CPU fan....a strange one

FanadMan

Was called out to look at a computer today. Owner said that it was booting fine but shutting down after a minute or two. First thing I suspected was it was overheating.....I had worked on this machine before and knew it was going to be choked up with dust. I serviced this machine about 18 months ago to replace the hdd and clean it out.

Anyway, tried safe mode and it shut down after about 5 minutes so I started unplugging stuff to take it out of the cabinet. When I was lifting it out I could hear a rattle inside it.

Opened the case and the cpu fan and heatsink were hanging by its power cable. In all my years I've never come across this before. Owner said that it hadn't been touched since I worked on it last, and by the amount of dust and fluff inside and out, I'd believe them.

Has anyone here ever seen this before?

smuggler.ie

Hmmm....that leaves you or faulty mounting bracket.



Intel or AMD?

FanadMan

smuggler.ie wrote: »

Hmmm....that leaves you or faulty mounting bracket.



Intel or AMD?

AMD. The locking mech is very robust which is why I'm puzzled. Last time I cleaned it out, I just used compressed air and a brush. And I never went near the CPU as I didn't have any thermal compound to hand at the time.

smuggler.ie

FanadMan wrote: »

AMD. The locking mech is very robust which is why I'm puzzled. Last time I cleaned it out, I just used compressed air and a brush. And I never went near the CPU as I didn't have any thermal compound to hand at the time.

Same as you, i never heard heatsink detach "on it own"(providing was fastened properly)

If bracket is intact and "latches" on it not snapped off - either OEM assembly wasn't correct(unlikely, but possible) or someone physically interfere. Can't see other explanation. Any sign of PC being dropped/hit/opened - people do things they will never admit or "it wasn't me". At the end, if you only servicing PC - who care - owners responsibility to ensure equipment "safety" on site and he have to cover service/part cost. I would not give warranty on CPU, fan, etc. if only serviced - it could be "baked" and fail next week/month or so. Again, it depend on your SLA.

FanadMan

smuggler.ie wrote:

Same as you, i never heard heatsink detach "on it own"(providing was fastened properly)

smuggler.ie wrote:

If bracket is intact and "latches" on it not snapped off - either OEM assembly wasn't correct(unlikely, but possible) or someone physically interfere. Can't see other explanation. Any sign of PC being dropped/hit/opened - people do things they will never admit or "it wasn't me". At the end, if you only servicing PC - who care - owners responsibility to ensure equipment "safety" on site and he have to cover service/part cost. I would not give warranty on CPU, fan, etc. if only serviced - it could be "baked" and fail next week/month or so. Again, it depend on your SLA.

The bracket is perfect from what I remember, as was the case......no sign of drops.

They said they removed it a few months ago when decorating but probably wouldn't admit dropping it ;-)

Have to go back tomorrow with thermal compound and sort it. Will take a proper look at it. Thing is, it booted fine but shut down when processor overheated.

Not that worried though. It's an old Win7 machine that I've been begging them to upgrade or at least get a proper backup solution......not a chance. Typical farmers lol

Johnboy1951

Had something similar a few years ago ..... it was the bracket on the motherboard which gave way. The tab for the latch snapped off.

Again it was not abused, but probably had some weakness that eventually caused the break. Maybe the variations in temp from use/non-use helped that a little, dunno.

FanadMan

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Had something similar a few years ago ..... it was the bracket on the motherboard which gave way. The tab for the latch snapped off.

Again it was not abused, but probably had some weakness that eventually caused the break. Maybe the variations in temp from use/non-use helped that a little, dunno.

Took the system home and left a temp replacement with them. Wanted to check it out properly. Reseated cpu just in case. New paste and a thorough cleanout. Checked the whole bracket system - there was no damage at all.

As it was in a tight and dusty place, maybe thermal expansion/contraction and poor assembly popped it loose.

Anyway, it's about 12 hours into a heavy stress test and the temps are perfect so will return it later and drop off the bill......and another plea to upgrade to a decent system

TheValeyard

On my old Alienware I was hearing a grinding noise, opened it up and the heatsink fan was nearly off. To this day I've no idea how it happened. I wonder did it shake itself loose?

Maybe it's the CPU gremlins OP

FanadMan

Murray TheDemonic TalkingSkull wrote: »

On my old Alienware I was hearing a grinding noise, opened it up and the heatsink fan was nearly off. To this day I've no idea how it happened. I wonder did it shake itself loose?

Maybe it's the CPU gremlins OP

Lol - had a customer say their computer sounded like a motorbike all the time. Opened it and there was a cable rubbing against the fan. Sounded like when you would stick a playing card into the spokes of your bike as a kid. This machine had been like that for a couple of years. How they put up with the noise for so long I don't know. It would have driven me demented after a couple of hours.

There's always strange ones that have techs scratching their heads.