CPU fan has become noisy, but a problem....

There are a number of different fans that attach in "interesting" ways. An y way you can post a picture of the fan? At the very least, post the make and model of the desktop. There may be pix online or someone here (me?) ma y have a similar unit and can guide you on removal.

It does need to be replaced. The bearings are shot and it is only a matter of time before the fan fails completely.

Dan

A lot of these fans have a foil circle (that has printing on it) covering the bearings and armature to prevent dust getting in. If you lift the edge of the foil with the tip of a knife, you can peel it off, put a tiny drop of oil on the bearing (or bushing, more commonly) and that will shut it up until you can replace it. Put the foil back, obviously.

Thanks, guys, and sorry to waste your time here. The cooler is for LGA

775 and I just found a new one, complete with heatsink, for $8 shipped. At that price, I snatched it. I had in my mind that this was like a $30-40 item (heatsink/ fan assembly) and maybe it was at one time but no longer apparently. Bill

Well, I see you have found a solution. But, for a Dell desktop I had that got noisy, I bought replacement bearings from Boca Bearings and replaced them. Slightly tricky small work, and you don't want to lose the tiny circlip that holds everything on the shaft. Most of these fans have ball bearings, so adding lube will have very little effect. The Boca bearings were not as good as original, but they gave 3-4 years of 8760 Hr/year service.

Jon

Never lube any PC fan

Noise problem is usually caused by dust or bearing ending its lifetime.

ON CPU generally, fan are clipped or screwed on the heatsink.

But some manufacturers glue them with and thermal conductive glue.

You can try to make it turn with a vacuum cleaner and check its noise.

Do you have room to fit another fan over the top of the existing one?

Most fans have a sticker over the end of the shaft. Some have a rubber plug over the end.

I use gun oil. It's thicker, so it tends to stay longer. Yet it penetrates well.

For power supply fans and laptop fans, I often drill a hole in the case so I can poke an insulin syringe thru the label to lube it next time.

It's harder to get the lube to the other end of the shaft for ball-bearing fans, but if you put in enough oil, it migrates better than I expected.

Some fans don't have access to the shaft at all. I never figured out how to remove the blade without breaking something. One time, I drilled a tiny hole in the blade hub at an angle that intersected the bearing beneath and lubed that hole. Tricky, but it worked.

Some have a rubber bung in the bearing recess - most have nothing more than the paper label covering the hole.

A syringe is the usual method of introducing fresh oil.

Slick 50 PTFE engine oil additive works best of all.

Just wanted to update that the new fan/ heatsink arrived and was an exact replacement for the original. Still had some Arctic Silver sitting around and used that after removing the original grease. The new assembly is now in place and the fan is almost as quiet as a mouse.