[Novalug] OT Hardware question and perhaps humor

[Ed James]

I've had luck with hitting CPU fans with a blast of compressed air to
quiet down fans.  My guess was that perhaps the dust unbalanced the
fan somehow.  I've also quieted down PSU fans by running machine (NOT
WD40!!!!!) oil down the shaft into the bearing.

Dust in the heat sink fins mess up heat radiation, so it's bad.  An
unbalanced fan would wear out a bearing faster.

I'd guess that trying the machine oil (as in oil used for sewing
machine) in your bearings would be at least worth a try.

Ed James

Quoting "Bonnie Dalzell" <bdalzell at qis.net>:

>
> I built my desktop around 4 years ago. I have a fan on my CPU cooler
> which is noisy when I first turn on the computer. It is however a fancy
> fan with four (yes 4) multicolored LEDs so i like it.
>
> It is sitting on top of a big copper heat sink on top of a Athlon CPU
> chip.
>
> So far I have not been able to find a replacement for it with the four
> [yes 4!] different  multicolor leds.
>
> My solution to the terrible noise at startup has been to keep the side of
> the computer and around 45 seconds after the machine starts up to lightly
> tap the side of the fan casing with a pencil. This stops the noise but
> of course it means that the side is off the case.
>
> I purchased a plain black (not even a single led :-( ) and this AM I
> decided to replace my glorious CPU fan. When I removed it it appeared
> that the heat sink was packed full of dust [incidently i did unplug the
> computer).
>
> So I carefully placed a clean paper towel over the top of the PCI cards
> and got a small artists paint brush and brushed the dust off the top of
> the heat sink and then i took a strip of paper and slipped it between the
> heat sink's thin radiator blades and further removed dust. When I was
> through I had a remarkable amount of dust to throw out. Then i used the
> brush on the fan with the multicolored leds and spun it - it seemed ok so
> I reinstalled it hoping that the dust removal might solve the noise
> problem - which it has not.
>
> Questions -
>
>   (1) I have looked a lot via google for led lighted cpu fans
> for athlon - no luck last month at least.
>
> Anyone have an idea of wether it can be repaired?
>
> (2) Was that amount of dust in a heat sink dangerous?
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>                         Bonnie Dalzell, MA
> mail:5100 Hydes Rd PO Box 60, Hydes,MD,USA 21082-0060|EMAIL:bdalzell at qis.net
>
> freelance anatomist, vertebrate paleontologist, writer, illustrator, dog
> breeder, computer nerd & iconoclast... Borzoi info at www.borzois.com.
> Editor Net.Pet Online Animal Magazine  - http://www.netpetmagazine.com
> HOME http://www.qis.net/~borzoi/          BUSINESS http://www.batw.com
>
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