Thanks SC Tom and Paul for your responses.
I'm not a gamer or use this particular computer extensively. It's used
mostly for TV recordings and occasional burning. I was a little worried
about the overheating but I have 2 80mm case fans already attached so
hopefully those can tie me over til I can buy another one. I'm not real
comfortable with taking apart the card as I really wouldn't know what I'm
doing. I leave it on during the day also and I hope that doesn't present an
issue.
Regards,
Wyman
Paul said:
Someone deleted my post and I don't know why! When I tried to see if
anyone responded it said my message was no longer on the server. This is
NOT spam and I'd appreciate if you don't delete this one.
Anyway, the fan on my ATI 9600xt AIW graphics card has started to run
rather loudly a few days ago. I can unhook the power connector from the
card and the sound goes away. Is it okay to use the vid card without the
fan running without causing any damage to anything else? The card works
fine despite the noise. Here's a pic of it.
http://www.global-b2b-network.com/direct/dbimage/50305921/ATI_VGA_Card_9600XT_AGP_TSOP.jpg
If I can't run it fanless, is there another fix short of buying a new one?
Thanks in advance,
Wyman
It is a relatively low power card. It depends on what clock speeds you use
to run the card, but in round numbers, 10W at idle, and 25W when gaming.
Some of that will be memory power, leaving the rest as GPU power
dissipation.
My guess would be, the card could become unhappy, if you unplug the fan
and then start playing a 3D game. At the 25 watt level, with no fan, it
might get too hot.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/video/ati-powercons/t5.gif
(
ttp://
www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-powercons_9.html#sect0 )
You can get after-market coolers, but with those, it pays to buy
one when the card is initially popular. Later, it'll get harder to
find compatibility info.
For example, the ARCTIC COOLING ATI silencer 2 fits a 9600XT. According
to the customer reviews, this product doesn't seem to fit regular
ATI 9600 AGP cards, but looks to be designed mainly for the XT. I can't
find it for sale, so you might have to look on Ebay.
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186114
If the card design was more like this, you could try removing the
black plastic bits and just keep the aluminum cooler. Then, place
an 80mm case cooling fan next to the heatsink, and get close to
original performance. I don't know how easy it would be to mod the
cooler you've got. Yours may be held on by push-pins, just like this
one is.
http://img.tomshardware.com/us/2003/10/15/facelift/intro.jpg
The standard answer, is to "oil the hub" of the fan, to make
it quiet for a while. If it isn't too far gone, you can try that.
Again, there are many variations on fan designs, and it may not be
possible to get close enough to the bearing to oil it. Some are
easier to oil than others. I removed the sticky label on one
of my video cards here, and the plastic hub underneath was solid and
there was no oil hole present. The fan was spring loaded, and you
couldn't pull it apart (at least, without an excess of violence).
That video card is still running today - all it needed was to have
the dust thoroughly cleaned from it.
The whole cooler will come off. Compressing the "tails" of the two
push pins, can allow the push pin to be eased out from the front.
You have to be very careful, as the tool you use to compress the tail of
the push pin can easily slide off and damage something. But
once you remove the heatsink, you still have to find a replacement.
And the replacement still has to touch at all the same places
as the original one did.
Sorry there isn't an easy answer to this. The odds of finding someone
selling aftermarket AGP heatsinks now, is pretty slim.
Paul
