DIY Fan Fixing

So you open your case for a routine case and what do you find? A fan struggling to operate. Don't fret as ComputingStuff shows you how you can bring life back into your poorly fans.

A week ago I found my file server at home had powered its self off due to a CPU fan failure. I thought nothing of it and left the server off thinking I would go and buy a new fan for it. As the week progressed I realised I had no time or money to go and buy a replacement fan for the server and I was in need of the server to be back up, mainly to serve files but also because my SETI@Home productivity was lacking ;)

After closer inspection of the failed fan, I realised it had failed due to dirt and dust clogs and not physical failure of the fan. With this info under my belt I thought it was worth a try fixing the fan myself.

1. Remove the fan from the heatsink
     [Dirty Heatsink]
2. Clear away dirt and dust from the heatsink with tweezers
     [Clean Heatsink]
3. Unplug the fan from the motherboard
     [Unplugged Fan]
4. Clean fan blades with cotton buds or something similar and clean rest of the fan
     [Clean Fan]
5. Peel off label or similar protection off the back of the fan to reveal bearing, squirt a bit of WD40^TM or similar on the bearing and reattach protection
     [Bearing]
6. Attach the fan back onto the heatsink
     [Fan attached to heatsink]
7. Remember to plug the fan back into the motherboard
     [Fan Connector]
8. Power up the machine and see if it works. If the fan doesn't start up turn off your machine immediately to avoid damaging your processor and motherboard

My fileserver has been up about 5 hours on the repaired fan with no problems so far. I will update this soon with the uptime I get.