G40Max fan broken?

[Magnus Johansson]

Well , it seems that I'm not alone with this fan problem.

According to 3DChipset review of the Max,
theirs broke after 9 weeks.
http://www.3dchipset.com/reviews/mat...e/max/max5.asp

"I've owned this video card for about a month now. One of the worst things about this cheap heatsink/fan setup is that the fan died on me about 9 weeks into me owning it. Calling up matrox technical support was more hassle than it was worth. So either I buy myself a new fan. or had to wait 8-12 weeks for delivery of a new card. Needless to say my warranty has been voided. "

My card is also about 9 weeks old...
Hmm, it seems that there is a quality issue with this fan.

/M

[moreau]

Don't know how it works on the max, but on my DH32 I can clock to 150/200 (maxish), without using a fan, and play continuosly in Half-Life, Q2 etc.

BTW, I did strap a small 12V tubeaxial fan to the heatsink the other day. It didn't do anything for the overclockability. I can actually run it at 160/213 (320 PLL) and play q2, but HL produces some visual artifacts, but that was the same in either case.

[SCompRacer]

Thanks, Greebe, for helping with the proper technical terms. Being an ex-hunter type, I am familiar with the slang terms used to describe "silicone/zinc based HS compound" but I can tell you this heat sink compound ain't no where near as bad in the odor department.

I too swapped my fan out, but it was to have the plastic bladed fan instead of the metal one. It still worked though, and Matrox had the new one to me in a couple of days.

[SteveC]

Remember that the G400 MAX's heatsink is smaller than the vanilla g400! The MAX heatsink has a large area cut out where the fan sits, doesn't it?
Therefore, even running at vanilla speeds might overheat...

------------------
Cheers,
Steve

"The chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million-to-one", he said.

[Mats]

Seems that at least some G400Max fans have a quality or design problem. My fan ran at full rpm when the machine (tower) laid on one side, but ran at less than half rpm when the tower was standing.

Seems that the fan isn't designed for hanging upside down. (The rotor weights too much and the magnet becomes un-aligned.)

The fix was easy (although I guess it voids the warranty of the fan):

Remove the fan from the heatsink.
Peel off the sticker from the back of the fan.
Remove the nylon washer from the fan axle and pull out the rotor blades (including magnet and axle) from the fan casing.
Check the base of the axle and you'll find a small rubber o-ring.
Remove the o-ring and put the rotor back in the fan casing.
Put the o-ring on the axle followed by the nylon washer and the sticker.

The o-ring is now on the other side of the fan bearings (between the bearing and the nylon washer) and prevents the rotor from "falling". As a result the fan now operates att full rpm in every position except when the tower case is standing up side down (and even then it operates better than it did unmodified standing the correct way). The fan now runs an a steady high rpm with less noise than before.

[Magnus Johansson]

I must add that I think that this isn't an issue on wether my card was seated properly or not.
Some people suggested that this was the case because I mentioned that I removed my card, and put it back again, and the fan started.

However, when that fan didn't spin, it started spinning when I touched it in the center, pushing the spindle/rotor upwards a millimeter or 2.
It clearly has a play of a couple of mm.
So this isn't a powersupply issue , I think.
(It wouldn't started if it ain't got the power, right?)

I also think, as Mats mentioned earlier, that the fan has problems operating hanging upside down.

Can anyone recommend a good quality fan that fits the Max ?


/M