DELL Zino GPU Fan P/N 3V5X7

[epete]

I am getting Video Fan failures on my Zeno HTPC. The Video card seems to be overheating and the machine shuts down. It comes back up saying Video Fan Failure Press F1 to continue. I contacted Dell to purchase a replacement fan but they don't seem to have them anymore.

http://en.community.dell.com/cfs-file.a ... .3v5x7.jpg

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to repair the fan.

If I remove it, and use some sort of oil, would that solve the problem? I understand that I would also need to remove the heat sink and will have to reapply thermal grease. I want to get this fixed before the entire video card burns out.

[Scallica]

I would use a can of compressed air to clean out the fan. There is one replacement fan listed on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-Zino-Compu ... 20c9aae8b6

You could also reach out to the folks at Discount Electronics which sells Dell replacement parts. While the fan is not listed on their website, they may be able to procure it for you.

http://www.discountelectronics.com/inde ... ntact_them

[STC]

It could just be gacked up with dust on the blades and housing, but most probably it will be the bearings (some are bearing free but have the same problem). It's difficult to oil them and usually it would be due to trapped particles in the bearing sleeve itself. With the power off, see if you can turn the fan blades easily enough. If there is a lot of resistance, or it feels juddery as opposed to a fixed resistance, it's probably replacement time.

[epete]

thanks for the good suggestions. I will start with the can of air / resistance suggestion, then look into ebay (since the seller is in the UK) and Discount Electronics.

[epete]

I opened up the bottom of the Zino today and used a can of compressed gas duster on it. There was a lot of dust in the fan. The fan does spin freely and has its natural stop points defined by the magnets. I powered teh unit up without the bottom cover on to see if it would spin. the main system fan went on immediately. I used my finger to get the video fan going and it started up. I am wondering if there is a delay in the GPU fan and it was a coincidence that it started up as I prompted it with my finger or if there is still a problem with the fan.

Well, it is now clean so only time will tell as teh video fan error has always been an intermittent problem.

[STC]

The natural stop points are fine as you point out. If it spins freely then it should not be a dust related problem.
Check the bios to see if there is a fan speed adjustment you can tweak up for the GPU.
It may be set to 'silent' or some other quiet mode.

[epete]

thanks

[STC]

There looks to be a "Cool & Quiet" feature in the BIOS that may be a global setting for all the controllable fans including the GPU fan.
See if you can live with it turned up a notch or disabled. See what happens with the lid off after a power cycle.
That 'should' throw more voltage at the fans and keep the GPU fan spinning.