Sapphire 9600 Pro fan buzzing.

[Ocean]

my sapphire radeon 9600 pro approximately 3 months old, has a fan now that buzzes madly. and i am assuming it will die soon.

either id like to fix it,
or get my feet wet with some gfx card heatsink/fan replacement.

any links or info to..

what causes the buzzing
what could fix the buzzing
removal of old heatsink fan combo
replacement of heatsink fan combo
alternative heatsink fan combos and their installation

..would be greatly appreciated

this is what i have:

 

[Pagan Wizard]

RMA it.

 

[Ocean]

i dont wanna rma it, i wanna dick around with it.

 

[Nexx]

take the little screws off to remove the grill and the fan itself. peel back the sticker on the backside of the fan that covers up the bearings. place a drop or two of some motor oil or machine oil on the bearings. clean up any excess oil and cover the hole back up. your fan shouldnt buzz anymore.

 

[codeflux]

i friend of mine had the same card, with exactly the same problem. we ended up just getting a $10 gpu cooler from a local compusa - fixed it. RMA is a pain.

i wouldn't try to fix the stock fan - the risk that it just siezes is too high, and then you end up with fried videocard, which BTW has a void warranty, 'cause you decided to mess with it.

 

[Ocean]

already tried it, and it worked like charm. explain the seize up thing.

i found this that sounded interesting

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/en/products/vga_silencer/

 

[diredesire]

Originally posted by Ocean
i dont wanna rma it, i wanna dick around with it.

righto m'boy... carry on ol' chap

 

[Unoid]

If you're gonna go with a vga silencer or other good cooling I'd advise overclocking. or you're just wasting time and money.

 

[Ocean]

yeah i plan on overclocking it if i ever need to replace something. the thermal tape on it right now does look pretty shitty though. if it ever starts artifacting ill just replace the whole gizmo. i saved so much money on my comp, that the radeon 9600 pro is pretty much disposable. it was only supposed to last for another month or so

 

[Bennyb]

Originally posted by Ocean
already tried it, and it worked like charm. explain the seize up thing.

i found this that sounded interesting

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/en/products/vga_silencer/

Errrr... thats kinda like overkill for a 9600 np... i mean seriously....

 

[diredesire]

Originally posted by Ocean
yeah i plan on overclocking it if i ever need to replace something. the thermal tape on it right now does look pretty shitty though. if it ever starts artifacting ill just replace the whole gizmo. i saved so much money on my comp, that the radeon 9600 pro is pretty much disposable. it was only supposed to last for another month or so

sell it cheap on the fs/t when you 'dispose of it' ;D

i'd take it but i want something slightly more powerful