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After a CPU heat sink fan is bad…….?

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My co-worker brought her home desktop PC in for me to take a look at, and I’ve discovered that the CPU heat-sink fan went bad, which means that it’s almost certain that the CPU has been fried up as well. My question is: Besides frying up the CPU, are there any other spots on the motherboard that I need to inspect to make sure that they haven’t fried up as well? Her current list of new parts to buy is a new CPU & a new heatsink/12V fan, and she wants to know if she’ll have to buy anything else….thanks!

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Reply To: After a CPU heat sink fan is bad…….?

In reply to After a CPU heat sink fan is bad…….?

Test the CPU with a new fan before you throw it out.

A new CPU fan is 20 bucks and you can use it on another machine if it proves that the CPU is fried. BTW you will need some thermal grease to smear on the CPU before attaching the fan. Your old grease would have dissapated in the heat or get stuck to the old fan.

Look for swollen capacitors, discolorarion of parts etc in the general area. Smell to see if you smell that hot copper smell.

You might want to install a fan and let some benchmarking program run a loop overnight. If its still running in the morning, you are good to go.

James

Reply To: After a CPU heat sink fan is bad…….?

In reply to After a CPU heat sink fan is bad…….?

If the CPU is a Pentium 4, or current generation Celeron, it may have built in thermal protection and can run for a period of time without a cooling fan.

However, if the CPU is an AMD Athlon, Athlon XP, or Duron, you are wise to recommend replacing it.

Even if the CPU is dead, it is rare for all but a catastrophic CPU failure to take out additional components.

Did she bring in the PC because it was dead?
Or, running slow?

If the PC was dead, I would take a look at the components near the CPU socket.
You are looking for burnt or bulging parts.

Also, test the power supply.

For that matter, make sure that the power supply is rated high enough for any accessories or upgrades she may have added since she bought the PC.

If the PC was running slow, that is a sign of CPU thermal protection working.

Chas

Reply To: After a CPU heat sink fan is bad…….?

In reply to After a CPU heat sink fan is bad…….?

If you can locate the main PCB traces that
supply the CPU socket, check those out, look for
solder bulges or vacancies. Be sure to use
the thermal paste on top of the CPU chip and
the heat sink. Check the CPU socket to be sure
none of the previous paste melted down into the
pin holes. Check both sides of the motherboard
with a good magnifying glass and a good light.
Anything is possible, and don’t overlook the
obvious, check the P/S voltages and be sure
the new fan works on the MOBO.

Reply To: After a CPU heat sink fan is bad…….?

In reply to After a CPU heat sink fan is bad…….?

I definately agree to test the CPU before you throw it out.

The other thing I would recommend checking are all the capacitors on the motherboard. Make sure that none are swollen or even leaking. In fact, if you have access to another motherboard that also uses the same type CPU, I would use it for testing as well jsut to elimnate all possible components. In other words, the motherboard may be bad, but the CPU could still be good.

Reply To: After a CPU heat sink fan is bad…….?

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75 points to you, and 75 to TheChas, ’cause I think you pointed me towards the right direction, thanks! Checking it now…..

Reply To: After a CPU heat sink fan is bad…….?

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