CPU fan RMAed - should I wait?

sk3lph

sk3lph

sk3lph

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16 May 2007
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I've just built a completely new system for some friends based around an i5 and everything is working as it should - can get into the bios, all the components are recognised etc.

The only component that isn't working is the fan on the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2. It twitches a bit on boot up and then remains stationary, refusing to spin up. I've tried it on both the fan sockets on the motherboard and I've even tried it plugged into my own pc - it does the same thing ie twitch then nothing.

As well as the lack of movement I also get a "cpu fan error!" message on boot up and the CPU temp in the bios is showing 40 degrees, which seems a bit steep for an idle temp.

Anyway, OCUK has already given me an RMA number for the fan but I've got a couple of questions -

1. I used the supplied thermal grease that was already on the cooler - would I be better using thermal paste from a tube?

2. With regard to the idle temp, should I wait until I get the replacement fan before installing the os and other stuff? Would it be a bit risky to rely on passive cooling even tho I've got 5 fans providing a good movement of air through the case?

Any advice much appreciated. :D
 
Thekwango said:
Any advice i've ever seen/read online says best practice is to never run a cpu without a working heatsink and fan.
Click to expand...

Thats pretty much what I thought and basically why I've stopped it - its just a bit irritating I'll prolly have to wait the best part of a week before I can finish the job.
 
If its just the fan you are sending back you could just elastic band/cable tie a spare case fan unto the cooler. With my i7 i have noticed I can turn the two push pull fans off and the cooling of the HAF 932 still keeps the temps around 40c idle in a cold room. I have quite a beefy heatsink though.
 
Exsurgo said:
If its just the fan you are sending back you could just elastic band/cable tie a spare case fan unto the cooler. With my i7 i have noticed I can turn the two push pull fans off and the cooling of the HAF 932 still keeps the temps around 40c idle in a cold room. I have quite a beefy heatsink though.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response - I thought about doing your suggestion but I've not got a spare 120mm fan only a 60mm one - so I'd have to buy a fan to do that - something I may do as ideally I want to finish the job before I go on holiday which is a week today.

Any takers on my other question wrt the thermal grease?
 
Im not sure how good the thermal grease is that comes with the Freezer 7 Pro but I always tend to clean off the stock paste and apply some MX-2.
 
can you not take one of the fans on your case and place it on the heatsink temporarily and apply blu tack on them? ? those arctic 7's are rubbish, should have never bothered anyway their pretty poor. if you have the 60mm fan would do just blu tack it and if it has a connector plug it in the motherboard by leaving one of the tiny holes out, trial and error or hotwire it in of its a molex, look at some guides online (I wouldn't recommend this). If you haven't got the oem wheres your standard 2500k fan?
 
Do you not have to send the whole cooler back for RMA?

Pretty sure the supplied paste is MX2.

If you got the cash spare, i would buy a tube anyway, just in case you need it any time in the future.

Is the CPU retail or oem?

If retail, just use the stock cooler.
 
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