How do computer cooling fans work?
Almost all computer-cooling fans are designed around a sleeve bearing assembly -- although I have encountered some computer cooling fans that use a ball bearing assembly. For this article, I'll focus on the sleeve bearing assembly.
A sleeve bearing assembly is composed of a shaft (to which the fan blade is attached) that rotates inside of a stationary cylinder. In this case, the cylinder is made of a porous metal, which is impregnated with oil. As the shaft rotates, oil is pulled out of the cylinder creating a film of oil on which the shaft rides. This film of oil prevents metal-to-metal contact and thereby eliminates friction and almost all noise. This type of sleeve bearing assembly is illustrated in Figure A.
Figure A
A sleeve bearing assembly is composed of a shaft that rotates inside of a stationary cylinder.
In a perfect sleeve bearing assembly, the amount of oil in the bearing is the correct amount and stays constant throughout the life of the fan. However, if the assembly doesn't stay sealed properly, some of the oil can dry up over time. When that happens, the rotating shaft will come in direct contact with the stationary cylinder, which creates a scraping or grinding sound.
In addition to the noise, the increased friction will cause the fan to rotate slower, which in turn will reduce the airflow. If the airflow is reduced, the system will run hotter than it should, which puts certain components at risk for failure. Replenishing the oil reserve in the sleeve bearing assembly will reverse this condition.
Does your PC have a fever?
If you want to monitor the temperature inside your PC, you might want to investigate software like CompuNurse or a Lian Li LCD Thermometer.
Oiling the fan
Now comes the tricky part. How exactly do you go about oiling a computer-cooling fan that uses a sleeve bearing assembly? Well, to begin with, you need to use only a single drop of oil.
If you refer to Figure A, you'll see that the lubrication point is located in the centre of the fan. It's a good rule of thumb to physically remove the fan from the computer to oil it.
Talkback
Read this with interest as I cured a noisy fan a few months ago in similar fashion.
However, I used Slick50 in the aerosol form - it's a "dry" lubricant - adding just a few drops after opening up the fan's cover.
I would have preferred to use Redex but didn't have any at the time.
The fan's been working effortlessly and quietly ever since.
Kind regards
Stuart Isenberg
dear sir.
my graphics card is a "msi geforce ti 4200 128 mb ddr.
this has become noisy when starting up from cold.then it quitens down & the computer case will sometimes feel hot.
what type of oil should i use.
thankyou.
neil
happy new year.
Great article.
This was exactly what I needed. My power supply fan had stopped working due to dust getting clogged up within among other things... all things said and done with this very very useful tip I was able to clean and griese the fan and now it is working in tip top shape.
Mucho gracias.
An excellent article, but for one small omission. Greg tells us that the computer can have three fans - case, processor and transformer. It wasn't until I read Neil. A Davy's comment that I realised that a video card can also have its own fan, usually well hidden. In other words, my computer has not three, but four fans. (A fan club?) Having oiled the first three as instructed I was still experiencing a dreadful whining and was ready to throw the entire devil's contraption out of the window. Thanks to Neil, that won't be necessary!
You can easilly fix a noisy fan temporaly by pulling it gently out of it's axis. The oil will then spread again on all of the parts.
This was great!!! I was pulling my hair out for days over my noisy machine. Using this article (and I am not a computer innards guru) I fixed the problem easily with no trip to my local pompous socially inept computer guy! Thank you.
I am so glad I found this article while I was shopping for a new fan! I DID use WD-40 the day before I read this, but only used a little, so no harm done. Diagram was very helpful and 1 drop of light machine oil did the trick!! Thanks.
Thanks for the tip. Had a fan slowing down and stopping on agp card. Asus supplied a new fan which worked for afew months and then quit. I tried your lube tip on the old fan. Its running like a charm. I have noise on another computer but didn't know how to lubricate. Your illustrations show the same fan as mine. I can't wait to get at that one now. Thanks.
I was looking through cooling fan adverts to replace two noisy fans and came across this item on how to oil them. I was a little cynical at first but decided to try it which was a very simple job with the instructions supplied and guess what ? two very quiet fans with slightly increased revs., two degrees lower temperature and above all, beautiful silent running.
Good on you Greg
Thank you! You don't know how many people I have been asking for help, with out any. Great with pictures to illustrtate
I did as the article stated,but my computer is still noisy as ever.It actually hurts my ears.
I guess I need new fans.My hardrive is noisy as Hell,too.
BRILLIANT! My computer was as loud as a lawn mower. Thanks to your advice and a drop of mountain-bike chain lube the machine once again quietly purrs.
Thanks a lot! I did according to the suggestion, it works perfectly !
Really great description and pictures
this is tells how to fix the problem it is a fan but not a disk drive. Could you tell me how to fix the disk drive to my email addres
Great article! Sure saved me a few dollars and has worked well for one of the two fans that had stopped working.
That worked awesome!!! Thanks so much for the advice...she's purring like a kitten again. I was a bit unsure of what kind of oil to use so I ended up going to my husband's electric hair trimmer kit and got the little bottle of oil out of that and it worked like a charm!! Thanks again.
Article was right on !!!
Dell Dimension 2400, just under 2 years old.
I could not isolate the noise. I first cleaned out the dust and then oiled the main cooling fan as indicated. This did not solve the problem. I then noticed that front opening where the hard drive is stored was clogged with dust. Cleaned that out.
Also at that time i thought the fan on the PNY GeForce Fx5200 graphics card could be making the noise. I removed the card, then its independent fan, and oiled it. Sure enough my computer was barely making any noise at all.
THANKS !!!
David C
The article was very helpful indeed. I've been having problems with my MB fan. I've got ABIT IC7-G and its fan (on the north bridge) has become very noise recently (80% of the time PC was on). Also its rpm fall (during those noisy times) from 2270 down to 270. So I figured I needed to oil it. But upon peeling the sticker back I discovered there was no plug to remove (I couldn't access the lubrication well). So I used the syringe instead (yeah). Well, I must have injected more than just one drop of oil - it solved the noise and rotation rate problem, but left me with yet another one on my hands: when I start the PC this fan just refuses to rotate (resulting in 10 or so phrenetic restarts, finger intervention, etc.) So I have to keep the case open at all times (a real drag).
FANTASTIC TIP!!!! my computer sounds like its a new one and its 7yrs old!! took me 20 mins power supply fan was a bit awkward but hey
W.T.H.
PS I used sewing machine oil!
This was awesome!!! Even a "non-tech" person, such as myself, was able to do this and best part... NO MORE NOISE!!! Thanks!
This is an absolutely brilliant tutorial that can be followed by the complete novice which is how it should be. Excellently written and superb supporting pictures. This is quality and professional. There's only one thing to say: THANK YOU!
great thanks for the insight
I have a 5 year old system, (I tend to use computers until they fall apart). The CPU fan started to get noisy in only in the first minute of boot. Upon opening the case, there was quite a dust farm in there. I inspected and removed the CPU fan, finding it did have some bearing wear as it had a tiny bit of side movement. The heatsink was pretty well plugged up with dust, in which I proceeded to remove the dust. I put a drop of oil in the hole under the sticker of the fan before replacing it. I then removed the all that dust out of th case before putting it back together. The fan has held up quite a while that way so far.
I had noise from the fan for almost a week, I opened the case and vacuumed the dust 2 days ago but the noise stayed the same.
I knew I had to buy a new fan, but I said I will try Google and see if anyone has an advice. I read the article and to be honest at first I was suspicious that Oil will solve the problem but I said I will give it a try the noise was extremely awful.
Anyway, the only oil I have is Olive oil but as I was desperate I tried it and it worked great. Now no more noise. The oil hungry fan was the video card’s, the smallest fan but sure made a lot of noise, size does not matter overall.
Thanks a lot for the great article, and please advice on the use of olive oil.
Its better to get bigger fans with smaller revs, this means it will spin slow yet keep the system cool :)
This post has been removed by a moderator.
I saw that you posted a message about noisy computer fans and thought you might be interested in what I found:
Do a search for a product called 'FanLube'. It is a high quality silicone lubricant that is specially formulated for noisy computer fans. It worked wonders for my noisy laptop fan! And their website has a demo video and pix to show you how to apply it. Also FAQs to explain why other oils like sewing machine oil, 3-in-one and WD-40 are not suitable.
Excellent tip! It worked for me, with a small variation. In this case, I needed to reduce the noise from a graphic card fan, and I needed to take the fan away from the card, and disamble the fan itself, removing the stickers from both sides of the fan. Then I used WD-40 to clean the axis, while pushing in and out the axis. Finally, I lubricated with sewing machine oil, and again, push forth and back the metal axis. It reduced the fan noise about 90%... Great! No need to replace the card. Thank you for the idea.
IMPORTANT POINT FOR ANYONE ONSIDERING THIS
Firstly, this worked WONDERS for me, my pc sounded like a vacume, but now its sounds like cat purring, but i should point out a serious error i made so no one else makes it, if your pc fan dosen't have a cap on its end when you peel off the back sticker, be very very sure NOT to put oil anywhere on the surface where the sticker is, otherwise you will NOT be able to re-stick the sticker, and the oil will run out and all over your pc.
Excellent post! I never new about the rubber plug in the back of the fan, I just assumed the fan bearings were sealed at the factory. Thanks!!
My PC sounded like a bag of nails. Having followed the instructions above it now has a lovely smooth hummmmmm. Brilliant advise ! Thankk you!
when you say computer, is this method for desktop computers only? does this apply to laptops too? my sony vaio laptop is very noisy. how can i fix it myself?
IT WORKED WONDERFULLY!! No more noise... I had to actually have someone else to look at the fans just to make sure they were working ... because it was so Quite .... YEAH and the idea of using olive oil and cleaning out the dust ... worked wonderfully.. Thanks everyone for your postings ... sure made a believer out of me... :)
This post has been removed by a moderator.
You can buy a new fan - (just fan) on eBay auction,
Buy a good known brand
and attach it even with strips - it will be good to cool your CPU , VGA , case with no sound.
Olive oil is not good to use. It is biologically made so it will breakdown faster oxidize, and go rancid. also residual protein and other organics live in olive oil and will gum up the works after a while. Try a synthetic like Teflon. It comes in spray and drop and is by far the best lubricant for moving parts. The floridated molecule is highly stable in a large range of temperatures and provides a chemically molecular engineered lubricant. High performance cars use synthetic oils for a reason. The same reasoning applies here. By the way great post I knew i had to oil it (teflon). But wasnt sure where. I had a smaller fan in an HD case but it had no plug just a sticker. Started buzing a week after purchase. I didnt want to deal with a return so this fix was awesome. I have another one in my PC to lube (Processor fan) No noise=happiness
Of course a lubricant company with a specialized product will tell you nothing else will work as well and they have a point about certain oils/de-greasers. However in my opinion Teflon is better than Silicone for this application.
Great article, I had to put a lot of oil... over a period of time... 15 minute intervals.... and is finally quieter...
thanks...
Thanks GabrielG for the tip, I had to do the same thing.
My fan is a good ten years old and apparently was quite worn out. What I had to do was this: I got the fan out and laid it out on it's side, put one drop into each side of the well, then let the fan sit on it's side for a good 15 minutes to let the oil sink in. Then put the fan back into the computer and let it run for a while, then repeated the process about 5 times. Now my computer is no longer giving me a headache and it's down to a nice gentle hum. Thanks for the excellent clear instructions and to everyone for their comments and advice.
I have apply some singer oil as advised but my fan is still noisy. Should I change a new fan as the fan is still working?