A number of years ago I build the folks an XP machine using what I can salvage from their recently dead previous desktop, and pulling whatever I can't from my collection of spare parts.  Recently I notice that tell-tale buzzy, rattly, whiney noise coming from it's heatsink which often preceeds the death of a fan.

I figure I should go for an ounce of prevention and all that, and I know I'll be the one fixing it if it dies completely anyway.  However, I didn't plan on making this into a mini-project log until I saw the state of its interior...

The machine is an old Shuttle XPC.  The heatsink fan its self was the worst of the lot...

The tools of the job are now at hand...

Some canned air for killing dust bunnies, a tiny tube of graphite powder, and some new goo for the fan bearing.  A little lube makes everything easier....  Yeah, I went there...

Usually you can just pull the fan blades right off, although with smaller fans some care must be taken not to snap off any fan blades while removing the housing.

Normally there will be old goo around the spindle and around the bearing, but this fan is so sad and dirty that all of the old goo has dried up and gone away. Time for some new goo...

A little more goo than is strictly necessary... but that's not going to hurt.  I often just smear it on the spindle and let the spinning of the fan blades distribute it around where it needs to go.  Adding the graphite powder isn't strictly necessary either, it just helps keep everything spinning smoothly.

I always forget which direction I should place the fan in order for the proper airflow, so I always have to spend a few minutes looking for these little arrows once all is said and done.

I can actually see through the fins of the heatsink again.    Let's rewind to the beginning for the dramatic before-and-after...

And we end up with a much happier PC. 

-------------------------

Do not meddle in the affairs of archers, for they are subtle and quick to anger.
Post Count: +8510
Troll Hunter

The opinions expressed above do not represent those of Advanced Micro Devices or any of their affiliates.

Edited: 03/02/2013 at 07:54 PM by Mime

As well as a great legacy gaming machine. That's also a very interesting heatsink on there as well.

-------------------------
Crosshair IV Formula, Phenom II x4 965 w/ Corsair H60, 8 GiB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600, XFX HD 7970 Ghz, 512GB Vertex 4, 256GB Vector, 240GB Agility 3, Creative X-Fi Titanium w/ Creative Gigaworks S750, SeaSonic X750, HP ZR2440w, Win 7 Ultimate x64

The folks don't do a whole lot of gaming as evidenced by the empty AGP slot. 

I always liked those heatsinks also.  Shuttle still uses them today just with more heatpipes and whatnot.

 

-------------------------

Do not meddle in the affairs of archers, for they are subtle and quick to anger.
Post Count: +8510
Troll Hunter

The opinions expressed above do not represent those of Advanced Micro Devices or any of their affiliates.

Caps still look good too. Rubycons?

-------------------------

The opinions expressed above do not represent those of Advanced Micro Devices or any of their affiliates.

Physics? Ha! This is clearly magic and devilry at work. Prepare firewood! We have witches to burn!

 

Senior Engineering Technician (AEET).

Neat cleaning there! Might as well replace the CMOS battery while you are at it, then will not have to open it up soon again.

-------------------------

an Alpha Geek @ AMD Processors Forums | 01/21/2006 | post count 3217

Yep... tough little buggers.  Years later and they still look good as new. 

Yeah that's a good idea.  With that and the cleaning(assuming no other problems), I figure the folks should get a few more years out of it still. 

-------------------------

Do not meddle in the affairs of archers, for they are subtle and quick to anger.
Post Count: +8510
Troll Hunter

The opinions expressed above do not represent those of Advanced Micro Devices or any of their affiliates.

Find some ATI All-In-Wonder card and you'll get even more than that.

-------------------------
Crosshair IV Formula, Phenom II x4 965 w/ Corsair H60, 8 GiB OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600, XFX HD 7970 Ghz, 512GB Vertex 4, 256GB Vector, 240GB Agility 3, Creative X-Fi Titanium w/ Creative Gigaworks S750, SeaSonic X750, HP ZR2440w, Win 7 Ultimate x64

i did not know that the spray duster worked that well , impressive

-------------------------

 motherboard gigabyte: ga-ma790fxt-ud5p bios F8h , amd 965 cpu at 4.0 , sileneX efz-120ha4 cooler, 8 gig patriot pgs34g1600llka memory, xfx 750w power supply, xfx 6970 graphics card, 3-22"1080p monitors , coolermaster HAF 922case, windows 7-64

Yeah, I had thought about getting out the air compressor and fully declaring war on the dust bunnies, but the canned air did the job. 

-------------------------

Do not meddle in the affairs of archers, for they are subtle and quick to anger.
Post Count: +8510
Troll Hunter

The opinions expressed above do not represent those of Advanced Micro Devices or any of their affiliates.

If you use a compressor, make sure you lock the rotors on the fans, I do that with my shop-vac, just make sure to remove the rotor locks --> I killed my AMS power supply that way DOH!

-------------------------

The opinions expressed above do not represent those of Advanced Micro Devices or any of their affiliates.

Physics? Ha! This is clearly magic and devilry at work. Prepare firewood! We have witches to burn!

 

Senior Engineering Technician (AEET).