Need your advice! WD-40 on a fan bearing?

[Silver47]

Long story short: I had to replace my gpu with a GTX 750 ti I had laying around. The 750 ti comes out of a prebuilt Medion PC and has as as far as I can tell a completely stock PCB. Also the specs exactly match the reference model.

Now the problem I'm having is the fan doesn't exactly sound healthy, it started clicking and rattling slightly in low rpm and from what I've experienced so far this usually is the first sign of a fan failing. 

But I really need this card to last for about one more month. Can someone recommend me a method of making it last? Maybe some WD-40? Are there replacement fans available? Are they any good? Any experience with aftermarket coolers for the GTX 750 ti?

This card has kind of grown on me, since it was my first real gaming capable gpu and I really don't want it to die. 

[paprikman]

Is it non-conductive? Silicon grease should be fine. It's like $1.5 per tube and you need just a tiny bit of it.

[SCHISCHKA]

Theres a product like WD-40 but it has lithium grease in it. Where I live its just called CRC lithium grease. Its better as a lubricant.

[SCHISCHKA]

2 minutes ago, paprikman said:

Is it non-conductive? Silicon grease should be fine. It's like $1.5 per tube and you need just a tiny bit of it.

WD-40 is not conductive but it smells and might not last as a lubricant on a fan

[dantayy]

WD-40 will not last very long, I recommend that you get an inexpensive lubricant at a hardware store

[vorticalbox]

the fan on my 7770 doesn't even spin anymore and sits passively at 60C (the fan does kick in once it hits thermal throttling but stops spinning after it drops below 60C) The card might actually be fine without the fan like mine is for just getting a desktop.

[Wolffy (FireEagle Media)]

The GTX 750ti should last a VERY long time. If the fan is rattleing and stating to drop in RPM, try to first off clean it, blades and all. If after cleaning it, no affect on the card please do not get it repaired by a third party reference. If the card cost a low amount, and you have a few hundred laying around, your better off buying a new 850M, than getting the 750ti repaired by a third party then been in-fixable. If it's still within its warranty, I'd recommend sending it to the manufacturer and asking them to test it. That's all the advice I could offer, hope this helps!!

[Morgan MLGman]

6 minutes ago, Wolffy (FireEagle Media) said:

The GTX 750ti should last a VERY long time. If the fan is rattleing and stating to drop in RPM, try to first off clean it, blades and all. If after cleaning it, no affect on the card please do not get it repaired by a third party reference. If the card cost a low amount, and you have a few hundred laying around, your better off buying a new 850ti, than getting the 750ti repaired by a third party then been in-fixable. If it's still within its warranty, I'd recommend sending it to the manufacturer and asking them to test it. That's all the advice I could offer, hope this helps!!

850Ti? On what Earth is that a GPU?

[Silver47]

12 hours ago, Wolffy (FireEagle Media) said:

 If the fan is rattleing and stating to drop in RPM,

There aren't any drops in rpm, in fact like I said, the fan balances itself out once it reaches higher rpm

 

12 hours ago, Wolffy (FireEagle Media) said:

try to first off clean it, blades and all. If after cleaning it,.

I did fairly extensively.

12 hours ago, Wolffy (FireEagle Media) said:

 please do not get it repaired by a third party reference.

Of course I wouldn't... I know my way around PC's fairly well...

12 hours ago, Wolffy (FireEagle Media) said:

your better off buying a new 850ti,

There is no such thing as a GTX 850 ti as far as I know.

12 hours ago, Wolffy (FireEagle Media) said:

 If it's still within its warranty, I'd recommend sending it to the manufacturer and asking them to test it. That's all the advice I could offer, hope this helps!!

Unfortunately its just past warranty...

 

Thanks for the help thought.

[Silver47]

13 minutes ago, vorticalbox said:

the fan on my 7770 doesn't even spin anymore and sits passively at 60C (the fan does kick in once it hits thermal throttling but stops spinning after it drops below 60C) The card might actually be fine without the fan like mine is for just getting a desktop.

LOL thats not exactly what I'm trying to achieve, since I'd like to still be able to play games on it and mabye install it in a media pc in the future

[DHelios]

37 minutes ago, black0utm1rage said:

But I really need this card to last for about one more month. Can someone recommend me a method of making it last? Maybe some WD-40? Are there replacement fans available? Are they any good? Any experience with aftermarket coolers for the GTX 750 ti?

Don't use WD-40. Get a cheap bottle of sewing machine oil or somesuch. The article below mentions sewing machine dealers and fabric stores, but I got my sewing machine oil from a bicycle repair shop.

Quote

Many people use WD-40 to lubricate all kinds of squeaky or noisy mechanical components around the home and office. But don't be tempted to use WD-40 to lubricate a computer fan. WD-40 is formulated as a cleaner/degreaser to be used for loosening stuck parts, preventing corrosion, and displacing water—all types of problems you won't typically find in computer fans. WD-40 is also a light lubricant that is better for lubricating something like a hinge that only moves occasionally rather than a component such as a fan that moves continuously at high speed.

That said; what type of oil should you use? Well almost any lightweight mechanical oil, such as 3-in-1 household oil, will do just fine.

I prefer to use sewing machine oil, because, in addition to being a lightweight oil, it has excellent viscosity, holds up well at high temperatures, and is specifically designed to lubricate moving parts that operate at high speeds. You can pick up a tube of sewing machine oil at almost any sewing machine dealer or even at a fabric store for about $2.00 to $3.00.

(source: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/quiet-noisy-computer-fans-with-a-drop-of-oil/)

 

 

A replacement fan might work, but the chances of finding something that fits your heatsink and shroud are minimal. That doesn't mean you can't buy or repurpose a case fan and just superglue the frame to your graphics card shroud. It doesn't look pretty, but it gets the job done. I've used this method in the past to 'replace' motherboard chipset fans, which were often built into the heatsink and didn't have standard mounting options.

 

[Silver47]

35 minutes ago, paprikman said:

Is it non-conductive? Silicon grease should be fine. It's like $1.5 per tube and you need just a tiny bit of it.

 

34 minutes ago, SCHISCHKA said:

Theres a product like WD-40 but it has lithium grease in it. Where I live its just called CRC lithium grease. Its better as a lubricant.

 

30 minutes ago, Ernest_L said:

WD-40 will not last very long, I recommend that you get an inexpensive lubricant at a hardware store

Thanks guys, I'm gonna try silicon grease or this lithium grease stuff and hope that it holds up for the next couple of days.

Any advice on how to apply it best? Is it required to completely disassemble the fan or will application to the back of bearing be enough? It sould creep into the bearing, right?

[Silver47]

4 minutes ago, DHelios said:

A replacement fan might work, but the chances of finding something that fits your heatsink and shroud are minimal. That doesn't mean you can't buy or repurpose a case fan and just superglue the frame to your graphics card shroud. It doesn't look pretty, but it gets the job done. I've used this method in the past to 'replace' motherboard chipset fans, which were often built into the heatsink and didn't have standard mounting options.

 

Thanks for the advice on sewing machine oil, I appreciate it. I thought of repurposing a case fan, but first I'd like to try and save the original one.

[Phate.exe]

Don't use WD-40.  It's a terrible lubricant, and will collect dust like nobody's business since it so greasy.

 

Clean the hell out of the fan, and if you're going to try to lubricate it, something like this would be a better option

 

Pretty sure that's the same stuff I used to use on my airsoft guns and RC's if I didn't want to use an actual grease.  It doesn't gum up and collect dirt and dust like WD-40.

 

If the bearings in the fan actually did eat themselves for whatever reason, since it's a low-power card, you could always just get a cheap fan of similar size, remove the dead fan from the cooler, and attach with any screws that line up/zip ties/superglue/just point it at the card.

[Wolffy (FireEagle Media)]

On 28/11/2016 at 11:56 PM, Morgan MLGman said:

850Ti? On what Earth is that a GPU?

That was meant to be a 850M

[Vode]

Just buy a new 60mm (same size as the current one) fan and glue it on the heatsink with some superglue. Should cost less than 10 bucks to do this.