The built in fan on my Geforce 4 ti 4400 (128MB) has stopped working, I
don't know when and I didn't even notice until I opened it to look at
something while the PC was running... do they stop and start running at
different times? I'm not running any heavily graphics dependent programs at
the moment... although I do play UT2004 a lot. What should I do?
Most of them do not start and stop, it is a very rare feature if
it was used at all on GF4 cards.
What you should do is turn off the system now, not letting card
overheat anymore to prevent damage and accelerating aging. Take
out card and examine fan. Far most common failure is dry
bearing, but glance at wires, etc, to confirm no other obvious
problems are present. Peel back fan sticker and put a drop of
heavyweight oil in the bearing, preferribly as heavy as gear oil
or even better a very light grease. Typical automotive motor oil
will do in a pinch and is certainly better than light oils like
sewing machine oil, or WD40 (which is not actually a lubricant)
After adding lubricant, gently and evenly rotate fan blades to
free it in the bearing, then reinstall.
The fan might then continue working for a very long time, even
far longer than it did up until this point (depending on amount
of wear to the bearing, thickness of oil/lube (how well it STAYS
in the bearing on a horizontally mounted fan), imbalance of fan
and other factors, OR fan could stop working again before too
long, though unless bearing was severely damaged I'd expect it to
work ok for at least a few days, long enough to keep video card
cool till you find a replacement fan or entire fansink combo.
Keep in mind that most fans have only a sleeve bearing. Sleeve
bearings respond very well to lubrication. Ball bearing, once
seized, respond very poorly and while lube might get fan turning
again (which is at least the very important first step) it might
be incredibly noisey and short-lived). It would be quite obvious
if there is a ball-bearing, it will be visable silver inside
under the washer, instead of a bronze color.
If card is still under warranty by manufacturer then see if
they'll send you a fan, or replace whole card if you can do
without it for multiple weeks or longer. Keep in mind that your
shipping cost to manufacturer may be nearly as high or even
higher than just buying a fan or fan'sink.
