How far have I fallen?

Aug. 30th, 2008 at 10:42 PM

I'm utterly proud of myself for fixing a problem last night. Amy noticed that the computer room was stenchful (I was out of the room at the time). Decided it was likely the fan on my secondary graphics card. (That card was particularly painful to the touch) Removed said fan from the daughterboard and found the sticker on the motor was kind of bubblymelty, which was a good (bad?) sign. Or a bad (good?) sign, depending.

Hooked the fan up to a power supply (12V, perfect), and the fan spun, stuttered, spun, stopped. Flicked it and it spun, stuttered, stopped. Sprayed WD-40 on it and it spunWHEEEEEEEEEEE.

Problem solved, for now. :)

Comments

( 12 comments — Leave a comment )

demongoldfish

Aug. 31st, 2008 05:49 am (UTC)

I'm pretty sure WD-40 is made out of magic. crushed unicorns maybe

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kaolinfire

Aug. 31st, 2008 05:51 am (UTC)

I think time travelers from 2040 went back to Iraq, removed Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, and distilled their energy into its utter wonderfulness; then went and distributed it throughout time. :)

Though I suppose you could use it to explain anything missing.

Next time I see a unicorn I'll have to be sure I don't have a can on-hand, and see if I can edge a question in. ;)

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neutronjockey

Aug. 31st, 2008 07:50 am (UTC)

Monitor and be careful when using around electronics. The flashpoint of the concentrate is around 130F and the MSDS (IIRC) says to not use on applications that may produce sparks or heat.

You *should* be okay...

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kaolinfire

Aug. 31st, 2008 07:55 am (UTC)

Fingers crossed. :) I applied it far away from the computer. 130F ... well, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

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2nd_madison

Aug. 31st, 2008 01:36 pm (UTC)

Well done!

Now then, how the hell do I fix the cd/dvd drive on my laptop? ;)

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kaolinfire

Aug. 31st, 2008 05:56 pm (UTC)

Call the warranty line ;) :)

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zotsf

Aug. 31st, 2008 03:00 pm (UTC)

Nothing like a squirt of that magic juice to postpone the inevitable!

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zwol

Aug. 31st, 2008 04:51 pm (UTC)

WD40 doesn't last at all in this application; I know from painful experience. You need to dismantle the fan a bit further - if this is a standard computer fan, there's a plastic plug that you can pry out underneath the sticker, and then a retaining clip which can safely be destroyed, and then you can pull the fan off the motor coils. Clean both the central shaft and the inside of the sleeve it rides in with alcohol, then reinstall the plug, fill the cavity with sewing machine oil and put the fan back on. The magnets are sufficient to keep the fan where it's supposed to be.

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kaolinfire

Aug. 31st, 2008 07:15 pm (UTC)

Duly noted; thanks. I'll keep my fingers crossed things run long enough that I accidentally come across sewing machine oil. :)

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zwol

Aug. 31st, 2008 07:50 pm (UTC)

It occurs to me that if this is a fan mounted directly to a video card, you may not be able to get at the plastic plug I was talking about, because it's probably underneath the fan, next to the circuit board. And if you have to take the entire fan off the board anyway, you should probably just replace it. :-/

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