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One of my Sapphire 5850s now has a stiff fan. It only gets about 500 RPM, where it should be getting 5000.  :'(

I took the card out, and manually turning the fan is stiff. It still turns, but not smooth and nice like the other cards. No idea what happened; it's a month old. Sapphire support will RMA it, but I have to pay shipping to their facility and I'm without a card for who knows how long.

All tech support could suggest is to "air dust" it and put WD40 on the fan. I doubt dust is to blame for a stiff fan, but I'll dust it regardless. As for the WD40 suggestion ... I'm not even sure how I would get WD40 onto the fan's internals. I guess I have to some how get the plastic casing on the card off, and carefully drip oil to the base of the fan. God knows what will happen if I accidentally get WD40 on the heat sinks  :-\

Anyone have some ideas?

Ouch. The usual recommendation is to use light oil/sewing machine oil rather than WD40 for sticking fans, but yours really shouldn't have failed this early on. Besides, I've generally found that it only helps for a few months before you have to re-oil.

I've never oiled the fan bearings on anything as high end as a 5850, but you'll almost certainly have to remove the fan and heatsink from the card completely, because the hole for oiling is pretty much always hidden under a sticker on the underside of the fan.

Warranty replacement is probably your best option?

Do not put WD40 on the fan. That's is the worst lubricant to use in a very dust heavy area. WD40 is sticky, and dust likes to find its way into every nook and cranny. The result: A fan that moves even slower.

The bearings are gone. That card is useless unless you get another heatsink/fan. Chalk it up as a loss and learn a lesson. NEVER run a fan over 50% 24/7

Fuck, i run it at 60%, i'll need another fan soon.
/me is changing his fan speed to 49%

One of my 5830 fans just crapped out today. I ran it at 100% 24/7 though due to retarded PCI-e slot placement on my motherboard. I'm thinking about just RMAing it though, mining is getting difficult to the point where it's worth $5 a day not to have that damn noise. That or I could get it repaired and sell it.

Guess it's luck as well.

I've run a 5850 for over a year now at 90% fan speed 24/7 and nothing has happened (famous last words)..

Yet :D

its just luck

Thanks for the advice guys.

I think I'll try to disassemble it and unstick the fan. RMA would take too bloody long. Worst case I can use it as-is but won't be able to overclock it anymore, which is fine.

You could always buy a aftermarket heatsink.

Aftermarket cooling is too expensive.

Officially you will loose your warranty if you unscrew the fan.


I had exactly the same problem: http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=10341


The engine oil I tried to get in did not really help.

With a really really thin mirror :D I managed to take this picture:

http://bitcoinx.com/pics/fan.jpg

So this Sapphire HD 5850 has a FD8015H12S fan from FirstD

I could only find it on this polish website http://www.bujnowicz.com/product_info.php?products_id=5063 but they did not respond to my english eMail. It's less than $7 so I would like to buy two just in case another one dies.

Anyway, my solution was to cut a hole into the case and put an additional fan right below the card. Mostly this is my coolest card now.

Another option might be to get a fan that fits in there (80x80x15) though it might be a hassle to fixate it.

The fans just aren't very durable. I've had 2 fans out of 8 have the same problem now, one 5850 and one 5970. The 5850 never ran higher than in the low 30% and the 5970 was usually well below 50%, so although it will probably make it last longer it's no guarantee against failure. Both cards have stock ATI coolers.

I was away for the weekend and was monitoring my mhash/s on BTCGuild.com, and I noticed one card (normally my hottest card) running unusually slow... 75 mhash/s down from close to 300 mhash/s. When I got home, the fan was making this grumbling noise intermittently, then would stop. There was also vibration  going on. Turns out Ive got the same problem, my fan has crapped out. Ive got a spare 5850 Xtreme cooler that Im not using, but I might be better off RMAing the card and just getting a new one. The card was still running, but at 95C, and Ive lost the ability to control the fan... CCC will try to make it run, but it just makes a low vibrating noise when it does.

I did take the cooler off and replace the TIM when I first got it, would Sapphire have a problem with that? I know some manufacturers let you do things like that, and some void the warranty when you take the cooler off. I can always give it a shot anyways.

phelix: Great information, thank you!

I'm wondering if I can take the plastic casing off, and set some regular ole computer cases fans on it. Not sure if that will pump enough air to keep it cool.

my second best solution would have been to buy a 80x80x15 fan (e.g. Titan) cut off the cladding so that it will fit in and somehow try to fix it with the original mounting holes.

get an accelero twin turbo already!!!!!  :o

This question, but for the centrally-mounted XFX 5850...mine is almost dead as well (1200 rpm all the time, with no control).

wow, all we miners just found another defective product made by sapphire.
no wonder their 5850/5830 are so much cheaper than other brands.
lesson learned: you get what you paid for.
From now on, I will only buy cards with LIFETIME warranty.

You guys ran these 5850s fans at 100% speed?       

I'm currently running at 72% (24/7 ofc), how much time till it breaks? :]

I'm not sure if this would work for you as I don't (yet) have a Sapphire card, but I was able to get my fanspeed pretty low (~30%) by affixing a case fan near the ports pulling air out.

A twist-tie works fine, though if you have DVI ports sticking out you will want to space it with a small shim. Its similar to placing a fan on the other exhaust, except I found it much easier to attach it to the metal there. It seems to me the metal conducts quite a bit of heat so it effectively acts as a passive cooler, with the added fan it works even better. I think a single fan could assist with the cooling of two cards in this way.



Edit: The fan I have is low CFM, and nearly silent. A high CFM fan would certainly do an even better job lowering temp and fan speed.

And my Sapphire 5850 fan just died.... 500rpm at 100% speed.

This is most likely easily fixed by adding some lubricant. I've 'fixed' quite a lot of fans with the same symptoms this way. There are tons of guides for this also. Some random one I googled - http://www.techrepublic.com/article/quiet-noisy-computer-fans-with-a-drop-of-oil/5034842

Had anyone successfully peal the sticker back to find an oil well on the sapphire 5850/5830's?

when you pull the sticker back,pull the plug and put a drop of oil in

Yea that is what my question was, if it had an oil well, my xfx 5830 fan didn't, it seized long ago, since then I been using a huge 120mm x 38mm panaflo on the xfx 5830 hs.

So, I am guessing the sapphire extreme fans do have an oil well? If, so, I gotta contact my seller, see if it is still under warranty or what not, if not, Ima give er some lube. From reading, removing/unscrewing the fan from the HS eliminates the warranty, if so, how stupid.

I had my 5850 xtreme all apart(i tried to mount an accelero on it),the heatsink off the fan out and i never looked to see how the fan came apart,the next time coins drop to 6 dollars and i shut my miners down and i'll strip it down and oil the fans.I'll take pictures

If they're anything like the fans on these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102873
Once they start "growling" the single sleeve bearing (!) is totally shot. Takes about 3-5 months at 100%.
And there's no way to lubricate them.
Whoever decided to put a cheap-ass sleeve bearing fan right on top of the hottest part of the heatsink was a true genius.

Agreed, xfx sent me three new fan units "in separate occasions", they all crapped out. I gave up on asking for new fans and did as I stated above with 120mm fan.

Had a reference 5850 fan failure recently. No warranty and I didn't want to toss the card so I bought a Scythe SCVSG-1000 for ~$40US and it works great, coolest GPU in my 5-card miner, You do need to use an adhesive thermal paste (not supplied by Scythe) on the VRM chips otherwise the little heatsinks in the kit fall off and could damage the fan.

did not work at all for me, I think it did not get through.   

waranty is officialy flawed as soon as you take off the fan.

I had posted a rant on Sapphire's website about their fans.
It got deleted, They simply don't want to hear about it.

I'd say ~20% of their fan will die within 4 month.

And I'd bet 95% will die within a year, (even running at 100% 24/7 it shouldn't happen)

Agreed.

Take this with a grain of salt, but injecting 3ml Mobil 1 5W30 does wonders for my GPU fans, make sure you blot up any oil trickling out, so as not to attract dirt or fibers. I have had 3 First D fans crap out on me and with the Mobil 1 oil they have been running happily since last 6 months or so.

Just found this fan available on ebay  for 58xx series cards

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Radeon-5970-Replacement-Fan-5970-5870-5850-5830-Arctic-Accelero-XTREME-/260922098081?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item3cc02b41a1

Wow $40 ! You can pick up used 5830s now for $75.
Check out this other thread where they're looking at what appears to be the same fan.
There is an eBay link there for a seller who has it $16 from China.

Remove top stick
Drill a hole in the top off center some
Add oil
Reapply sticker/tape

Clever, 
Did you try it, did it work. ?

I think I did and it didn't.

Worked fine, several months since then without issue.

Does somebody have some pictures how i can disassembe the fan from a Sapphire 5850 Xtreme ?

Thanks

? It's held by 3 screws, use a screwdriver...

Can someone show me whats screwdriver?  Pictures please.

easy guys...  some people just like instructions laid out step by step......

carlo.  it is pretty simple,  just take the thing apart. don't lose the little screws.  put a nice thin layer of thermal paste back on the gpu when you put it back together.  youll be fine.

I like your step by step.  ;D

Thanks SlaveInDebt, Your tips worked,  :D
I wish I had knew this before, (5 getto fan later)

Here's where I've drilled, (pic)https://i.imgur.com/ROfcRl.jpg
fill that small hole 3-4 time and spin the fan by hand in between.
(I did not have had to remove the heatsin to unplug/pull the wire)
Fan now work like a new.

No problem Transisto though I drilled one hole on the other side (top) ;)

Also note that my hole is offset from the center,   The first time I had drilled in the middle and ended up into the metal rod/axis.

I have a bunch of these fans coming in two weeks from now.  I will sell them for $19.99

Buy for 40, sell for 20  ???

He is not going to buy them for $40. You can buy them for $10 or so on alibaba in quantities.

These turbine fan have nothing to do with it OP.

We're talking 5850 xtreme fans.

Oh god no don't do this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH8spGRL3Yk

The 5800 series fans had quite a few issues.  I think the fan bearings were not properly greased/oiled from the factory.  I followed the above video and my fan is as good as new.  No more noise. 

After looking at that video, I am even more likely to drill a hole at the top of turbine fan and pour some oil in there.  I think the trick is to offset it about 2mm.  It save me from having to remove the heatsink to get to the screws.

Thank for the video

That definitely worked!
Hard thing is knowing when to stop drilling.
I drill a bit, use a flash light, rotate the fan to see if anything inside is moving.
If you don't see anything, keep drilling, then repeat.

That fan just broke again a few days ago.  It may be something else, I've put it on a card I am to RMA so won't know it reoiling would fix it again.

Ok.. I'm going to give this a try.

I have 2 failed 5850 Xtreme fans and I don't really want to deal with the RMA process for a discontinued item..

Given SlaveInDebt's success I am going to attempt his method of drilling through the top..




For the people asking how to take one of these apart..

Remove the 3 screws under the fan:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7179/6889375795_c0facb1aa7.jpg
 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/teknokid/sets/72157629351562447/)

Unplug the power connector:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7202/6889374535_45dc8f278e.jpg
 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/teknokid/sets/72157629351562447/)

Push the power cable under the heat sink while pulling on the fan to give yourself some room to work..

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7199/6889387231_103b4c1713.jpg
 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/teknokid/sets/72157629351562447/)


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7187/6889384557_c0d9cbede6.jpg
 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/teknokid/sets/72157629351562447/)

Here is the top with the sticker removed:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7208/6889377985_cf9fb22f65.jpg
 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/teknokid/sets/72157629351562447/)

I'm planning to drill just outside the ring around the center..

Here is the lubricant I'm planning to use:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7177/6889377039_ca5b8e6a15.jpg
 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/teknokid/sets/72157629351562447/)

Does anyone have any last minute suggestions?

-Tim

I re-oiled several fans already.

I'd suggest that you could use a normal knife, small one, with good tip. Then drill a hole right in the center of the fan,  you will see the metal shaft after several tries.

Don't use high performance electric drill

Thanks for the reply.. good idea..

I wasn't going to use a drill at all..

I have those quick swap drill bits with the hex bases.. I was going to use a 1/16th inch bit and simply spin it in my fingers while pushing down on the end.  That way I can control it better and avoid drilling into something important.

http://i1.quinbyhardware.com/6796494.jpg

Btw I also want to said that I drill from the bottom, not top. It is quite strange for me to see you remove to top sticker which has "Sapphire" word


If you check the previous pic, you will see that they drilled the bottom, non-moving part of the fan.

The guy who drilled from the bottom said it stopped working again.. SlaveInDebt said he drilled from the top and his still works months later.

I actually removed both stickers and the bottom one has a PCB visible through the gaps.. I didn't feel like drilling through that was a good idea.  Other fans which have a grease reservoir cap seem to have that located on the top.

OK, Maybe I need to disassemble one dead fan to get more info

Please post picts if you do  :)

I've had good luck repairing 5 sapphire fans by using SlaveInDebt's idea to drill a hole just off center (thru the front) about 2mm off center with a drill bit the same size as the straw on the spray can of teflon I use.

https://i.imgur.com/FGKu6.jpg

I run them overnite.  Then spray them once more.  They run better than new.

All right.. It’s done  and so far it looks like Great Success!..

I unfortunately, I didn't read my PMs first because SlaveInDebt got back to me and said he drilled 8mm-10mm from the center.. I was closer to 3mm.. but hey.. whatever works right?

Drilling..  I went about 6mm down.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7069/6894292023_e0ff08bce6.jpg
 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/teknokid/sets/72157629351562447/)

It seems like I drilled through a top level and a bit into the level below.  I can tell because when insert a needle into the hole and rotate the fan it catches a bit where the hole was initially drilled.

Next I tried to inject as much lubercant into the hole as I could.  I inserted a needle and rotated the fan to try to spread the grease around.  Repeat x2..

Fan one complete:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7186/6894293731_edb861e8d5.jpg
 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/teknokid/sets/72157629351562447/)

Zoom! 100%

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7048/6894294741_33a548b589.jpg
 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/teknokid/sets/72157629351562447/)

Fan 2 complete: (more confident this time)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7184/6894297211_9c58414eb2.jpg
 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/teknokid/sets/72157629351562447/)

It was a little difficult to get the stickers to stay on.  After wiping the excess grease off of the top of the fans the stickers didn't like staying put.. I got them on but I'll be watching to be sure they don't fall off later.

The second fan didn't want to start at first so I had to kick start it with my finger.. after a few tries it started up and is running solid at 100% like the other.

Back home again:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7193/6894298793_31b5b24c74.jpg
 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/teknokid/sets/72157629351562447/)

I'm planning to run them both at 100% overnight and then set them back on automatic sometime tomorrow..

I'll post a status update this weekend..

Nice work Tim. I suggest sealing/covering the oiling hole with something to prevent spray, reduce dirt oil, and faster drying of oil.

Thanks and I agree.. I only ran it for about a minute as a test and to get the pict.  I ended up getting the Sapphire stickers to stay on (for now).. if they end up falling off later I may have to clean the fan tops to remove the grease remnants and use a new sticker (or tape).   

As of this morning both fans have failed.

The theories I'm working on are:

1. Grease was too thick/hole too small so not enough actually got where I wanted it

2. Hole was in the wrong place.

3. Debris or damage to the sub-surface layer is creating additional drag.

4. Both fans are DOA and not resuscitatable.

1 and 2 I can work with.. 3 I can’t do anything without breaking the fan open and I’m not confident that these are able to be reassembled in working order.  And 4 doesn’t really have a good solution given the lack of replacement parts.

Plan of attack: (fails cascade to next letter)
A.   Buy some Tri-Flow as suggested by abracadabra and apply to existing holes.
B.   Drill new larger holes at the 8mm-10mm offset suggested by SlaveInDebt and apply SuperLube
C.   Tri-Flow on the new holes
D.   ???
E.   Profit!?

Wow is Tri-Flow hard to find..

I went to like 4 different auto parts stores and a big box hardware store and no dice..

Granger and a local bike shop both seem to have it but neither will be open until Monday..

All you have to do is pop up the fan hub and apply oil directly to the fan shaft, that way you don't need to drill holes in the plastic. Also probably helps prevent dust from gumming things up. I've oiled my Sapphire 5850 fans this way and they've been running for several months now.

I did apply some force to attempt to pop the hub off but it got to the point where it felt like it would break and I went the hole drilling path..  Can you give a little more detail?  I have 9 of these cards so I expect I'll be doing this again at some point.

Thanks,
Tim

Ok..

So I found Tri-Flow at REI in the bicycle section.. Unfortunately, there isn’t an REI very close to my house but they are open to 8pm so I drove out and bought it.

Tri-Flow is pretty cool, it is rated to 475F and the cards will shut the system down at less than half that temp so it seems like a good match. It’s a 4oz Aerosol spray can.. The tube which attaches to the sprayer is too large for the 1/16” hole I drilled (the tube seems to be about 3/32”) and the propellant was way too energetic so I filled a needle oiler and used that to apply the lubricant.


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7064/6900159503_1fffcf81cd.jpg
 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/teknokid/sets/72157629351562447/)

The fans move way more freely than they ever have so I reinstalled them and they are running great (so far at least) with no kick starting required.

I plan to run the fans overnight at 100% and then set them to Automatic tomorrow.

I used ATF additive if it matters to the discussion.

I would not try to "pop up the fan hub" as Photon939 says.  I tried and broke the fan.  You are trying to get lubricant to the shaft. That's the reason for drilling 2-3mm off center.  I beleive at 8mm you are way too far from the shaft and you now risk drilling into the armature of the motor. If you nick an armature wire, motor is done. I showed Tri-Flow but I believe any teflon based aerosol spray will do the trick.  I wasn't worried about the spray being "too energetic"  I want some lubricant getting in there. After running them overnight, hit them with another couple short bursts.  Forget about trying to reinstall the same sticker.  It'll eventually fall off unless you clean off the fan hub nicely and apply new adhesive.

12 hours and still going strong.  It looks like the Tri-Flow did the trick.  I plan to reapply at the 24 hour mark as abracadabra suggested.

My issue with the "too energetic" propellant involves the hole being too small for the tube to enter so I ended up with most of it just spraying all over the place.  Next time I will drill 3/32 holes so I don't have that problem.

My Tri-Flow does not say anything about Teflon.. In fact I don't see any current Tri-Flow products which mention Teflon.  They have something called P.T.F.E. which is considered a hazardous substance.

Here is the Material Safety Data Sheet which lists the contents: [MSDS (http://www.paintdocs.com/webmsds/webPDF.jsp?SITEID=DBS&prodno=032053200090&doctype=MSDS&lang=E)]

Here is the product info: [Tri-Flow (http://www.triflowlubricants.com/pdf/2009marchtflubesellsheet.pdf)]

[UPDATE] P.T.F.E. (Polytetrafluoroethylene) IS Teflon.  Teflon is a brand name owned by DuPont.  They must have gotten tired of paying to use the name.

You should try to use multiple screwdrivers to pry up evenly on the hub, maybe next time I have to do it I can make a video. It works on the squirrel cage centrifugal fans on the reference cards too.

Anyone has tried this fan for a 5850 xtreme?

http://www.ebay.es/itm/170671202120?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_2233wt_1163

I do not support Sapphire for that exact reason.  EVERY one I have ever had ... the fan breaks.

It looks like it would fit.. The listing specifies 72x10 and the original fan is listed as 80x15 on the Polish website which seems to have them: Wentylator FD8015H12S 80x15 12V  (http://www.bujnowicz.com/product_info.php?products_id=5063)

I'm not sure about the mounting placement and I don't have a ruler in mm to measure one.. if you are trying to replace one you should be able to do the measurement yourself (please post your results)

This other fan on eBay has the same fin structure but the wrong mounting and only 3 wire power connector:
New ASUS HD 4870 GTS 250 Video Card Replacement 75mm fan YD128015EL (http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-ASUS-HD-4870-GTS-250-Video-Card-Replacement-75mm-fan-YD128015EL-/270877943113)

Here is one which has similar mountings but with 43mm hole spacing and it has a 4 wire power connector.. who knows if the pinout is the same though..
75mm VGA Video Card Fan Replacement 43mm (http://www.ebay.com/itm/75mm-VGA-Video-Card-Fan-Replacement-43mm-PLA08015S12HH-176-/120851755107)

The inability to find a replacement part is what pushed me to go the repair route..

These 5850 Xtremes were the right card at the right price at the right time.. They came out during the Bitcoin bubble last year and for what? $140 each? With 1440 Stream Processing Units they are hard to beat.  I like them better than my 5970s for thermal reasons.. I ended up underclocking the 5970s and overclocking the 5850 Xtremes and I end up with about the same output for $140 / core instead of $300+ (the average / core price I paid for the 5970s)

i have a 5850 and 5830 the fan on the 5850 is an 80mm.when the fan does go i plan on getting something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103071 and cut the fan out of the frame,bend the legs and drill the 3 holes.probably have to change the connector,but as long as the amperage is the same it should work

I've done this.  You may wish to use a 15mm instead of the standard 25mm depth fan.  I used a 25mm and the cooler cover sits a bit high. I just run the new 80mm off a molex.
Also, try and find a fan with a high static pressure spec, since you're trying to push air thru some resistance (of the gpu cooler).

https://i.imgur.com/NlU9d.jpg

I posted a video how on the previous page.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=18111.msg685005#msg685005



You are a gorilla then.  I did this with no issues following the video's instructions.

When my 5850 (and 5870) fans fail, I just pop off the cowling, strap an 80mm casefan to the HSF unit with zip ties and fire it up.  Keeps the cards cooler than stock fan, looks ghetto as hell, but works great and its' cheap/easy to replace if/when the fan fails again.

Different fan from what we are discussing.

We are discussing a non-reference fan.

Sincerely,

The Gorilla.

This process works for both the Sapphire 5850 extremes as well as the reference designs. I have done it on both types in my mining rigs.

Not sure thats a good idea with all cards. Some have a "closed heatsink". If you look at the card as you normally would when its laying flat on a table, underneath the shroud you basically see a solid metal sheet with just a hole for the fan. The fan forces the air through the vents that you cant see from the top.  Blowing on to that sheet is probably rather pointless.  non reference XFX cards are like that. I had to put 3 case fans in series to keep a dead fan 5870 from melting. If Im not mistaken 5850 and 5870 reference coolers, while different are also mostly closed on the top.

Other cards have an "open heatsink" where the plastic shroud is actually needed to force the air through the vents of the HSF. In that case Im sure strapping on some case fans would work great and probably better than stock in an open rig.
      

Hmm... can you point to some pics of the two different kinds you're talking about?  The ones I've put case fans on seem to be the 'closed' type you are describing, and I've actually gotten better cooling with the case fan and no cowling.  But perhaps I've not seen the closed type you're talking about.   The two cards abracadabra posted are the type I'm talking about - I've replaced those and had good luck with that.

The fans I've replaced are flat blade type, basically just like a case fan.  Are you talking about the turbine type that are shaped more like  barrel, such as the reference 5970/6990 fans?  If so, then yes, I agree, replacing those with case fans would not be a good idea.

Here is a pic of my XFX 5870 cooler:

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4861/sdc10739kl.jpg

Only the most right heatpipe is in an "open" section of the cooler

http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/7555/sdc10740fe.jpg

Just slapping a case fan on there without shroud isnt going to work IMO.
Even with shroud it took me 3 fans stacked together blowing into where the original fan was,  to keep temps acceptable:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=62325.0

Yeah, those are the ones I'm talking about.  The case fan cools better than the stock fan with a shroud.  No joke, I have several running like that and they run cooler than they did new.

I think maybe the increased CFM from a case fan makes up for the loss of a shroud, and the closed design acts as a quasi-shroud anyway, providing better overall cooling at the expense of a bit of extra space (irrelevant in an open case with extenders) making it a 2.5 slot design, and it looks totally Road Warrior awesome... fans and shit strapped on for POWER!  I need a VTEC sticker.

Are you sure you have the same kind of heatsink? If you strap fans to that heatsink without offset, you would get zero CFM... its almost airtight, its like gluing a case fan to a wall? Even with offset, you are only using ~30% of the surface of the cooler, if that, since you dont use the vertical fins and you get close to zero airflow over the heatpipes.

If you put them in the place where the original cooler was, I cant imagine a lot of airflow going through the heatsink either. Not without a shroud forcing the air that way, rather than going up and down with no resistance.

Oh well, if it works for you, so much the better. But I cant see how lol. I suspect you have a different heatsink where air can travel through freely, unlike this XFX one.

I will take a picture tonight, but yes, at least one of them is an XFX, I'm not sure about the other that I'm thinking about off the top of my head.  Actually, on the XFX one, there is a bit of an offset, it's not flush... I think same on the Sapphire (I believe), but not sure... I do know the fins are enclosed as in your picture, though.

Just an update for anyone who finds this thread..

It's been about a month and both fans are still doing great.  I'm really glad I decided to fix these myself.

Good job!  All mine are running fine.  I think it's been over 6 weeks now for the first one I did.  No problems whatsoever.

My 5850 fan died this same way too :-(

Any chance you can post that picture? Just had a couple 5850s fail and I bought replacement Accelero's for them. But a cheap 80mm fan would be the ticket. I have a couple 5870s needing fans as well.

Kind of a crappy picture, but here you go:

http://communityhosting.net/ih/images/imag0085.jpg
http://communityhosting.net/ih/images/imag0086.jpg

Thanks.

Woot, thanks for the tip!

Didn't have my mobil1 handy but I did have transmission fluid so I put some on the metal pole after popping off the hub and it's running fine again now.  FYI, you can pop the hub off using a plastic pry tool...I used the kind you use on cars, like this http://www.harborfreight.com/5-piece-auto-trim-and-molding-tool-set-67021.html though I used a slightly less cheap one, it really helps with leverage in prying it apart (I tried by hand and it's definitely pretty damned hard to pull off by hand without breaking the fan).

So if you have a buncha car tools and lubricants lying around it should be pretty trivial to fix this without drilling holes in the fan.  I cleaned out the original lubricant first though, it had basically dried out entirely and was more powder than grease.  Not sure if you could get away with using a dry lubricant like molybdenum or something...I actually have a bunch lying around in powdered form (long story), maybe when the other fan goes I'll give it a shot lol.

I've been running the fan on my 4850 at 100% 24/7 for the last 4 months. :D

EDIT: Holy crap this thread is old.