Discussion on:

Quiet noisy computer fans with a drop of oil

But what about noisy disk drives? Not worth the risk in unsealing the mechanism?

If the drives noisy - replace it with a new one, its probably going to fail (at the worst possible time . As regards the fans - good article, the only thing I'd add is that this is a stop gap - the fans are going to fail again, but this gives you the chance to get a new one on order

Yet, another use for Vaseline. Although it takes a little longer getting into the fan shaft, a very thin coat of Vaseline (or other petrolium jelly) has fans lasting longer than the computer itself. I did this to an old P120 6 years ago. This unit was 24/7 fax server and I just took the computer out of use - still working!

Lube 1 with ptfe works well and is easy to apply. I voided the warrantee several years ago on the power supply [Quantex, where are you?] but that fan is still running. It gets noisy... it gets the treatment. And [Gasp!] my Quantex P2-350 still workslike a charm.

What is pfte? I have a noisy fan that drives me crazy! I would thing dishwashing soap would get sticky, I had contemplated using sewing machine or gun cleaning oil because it is so fine.

Tammy

Certain lubricants contain polytetrafluoroethylene (which most people call "Teflon" ). You can often find some spray lubricants of this type - they are often the "dry" type - which are very popular in certain situations (for instance, for bicyclechains).

You need something a bit more sophisticated for tiny hi-speed fans in laptops etc. I use a modern silicone lubricant called Fanlube that seems to work really well. vaseline and 3-in-1 etc really are 19th century solutions to a modern problem!

If your are going to remove the fan to lubricate it you might as well replace it. As the previous response pointed out, the fan is going to fail anyway. Fans are cheap and fairly easy to find even at electronics shops like Radio Shack. They are alsofairly easy to replace. Now a fan in the power supply might be worth replacing due to the expense of the power supply itself. Another way to help extend the life of all of the fans is to clean dust from the system regularly, especially if the unit is in dusty conditions.

Yes the price of fans are cheap but everytime I go to the store, they have different brands. Need top quality fans.

Walmart or other retailers may sell CRC Oil that works just fine as a replacement Oil for cpu or chassis fans.Call or visit these retailers for info.

Always vacuum before you blow-out your case or any of the components. If you blow only your going to push dust into cracks and crevices that you probably won't want to try and get to later. You know, when you start having real problems and "need" to clean. Think about it.

A normal vacuum generates static, you will want to keep it far away from the inside of a computer. They have special vacuums for electronic devices.

Your comment is relevant to desktops, but not to laptops. They often have specially designed and shaped fans that aren't generally available. Sometimes the supply is controlled by the laptop distributors. I felt stitched up by this situation when my laptop fan sounded like it was on the way out. I used a new silicone lubricant called Fanlube and it is as good as new.

Would this stuff be helpful?
They use it in copiers.

Richard F. Bolha

Opening a hard drive WILL void any warranty your disk drive has, and probably will damage the drive itself. The clearance between the flying heads and the disk surface is measured in micro-inches, and even very small (to you) dust or pollen particles are HUGE by comparison to this head to disk air film. The result of a head colliding with such a huge "rock in the road" is a "head crash", with irreparible damage to the head and possibly damage to the disk surface. You probably will then be forced to spend much more than the cost of a new drive on "data recovery" and the recovery effort to salvage your data might not even be successful. On top of that, you will still need to buy a new disk drive, because the recovery effort does not result in a usable drive, only in salvaged data.

What's your point?

The point was clear. DO NOT OPEN a hard drive case.

Electronic contact cleaner is a solvent for removing corrison on the contacts of a switch, etc. While it does have some lubricating qualities it shouldn't be used as a lubricant for rotating parts.

Contact cleaner is good to remove the old oil, as oil wears and over heats it will build a sludge film. Use a good hi-temp synthetic oil with extreme properties for friction and heat, such as Superior Friction Reduction Needle oilers. 800-735-6438.about 5 bucks. or Tufoil w/teflon. Will last forever, just hope you clean and lube fans before the electric fields get weak, or RPM's will slow down. If you can grab fan blade and stop it, the motor is to weak to work.

Not a good idea to grab blades as material used in some fans is so fragile that they would break. I never bother lubing as cost of fix is almost as much as a replacement and noise is more likely due to crud on fan blades making it out of balance. It's better to clean it before it gets too coated.

Does anyone have any experience using powdered graphite for lubing PCs? It's worked well for me in numerous machine applications where oil couldn't be used. Leaves no sludge, either. One other item: Mineral oil. Any ideas? Also have used it where oil could damage materials.

Graphite is not what you use around electrical/electronic equipment.

3-in-1 is great stuff, but wrong for this kind of thing for the same reason as WD40 (and they're made by the same company). It contains penetrants (solvents) that can do wonders for plastics...

Try the sewing machine oil, knife sharpening oil, gun lubricating oil (not cleaner/oil!), or straight 10-weight (which contains detergents, but not in the same proportions). If the tube/bottle says "cleans, conditions", it's a product to avoid for this kind of thing.

Fan replacements CAN cause more trouble than you started with. Especially embedded in a 200W PS.

Graphite is messy to work with, and not really suitable for high speed plastic fans. Mineral oils are also poor choices for plastic fans in computers. There's a website at noisy-computer-fans.co.uk that compares all the alternatives and gives the pros and cons...

I would not use graphite in this or any other electronic component. Graphite conducts electricity so, at least in theory, could contribute to shorting in electronics. Also, graphite is not going to flow through and saturate the porous metal sleeve that distributes the lubricant along the length of the shaft like a liquid based lubricant would.

The objective is to maximize the lifespan of a fan, and to queiet it. If you choose to clean the fan periodically, good for you, but if you clean it with anything more than a brush and vacuum then you're going to need to lube it up. Too time consuming. Plan on a new fan every 12-18 mos.

When a fan becomes noisy, it probably has already failed, and there may be metal to metal rubbing taking place. Although adding some oil will usually quiet such a fan, the wear that took place while it was making noise was harmful, and there may could be excessive play in the bearing as a result of such wear. If you are lucky, not much damage was done, and new lubrication will add significantly to the life of the fan itself. But if you are too late, and too much wear has already taken place,adding oil will quiet the fan only marginally, and your "miracle cure" will not last long.

I suggest trying a little prevention, but only on non-critical machines, by adding a small amount of 3-in-1 oil (or Tri-flow) to the fan bearings before they start making noise.

However, for critical machines, I suggest using only new fans with ball bearing motors, and you should keep a supply of new replacement fans handy. Remember to check all of your machines regularly for dust and fan problems. Dust always causes problems when it accumulates, so remove it whenever you see it.

An important spec to look for is the fan's MTBF rating (Mean Time Before Failure), with larger numbers being better. If you cannot find a fan's MTBF spec, think twice about buying that fan. If a product has a good MTBF, the manufacturer will want you to know it.

You may notice that new ball bearings are slightly noisier than new sleeve bearings. This is normal. But ball bearings outlast sleeve bearings, and they do not cost much more.

MTBF is not the right reliability number to look for on fans because it only applies when the failure rate is constant. Fan reliability should be specified by the L10 life, the time after which 10% of fans have failed (mostly because of loss of bearing lubricant) i.e. to return to the current controversy, they need oiling.

The L10 life is affected by temperature (basically, hot is bad) and rotation speed (fast is bad - relevant is you've got fancy fans that run slower when at low temperatures). It's also affected by small abrasive particles getting into the bearing and causing excessive wear (I've heard that smoke particles are especially bad).

Fan bearing lubricants are carefully chosen to balance the characteristics needed for goodlubrication (low viscocity?) against those neded for low evaporation (high viscocity?), so as to maximise the useful life before wear-out (L10). Don't expect your drop of (random-ish) oil to last anything like as long as the original!

If I were to go through all the trouble of removing the fan, I would replace the fan. Someone advocates keeping a bunch of spare fans but heck you can order one fairly quickly. The trick is to get the right one. What is your time worth - get a few. Balance that against your time and the computer... Knowing just a little about basic electicity and wiring helps too...

Instead of replacing the fan, you can install this component. This component easily installs on one of the wires going to the fan. It starts the fan at full speed, and then slows the fan speed down slightly to reduce vibration and fan noise. This component has been used successfully on power supply fans, CPU fans and in electronic equipment fans (specifically hubs and routers) since 2002. You can check it out at: http://www.noisyfanquieting.com/

Noisy Fan Quieting and Silencing Solutions

The company policy for our field techs is to replace any fan which makes noise. By the time the fan becomes noisy, the ball bearings or bronze bushing is no longer sound or reliable. A failed CPU fan will cause erratic system behavior and potential damage to the CPU itself or even the motherboard. A failed power supply fan can cause serious overheating and is potential fire hazard. The noisy fan is an audio notification to replace it.

A tech's TIME is worth more than the fan. Why mess around with a $5 - 15 fan? You already have it out, just stick a new one in. You're done in 1/2 the time and its a NEW fan.

The only time I would consider oil would be for a non-standard fan, as a stop-gap until I could order it's replacement.

Reduce - reuse - recycle with computers becoming a percentage of solid waste landfill material it is handy to learn techniques that will keep unneccassary waste out of the ground. I for one am always looking for ways to prelong the life of my computers.

BINGO -"The only time I would consider oil would be for a non-standard fan, as a stop-gap until I could order it's replacement."

This is a great idea for a home user who's machine IS NOT MISSION CRITICAL, and even then just use it as a holdover until you can get to your pc store or order the replacement fan online.
ALSO, Be wise and NEVER open a power supply-
1) the risk of personal injury from a high voltage discharge is too great
2) the risk of fire AFTER your repair also puts others atrisk.

This is like anything else folks...use your head.

I've got to agree that replacement is the safest bet. Only on unique fans have I relubed the bearings. A computer show is a great place to find most of your replacement fan needs.

Coming around for a second look at a "10 best article", I am fond of this advice because I've already done it on 4 or 5 fans (including a really bad PS fan -- yes, I'm an amateur radio operator and respect stored electricity) so it's saved a few dollars. They seem to run, are running, as long as any fan so I'm an advocate. People used to grease auto wheel hubs all the time instead of buying new wheels. Same thing. A little weird to oil the computers now and then though.

I had a tube of "phono gear lube" lying around to keep the turntable and old clock radios running that I use.

Oh come on now. I can get fans for $5 to $15 each, and I bet you can too. Maybe, just maybe, I lose a fan on our 60 or so machines once every couple months (of course we don't try to get 10 years out of a PC). Are you saving anything? Is this cost effective? I really doubt it, and you are increasing the risk. OK, if I wasn't busy and a little bored I might do it for fun, but as a regular thing, no way.

Believe it or not, in the current economy not all companies have money for replacement parts, even those costing as little as cooling fans. Since they're already paying their techs to maintain their computers, it's only costing them time to repair the fans rather than replace them.

Another thing. Since both operations - repair or replace - require almost the same amount of time (ok, the oiling process takes another 5-10 minutes), it isn't enough of a time savings to justify the cost of a new fan when the old one is salvageable with a drop of oil.

fair comment, except that within a relatively short period of time, you will have a 'call back' on that unit requiring the replacement of the fan anyway. Depending on how your company costs out the repairs, and whether or not your performance as a technician is evaluated as a function of call back and re-repairs on previous problems you could have anything from an annoying trip to a reprimand as the result.

There are some companies that actually do use the computers for longer than 3 years, including mine. In a world of constant penny-pinching and finding the cheapest way to fix something instead of purchasing new, spending $2.00 compared to $5.00 or $15.00 is a great cost savings. You are obviously working at a company that has money to burn.

Geez guys-n-gals,
Scenario 1: Uh-Oh. Noisy fan. Open the unit up, drop of oil on the thing, seal it back up Saved $10 in parts, spent $6o in labor (or whatever). Done now. 3 months later, do it again, or more likely, now replace the fan. Spent $10 in parts, $60 in labor. Total cost=60+60+10=$130, plus time lost on something else cuz I had to re-do the thing.
Scenario 2: Uh-Oh. Noisy fan. Open the unit up, replace the fan, go get a Coke. Cost=60+10+1(for the coke)=$71. And 3 months later, I don't have to do it again.
This ain't rocket science, folks. Even an inveterate tinker like myself would rather fix it right the first time, SPECIALLY if it's this cheap.

In my company it takes $12 of revenue to cover $1 of operating costs so any savings can make a huge difference to margins.

We buy case fans (decent quality) for less than $4 a piece. Why would you want to prolong the life of a fan on its way out instead of replace it? Makes no sense. You will be back within 12 months or so to replace it. I would, if I was in the field, and had no fans available, oil one to keep it going till I could get a fan. But this type of oily maintenance is not sound (pun intended).

I worked for a company who refused to let me buy new fans and just wanted them oiled. I got paid $20an hour to oil 4 dollar fans. I realized that this company would never invest in their IT equipment (though we were paid well), it was a nightmare and I left quite quickly, unable to convince them that they needed to replace outdated equip that kept several techs working 12 hour days just to keep running. Over the course of a year, they could have replaced the equipment twice over for the cost of the maintenance on the equipment. But, alas, capital exp vs equip maint is a different budget.

I put that little tidbit in here for this point- any company who is too cheap or nearsigthed to replace even a noisy fan is probably a company whose IT dept is in trouble.

I can imagine how my customers would react when they call me for a noisy fan on a system under warranty if I came out and oiled the fan....... don't go there!

Another cause of noise is excessive dust/dirt on the fan blades causing an imbalance. For the little time it takes to clean with a Q-tip it may not warrant replacing. Also, I have encountered brand new fans that are noisey. Many people don't realize that oil serves more than one purpose (up to seven, as a matter of fact). Apart from the obvious lubrication aspect, oil serves as a heat sink and an impact absorber. Some new fans may have excessive clearance between the sintered bushing and the shaft. A drop of oil, in excess of the factory amount, will fill the excess clearance, minimizing vibration and transfering heat.
Tom Carson

While fans usually do a good job of cooling they also cause air friction over all the plastic parts including circuit boards. This creates a static attraction to dust and over time the amount of dust attracted will form an insulating layer that prevents cooling of possible critical components. While you are cleaning and oiling the fan do not forget to clean all the circuit boards with a non static brush. We use a good pig's hair or sable brush for this.
Regards
Neville@millennium3.ws

No more than new fanst cost..........why in the world would anyone want to risk oiling a fan. One mistake and a $1000 or better piece of equipment is made useless.

Hard drives are sealed at the factory for a reason. Any contamination can ruin the drive. Buy a new drive.

useful and well executed

It Works.

Cause we found the fool.