Fixing Your Old Cooling Devices

[Jabeen]

hi .

Does anyone have any knowledge about repairing or fixing your old cooling device i.e fan. I heard from many people that if it's not showing the required performance so replace it or throw out of your cabinet or buy a new one.
I just wanted to ask whether can you make it working again in any way.

Please provide some suggestion

[Omari]

I did following things with my cooling fan and it works as new one:

Initially you need to remove the tape from the back of the cooler for removing the protection cap.

The bigger coolers have protection caps, the smaller ones don't .

The procedure is basically the same, the only difference is the protection cap that some coolers have and others don't, so i'm going to explain the procedure with a cooler that has a protection cap.

The best place to start removing the tape that protects the protection cap is at the place the power wires are soldered.

Remove the protection cap from the center of the cooler.

This is how the cooler looks with the protection cap removed.

As you will observe, the rotor axis is in the center of the cooler.

Another reasons that coolers don't seem to function the way they did the day you bought them can be one of three things:

1. There may be dust in the rotor axis, so the axis doesn't have the same amount of lubricant as the first time you use them, which leads to less rotation cycles, which leads to more heat build up in the components that the coolers were intended to cool down.

2. The lubricant in the rotor axis has vaporized, so there is more friction between the axis and the tube which is intended to hold the axis in place. the result is similar as the result in the first case, the cooler has less RPM, which leaves the parts (CPU, GPU, PSU...) hotter that they usually are.

3. The tube that is intended to hold the axis of the rotor in place has widened, so the rotor does not work around it's own axis rather than rotating around the axis. when this happens, you can usually hear buzzing sound coming out of the ring, which disappears after sometime. The sound disappears because the cooler has reached it's working temperature, so the tube which holds the axis has shrinked and has tightened the axis of the rotor so that the rotor can't jiggle any more. anyway, the tube hasn't tightened enough around the axis, so there is still loss of RPM.

In above cases, one of the most effective methods to fix the RPM loss is to add lubricant between the tube and the rotor axis.

[lorenz]

I can suggest you this:

There are some special kinds of lubricants, but motor oil will work fine.

1. it compensates for the lost lubricant sucked up by the dust.

2. it compensates for the vaporized lubricant.

3. it compensates for the extra space between the tube and the axis.

Take a syringe with a needle on top and take in some motor oil in the syringe.

Now, put in some of the motor oil inside the little hole where the axis is located. don't put in too much. depending on in what working condition the cooler is, you should add somewhere between 3 or 4 drops and 1 to 2 drops.

Putting in the motor oil, spin the blades of the cooler a cuple of times so that the motor oil can be inserted evenly between the tube and the axis.

You should also notice that it takes less effort to spin the blades of the cooler and that the blades makes more turns than before it is lubricated. if this is the case, than you have done the lubrication properly.

[Hockson]

I usually try this one:

Most computers have three cooling fans, one inside the power supply, one on the case itself, and one on the CPU. Of course, each of these cooling fans is designed to keep the whole system as cool as possible by generating a constant airflow inside the case that will bring cool air in while moving the hot air out. If any of these cooling fans fails, the system could overheat and cause data loss.

You shouldn't use WD-40 on a computer fan! Many folks use WD-40 to lubricate all kinds of squeaky or noisy mechanical components around the home and office.

The reason that you shouldn't use WD-40 on a computer fan is that while it is indeed a lubricant it's mainly designed as a cleaner/degreaser, that loosens stuck parts, prevents corrosion, and displaces water-obviously not the types of problems found in computer cooling fans. Furthermore, it's a light lubricant that is better for lubricating something like a hinge that only moves occasionally rather than a component that moves continuously and at high speeds such as a computer fan.

I prefer to use sewing machine oil, because, in addition to being a lightweight oil, it has excellent viscosity, holds up well at high temperatures, and is specifically designed to lubricate moving parts that operate at high speeds.

[Viceman]

I would refer you with this solution:

1. First remove the round sticker. Be careful, you'll have to put it back after.
   
2. You should see a small round rubber or plastic piece, remove it with a small tool.
   
3. You should see a metal pin with a white or black round piece around it. Remove it with a small tool like a tweezer, but be careful that you don't loose it. It's possible that you see another round piece around the pin, not all fans have this but just careful remove it if your fan has this.
   
4. Now you can take the fan blades out.
   
5. I used this lube to lubricate the fan, but you can also use other ones of course.
   
6. Spray a little bit, not too much in this magnetic circle. I spread it around a bit with a small paper.
   
7. Put the fan blades back in, and spray again. Spin the fan a few times around and put back the small round piece. Spray another time, and put back the black round and the sticker.