ASUS chipset fans

[Mortac]

I don't know what the heck is up with ASUS and their chipset fans, but it's seriously pissing me off. My previous computer had an ASUS motherboard in it, and the chipset fan began making huge amounts of noise. I had to oil the thing 3 times before I got the darn thing to be silent, only for it to start making noise again a few months later.

My new computer also has an ASUS board in it. Not surprisingly, the chipset fan began making noise and later died on me after a few months. I called ASUS and got a replacement fan. A few months later, it also starts making some loud noise every now and then. I've now used this replacement fan for about 1 year, and now this one, too, died on me. I'm now forced to use a pencil to kickstart the stupid thing by giving it repeated pushes since oiling didn't seem to help this time. The ironic thing here which really ticks me off is how I spent a bunch of extra cash on building a silent computer, and then there it is, this ASUS chipset fan spoiling it all with their cheap crap.

Now what beats me here is how incompetent this company seems to be. I've read posts every now and then from people having similar issues, so I know I'm not alone. So it seems this is a rather common problem, and that makes me wonder how serious ASUS is about selecting components for their products. I can say, for one, that I'm never buying a product from ASUS again. I find it so utterly ridiculous that you build complete motherboards, one generation after another, but you fail by adding a crappy fan to it.

Do you have an ASUS board and, if it has a chipset fan, have you had similar problems?

 

[toadeater]

Originally posted by: Mortac
I don't know what the heck is up with ASUS and their chipset fans, but it's seriously pissing me off. My previous computer had an ASUS motherboard in it, and the chipset fan began making huge amounts of noise. I had to oil the thing 3 times before I got the darn thing to be silent, only for it to start making noise again a few months later.

What you describe is a typical high RPM sleeve fan. The smaller they are, the faster they wear out. I use 80mm fans or larger for spot cooling. Not just for the low maintenance, but also because they deliver the same performance while staying silent--or much better performance if you need it.

Asus isn't the only one doing stuff like this. There are many boards that are sold with inadequate northbridge cooling. If they're not going to put on a fan, at least make the heatsink large enough to compensate. What kind of quality control do these companies have? It's like Nvidia and their single-slot 8800 GT cooler. How many RMAs did that cop out design cost OEMs?

 

[jdkick]

What motherboard models are you referring to? Most older motherboards used smaller 40-60mm fans on the chipsets and it's been my experience that these fans have a fairly short lifespan - it's not brand specific. Thankfully, most manufacturers seem to have caught on and have switched either to larger passive heatsinks or heatpipe solutions. On a related note, my employer tends to buy video cards of one particular brand that tends to use 40-60mm fans... they die frequently, and it's frustrating.

Personally, I wouldn't bother replacing these chipset fans. The next time it dies, go shopping for a passive chipset cooler and be done with it instead of continuing the frustration.

 

[Mortac]

The older computer has an A7V-133 in it and the newer one got an A8N-SLI Deluxe. So I've had 3 chipset fans from ASUS that all became extremely loud or broke. Great job, ASUS!

They're not running optimally either. Since they're all dying on me, their RPMs are very irregular and go way down occasionally before giving up completely.

 

[FireTech]

Buy a Thermalright or Zalman passive NB cooler and solve all your problems.

 

[Blazer7]

I had the A8N-SLI Deluxe back in the day too. It's a good board but it has a long history with chipset fan failures. The 1st thing I did was to replace the original HSF with a Swiftech MCX-159CU. That?s a good HSF and even if the fan fails the heatsink is more than capable to deal with the heat on its one. The only 2 problems with it is that you need to take the board out in order to fit the HSF and you cannot use a 2-slot VGA in the first PCI-E slot. Other than that the Zalmans were always among the favorites for people with ASUS boards.

 

[Old Hippie]

Do you have an ASUS board and, if it has a chipset fan, have you had similar problems?

No biggie, very common.

I saved a few by removing, cleaning, relubricating, and then reinstalling just the fan hub. That can be done without removing the MB.

I finally installed a Swiftech MCX-159CU.

 

[nerp]

My bad experiences with chipset fans has compelled me to buy boards with passive cooling ONLY. Nothing worse than building a machine for someone and getting a call a few months later that there's a "terrible grinding noise" coming from it.

 

[jaqie]

same here, Nerp. I am reminded of a customer once who complained of their computer "mooing"... it was a fan going out. I still like that description best.

 

[daggermeerkat]

Had the same problem with my Asus a8n-sli deluxe 2.5 years ago .. ended up replacing with a zalman heatsink and modded an akasa fan on top of it to cool it off.