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Yesterday, I was cleaning my PC and after that, I tried to boot my pc and itself automatically after sometime.

I checked all the fans and notice that my Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS Graphic card fan is stopped spinning and card is overheating. I've removed and re-attached the 2-pin power connector for fan and even reseated Graphic Card but still no luck.

I peeled the sticker on the fan and place 2-drop of oil into axis. I tried to spin the fan with my hand and nothing seems to be blocking.

My question is -

1) How can I diagnose that 2-pin power connector on the graphic card is getting power?

2) Can I use another power source from mother board if the pin on graphic card is not getting power?

3) If the fan is defective, can I replace the fan alone without buying new Graphic Card?

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2 Answers 2

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Ok, so here are the answers to the questions in the same order as you numbered them:

  1. You can check if there is a voltage supplied to your fan with a simple volt-meter. I would not bother about the power since the rest of your PC is functioning properly. If you will see something around 5V then you're OK.
  2. Yes, you can use another pin on the mother board to supply voltage to your fan. However there are few things to consider. First, make sure the voltage is right. There should be info about nominal voltage on the fan. Second, make sure that the wire is long enough and that you run it safely around other parts of MB.
  3. Normally you can replace the fan without buying new GPU. You can also replace a heatsink if necessary. Make sure you select the correct model that will match your Graphic Card in terms of size, shape and cooling power.
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  • Thank you very much for your detailed answer. I think I cleaned the graphic card's circuit board with brush roughly (not very rough I think). Do you think it can damage the power supply on the card's board for fan? The card is still work. It's just overheating...
    – Min Naing Oo
    May 29, 2014 at 11:27
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    I don't think it can damage the fan PSU, but it does not mean this did not happen. I would also recommend you to test then fan itself. Disconnect it, check the nominal voltage and try powering it with the battery or some other source.
    – Art Gertner
    May 29, 2014 at 11:58
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The most elegeant solution is to buy a large northbridge cooler heatsink, which have the same mounting holes / push pins as video cards. Although, this will require a lot clearance below the card (at least 3 PCI slots).

You also can use zip ties or other ghetto solution to mount another fan in place of the old one, and connect it to a 3-pin header on the motherboard, using adapters like these, and possibly little extensions. http://www.coolerguys.com/32pa.html

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