To be fair, my previous cpu fan didn’t actually fail, the assembly attaching it to the heatsink fell apart, toothlessly refusing to remain in place despite several stern warnings.
3PRIME started out with 4 workstations in 2005, which have served us very well. 5 years later they are still our primary machines, longevity and reliability that speaks for itself.
Recently upgrading our RAM, I found that the CPU fan was loose and sure enough, 2 weeks later, booting up I receive a CPU fan failure warning on boot. Because I only needed to knock out a couple of tasks, it was a Saturday, I decided to try and work with out the fan. This worked for about 8 minutes before the computer gracelessly powered down.
Now, we have other workstations, and some would say I’d be smart to take opportunity to upgrade, but with my time and ability to manage multiple tasks taxed to the limit, I prefer to go with the least business-hour downtime and I opted to try and buy my replacement part locally.
The only repair shop that carries CPU fan assemblies in the area, that I found on google, was PCW and they did indeed have the AM2 socket heatsink and fan combo I needed! I got in this morning, grudgingly unplugged everything, and set to what was really a straightforward task.
This style of cooling fan assembly has a “tightener” to lock the heatsink and fan down on the processor. I loosened the old assembly, already sans-fan, and cleaned out the dust built up around it’s local crevices.
My new part, the Thermaltake (p/n: CL-P0503) for AMD Athlon 64 series (socket AM2), comes with glue pre-applied. I centered the heatsink over the cpu and lowered it over the processor. After that, I positioned the clamp that attached to either side and tightened the assembly down and locked it into place.
Rebooting the machine and saying a prayer, I watched my workstation roar back to life. And with only $17 and mild irritation, I am back to work. Praise the Lord!