UNIX PC Fan problems, how I repaired it myself.

[Lenny Tropiano]

This morning (1:00am) my machine died ... it turned of, rebooted, off,
rebooted, off (continuously).  As I quickly found out the fan in the back
that keeps the unit fairly cool had died.  This is pretty common, as I
found out in UNIX PC's.  The company I work for (an AT&T VAR) has had
to call AT&T a couple of times on "death-of-a-fan" problems.

Well I was luckier than most, I was their when the machine actually
crashed, so I quickly shut the power off by the switch and let the system
cool.  If this up-and-down sequence continues too long, you generally have
hard disk problems.  Also, if it gets too hot, I assume the motherboard will
have problems.

Now I called my friendly neighborhood AT&T tech, and asked him how much
a new fan would cost (since I don't have a maintenance contract), he
looked it up and said, "Hmmm, Fan Assembly, that will run $100 for the
parts plus labor".  Uhhh, I choked.  Well as it turns out the fan inside
the UNIX PC is a 12 volt DC 3" fan.  I went down to my neighborhood
Radio Shack, and picked up:

	Cat. No. 273-243   3" (80mm) DC Brushless fan    $14.95

I went home, got a phillips screwdriver and started attacking it!  To
do the whole procedure took about 25 minutes, and the machine is up
and running (still very cool after 3 hours).   I bought two fans,
my next project is to remove the foam in the left side and replace that
with another fan. (Hey, what's a little more hum?) :-)  I'll keep everyone
posted.  I might just use that user controlled LED on the left side to
turn it on and off at periods of time... Who knows?

						-Lenny

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