little fan on my mobo isn't spinning.

[Jayce]

No idea how long this has been happening. My room got some water in it so we took all the furniture out to recarpet it. For the night I have the tower off of the little stand and on my desk, and I just happened to look inside and it wasn't spinning.

It's the little fan, just to the right of the PCI slots.

MSI K8N Neo4.

This bad?

 

[talldude123]

You'll get less cooling, and less noise.

Is it bad? Well, if you want your PCI components to last longer, than it's bad

 

[Apokalipse]

get some WD40 or something for it

 

[CrazeD]

get some WD40 or something for it

What he said.

To clean it, take the fan off and take the little sticker off the back. You'll see a small nylon ring inside, on a shaft. Very carefully pull it out. Use a small knife or a small screwdriver, or whatever fits. If you break it, the fan is probally useless.

Once that's out, you will be able to pull the fan assembly into two pieces. From there, clean off the fan shaft and clean everything up, and then get some Teflon lubricant, or if you're cheap WD-40 will work aswell. You don't need to hose it down, just a few quick sprays will do the trick. Spray the shaft and spray where it sits.

Wait for the lube to dry, and put it back togethor. Make sure the sticker is stuck tight, otherwise dirt will get in there. If it doesn't stick, use some tape or something.

 

[Jayce]

I tried searching for one on MSI's site as well as ebay and newegg, but I can't find much. I don't even know what size fan I should be looking for, I keep finding 3 pin, 4 pin, 40mm, 50mm, etc.

Mine had 3 screws in it, so I assume I need a 3 pin. However I'm unsure of the actual size of the fan, and the fan has some kind of plastic fixture that fits around it when it's in the mobo, so it's not like I could subsitute a bigger one and make it work.

I found some on ebay but that's as close as I got, and that's where I couldn't figure out what to get.

 

[FlashDude]

3 pin is the power connector that plugs into the motherboard, the 3pin is a small three pin connector and the psu connector is the 4 pin (larger) molex connector. The motherboard could be not powering that 3pin connector anymore. Try moving the power connector to a different 3 pin connector on the board and see if it works.

You need to buy a chipset cooler, there are Passive ones (no fan's) but still cool very well

Then there's the vga/chipset coolers with fan's they work very well as well, You sometimes have to modify them a little to get them to fit but there are a million to choice from

 

[Jayce]

Flash - the second link you posted is the kind that I have. The thing I was unsure of is this. I couldn't get the entire fixture off. Instead, I just looked in between the fins of the fan and I saw 3 small screws. I unscrewed them and the actual fan popped out, but I was unable to get the other "fixture" out.

Any tips on how to get it out? I didn't want to crack the mobo fumbling with it so I left it alone.

 

[FlashDude]

If it doesn't have the spring loaded hold downs you might have to remove the board from the case to get at the back bolts. But more than likely it is just glued to the chipset. Do you not see any other screw's from the top side?

pull up on one corner if you are sure there are no screw's then look at the bottom of the heatsink when you are prying up and see if you can see the chipset, If it feel's like it is held in the middle then it has an adhesive pad holding it to the heatsink.

 

[sPlAtOiD]

MSI always have problems with there northbridge fans. Ive built about 5 computers with MSI boards and everyone has had either noise fans or they die. You can pick up these fans anywhere at computer stores. Just ask for the northbridge fan.

 

[Jayce]

I have another 80mm case fan sitting around. How about I just sit it inside facing the northbridge?