Noisy mobo fan

[Traxan]

Lately, the fan on my motherboard chipset has gotten very loud. I have an MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum mobo, and this is a chipset fan that sits right at the edge of video card. If you look at this image, you can see it, it's the gold fan right next to the PCI E slot and DIMM slots.

I've sprayed it with cleaners and a lubricant, obviously not WD40, but no luck. It's loud as hell, you can hear it in another room. Is it removable/replacable, or am I going to need another motherboard?

TIA.

 

[deathwalker]

It should be replaceable...in fact a good quality passive heat sink would work but you would have to be careful with interference with your graphics card.

 

[marulee]

Yeah, it is replaceable, I meant the plastic blade on your fan for the chipset. Sometimes manufactory assembled it faulty and it goes malfunction! You are not looking at more than 25 bucks!

 

[Traxan]

Well that fan does NOT want to come off. Is it just the two fasteners or the screws that I see under the fan blades?

 

[b315653]

That fan is replacable but here's the bad news. The motherboard has to be removed so you are able to pinch the pins that go through to the other side. I just replaced mine with the Vantec Iceberq (CCB-A1C) and it clears my 6600GT.
I also reused the MSI pins that I removed because they are a better quality than the ones that come with the Vantec. But the fan is really quiet and is a ball bearing. Google the number above and take a look.
While i was in there I also upgraded my processor from 3000+ to a 4000+ AMD 64. Did both at same time.

 

[dfuze]

You might want to go the silent route and get a heatsink for it instead. When I bought my Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, the reviews stated the tendancy for the fan to die. Knowing the motherboard has to come out to replace it, I bought a Zalman heatsink with the order and it worked great. If I remember right, newegg has it for about $10.

 

[Traxan]

You know, all I did was yank the power connector out, so the heat sink is still on there, and so far the computer is functioning just fine. The heat sink fins are very hot, but the computer is functioning ok. I just don't plan to leave it on unattended for the time being.