
LG CD-RW CED-8080B [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

IBM-DPTA-372730 [Hard drive] (27.37 GB) -- drive 0, s/n JRTJRFN4354, rev P78DA32A, SMART Status: Healthy

System Model
TYAN S1854 Trinity 400
Enclosure Type: Desktop

Main Circuit Board b
Board: 694X-596B-977
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. 4.51 PG 04/17/2000

Memory Modules c,d
512 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'BANK_0' has 512 MB
Slot 'BANK_1' is Empty
Slot 'BANK_2' is Empty
Slot 'BANK_3' is Empty

Local Drive Volumes
c: (NTFS on drive 0) 27.37 GB 17.00 GB free

Network Drives
None detected

Is that enough information?

 

Re: the instructions

Well, to answer you question: No! And as far as dumbing it down too much, the dumber, the better. Not that I'm a dumb person, but when it comes to computers, I'm pretty unlearned. A lot of this stuff that I'm learning in these forums is like first time stuff for me, if you can recall the feeling. I'll come back and look at your post again, Roger, however, right now, I just kinda skimmed through it. Plus, I have some other stuff that I have to focus on in another forum at this site. After I'm through with that, I'll come back and see if I can follow your instructions. It'll probably be tomorrow though.

 

Re: How I know that my fan died on me

One day I was on my computer and I was hearing my fan like I normally do, but then the sound just kind of sputtered out. It's not like when your fan cycles and it stops for a while and then comes back on. The sound just kind of sputtered out like it kind of died on me. Also, that "sound" hasn't come back since. However, I still do have that "refrigerator" type sound coming from my computer, but that's not the fan sound that I was talking about before.

 

Harddrive you REALLY must open the side of the computer and have a look,its the only way to fix it,all cases are different in the way they open,but you will definately need a positive drive screwdriver,you will have to take off the side panel to the left as you look at your computer,this usually consists of removing the screws from the rear of the computer,only the ones holding the side panel on.

Then its just a case of locating the fan that has stopped spinning.

 

Re: How I know that my fan died on me

Put your hand behind the computer, and see if there is some air moving back there. If not you might have lost your power supply fans, and that's more dangerous than the processor fan. The processor fan will just kill the processor. If I'm not mistaken, the Power supply fan will cause a fire eventually.

 

Re: Help! One of my fans went out...or maybe not.

OK, I know that I procrastinated on this, but since my computer seems to still be working okay after all this time, would it be safe to say that I may have misdiagnosed the problem that I thought I had with the fan going out?