Chipset fan woes

[Obaryu]

Ok, so on my Biostar motherboard the chipset fan has been making an awful noise for some months now. When I look at it while its making the noise the cause is clear. The fan is slowing down or stopping. Just recently its stopped turning period. I dont know if this is a real problem or not, but I did order a new chipset fan from tiger direct and attempted to install it. However The fan that is currently in place doesnt seem to want to come out. It has some wierd looking fasteners on it that have spring looking things on it and can be pushed in. Im not sure if I can take the mobo out and flip it over to possibly find some screws on the back that will release it or not. And even if there are the new one I ordered just has a sticky back on it and no area really to fasten it to the mobo. If it turns out that I cant take the fan out Im not sure if I should replace the entire mobo to fix the problem or not. If I do does anyone have any suggestions on a good replacement. Im running XP Home, and mostly do Design, photography, a little C4D and video editing.
Thanks...

[Snod Blatter]

Sounds like the current heatsink/fan setup uses those little plastic barbs... they're also used on graphics cards. You'll need to remove the motherboard and squeeze the head of the barbs together, then they can be pushed back through the board.

The one you just bought has thermal tape on it, so it simply sticks to the chip rather than clamping down onto it. This makes sure it will fit as many boards as possible, since not all boards use standard northbridge coolers...

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by Obaryu Im not sure if I can take the mobo out and flip it over to possibly find some screws on the back that will release it or not.

You have to remove the motherboard from the case before you can remove the pins. From the backside you have to either sqeeze the ends of the pin so that it will fit through the hole (be very careful if you use pliers...you don't want to slip and hit the motherboard). Or you can cut the pin ends off so the the pin will just fall off the motherboard (again, be very careful so you don't damage the motherboard). Either way you do it you must first remove the motherboard from the case.

Originally Posted by Obaryu And even if there are the new one I ordered just has a sticky back on it and no area really to fasten it to the mobo.

That's the thermal tape...you just clean the northbridge chip surface with alcohol and then stick the chipset heatsink to the northbridge and then gently push down on it for a minute or so to ensure a good bond.

Originally Posted by Obaryu If it turns out that I cant take the fan out Im not sure if I should replace the entire mobo to fix the problem or not.

You don't have to replace the entire motherboard...the northbridge chipset heatsink will come off but you have to take the motherboard out of the case first.

Cricket

[Obaryu]

Cool, thanks for the info. Its much appreciated...