Problems with chip fan and CPU fan

Question

I have a five-year-old ASUS motherboard that has been working fine for me for years, until I attempted to power it on yesterday and got a CPU fan speed and chip fan speed warning.

Cracking open the case and powering the computer on, I can see the chip fan working, but it appears to be hitting something as it makes a very loud buzzing noise. The CPU fan, meanwhile, starts up when I power on, but slows down and stops after a few seconds!

How can I address these problems? Is there any way to fix these sort of fan speed issues without just replacing the fan (which in the case of the chip fan, probably means replacing the whole motherboard)?

Answer 1

The CPU fan can probably be replaced by an after-market CPU cooler available from PC stores. You may also be able to just clean it up by sucking all the dust and grot out using a vacuum cleaner. (Something you should generally try and do about every 6 months, by the way).

Things like chipset and graphics cards fans are much harder to find replacement parts for, but you can get them. I found some of the small fans (eg the 2 inch ones) available from Farnell / Element14 / Newark (depending on your country). They are not cheap, but cheaper than a new motherboard / graphics card. To fit it you may need some skill with a screwdriver, or electric drill, or both. But I have done a couple of successful repairs on things like this.