My second 9800GT arrives.

[Sleinous]

So, this is the one with the dodgy fan. Think ive found half the problem already lol...

Well I didnt take a picture of this before removing it but I sincerely wish I had!

Here is the heatsink:

See where the heatsink starts? Well that was clogged up with THICK solid dust, and im not lying about the solid. It came off in 3 lumps lol. about 1cm wide, some of it touching the fan.

GPU base, managed to get most of the thermal paste off. Youll notice there's no pads on the vRAM, I took them off as they were virtually utterly peeled off except a couple. For pure folding@home do you suggest I bother buying some new ones? Looking at the experts here >.>

(Psst I know meds loves this tablecloth so I made sure I got a few of the design motifs in lolz).

More designs and heatsink, after being cleaned out. How best to get the remaining dust out of the heatsink by the way? Any ideas?

 

[Sleinous]

Fan that I suspect has a faulty bearing nonetheless.

& below is the part number if any wiz kids could somehow find me another one i'd... i'd... give them a virtual hug?

Cleaned up shroud... currently drying:

 

[Tom DWC]

This looks complicated!

 

[Sleinous]

naaah Does anyone know a way of testing the fan (its a 4 pin but very small 4 pin thing) without plugging the card in? E.g. without plugging fan onto card. Is there such a socket on motherboard? I didnt see one on the other 9800 GT (it has a 2pin and another 2 pin).

 

[Phoenix]

Have you tried spraying the heatsink with compressed air to get the rest of the dust out?

 

[Sleinous]

Im getting a bit low on compressed air but yup this is a good idea, thanks! Will do that & then i need to find a way to see if the fan clicks still, without readding thermal compound etc. Is there a connector on mobo to test these tiny 4 pin fans?

 

[Phoenix]

Hmm i'm not sure, there might be though you'll have to have a look and see ^_^

 

[Sleinous]

Compressed air done Just need to polish off the GPU with alcohol tomorrow and well see if this fan is fixed now.