My video card fan just stopped working today. After googling the problem it seems like it s a fairly common problem.

So I'm after some advice, it's probably still got warranty on it considering it hasn't been that long since I bought it. It's simply the fan that's broken so I don't think it's worth sending it and waiting how many ever months before it gets back to me.

Should I simply repair it myself? Am I going to have any trouble finding a heat sink/fan that fits the model? What do you geniuses think I should do?

big problem

Thanks for the great reply Crak.

Haha sorry. Was replying to ur blank post but you edited! Anyway, I had a ati card die in the arse on me once and it turned out the sticker on the fan got jammed in the fan causing it to cook the card. I bought a new card after that because it simply wasnt worth repairing (cheapo card).

What i'd do is buy a aftermarket cooler for it. I've got a 4850 atm and it runs hot as f*** with the stock fan even running at 100%. This would be something worth looking into.

last edited by Crakaveli at 16:01:21 25/Apr/09

That's amazing, but would I really need that huge ass thing? Also what do you the pipes do?

Also where do I go about buying one of these beasts? Locally that is.

last edited by greazy at 16:12:10 25/Apr/09

Umart at milton would probably have them. here . The pipes transfer the heat away from the gpu afaik?

My fan died on a x1950 pro I have on my other computer. The card is still good, so I bought a $40ish after market cooler.

Zalman VF700 at umart.

Did the job perfectly, heaps better then the stock fan too.

4870 are renowned for fan failure. It's a documented fault.

Should I simply repair it myself?

Depends if your under warranty or not.

Worst design ever. I see heaps every week for the same fault.

oih crakka~ just run the bitch into the ground and then go grab another, their cheap enough ;).

nah seriously, i had a similar problem with my old computer, i just stuck a desk fan beside my tower and pointed it at the video card and blowing 'out' of the case. worked a treat ;)

p.s. i have an old Geforece 2 if u want lol

Haha fixity, no thanks.

Hermi: Positive it's under warranty but if the same thing's gonna happen again might as well fix it now. Now that I actually think about it, my last ati card had the exact same problem and I ended up buying the exact same Zalman model Tollaz0r.

Think I'm going to go with an after market cooler, that twin turbo one is massive. Umart doesn't have it at all, nor does MSY/Computer Alliance.

Good idea.
While they are a decent card, I don't recommend them for a lot of people who don't have adequate cooling setup.

greazy whenever a cooling fan is required on a peice of hardware you can safely bet that stopping it or taking that fan away will lead to heat rapidly crippling the hardware below the fan. if your gpu fan stopped and you were quick enough to stop your card taking damage then buy another cooler. that's pretty darn unlikely though. ironically, placing a 3rd party cooler onto the card strips away your warranty.

www.coolpc.com.au

+1 for aftermarket cooler
Crak's recommended one FTW

I have a 4870, but being Sapphire, they had already changed the fan =)

I ordered Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo from coolpc.com.au but the knobs were out of it (even though they took my money). Anyway they suggested 3 other fans:

http://www.coolpc.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1651
http://www.coolpc.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1552
http://www.coolpc.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1547

They are all slightly more expensive which isnt a problem, I'm just after something that wont be too load and lets me play some tf2. So ask for my money back or order one of the above?

edit: Scratch that, botht he zalman coolers are HD 4870 compatible.

last edited by greazy at 11:44:45 30/Apr/09