CPU fan keeps dying

[Admiral]

It's the 4th one in 2 months (good thing I have a slot CPU).

The first time I though it was just a bad fan. After the second died I assumed there was something wrong with the mobo and juiced the third fan from the PS cables with a 3 pin to 4 pin adapter. After a couple of weeks it died also. The 4th fan was also connected with the adapter and joined the casualty list half an hour ago.
The odd thing is that it's always the one closest to the PSU.

[Wombat]

What kind of failure exactly? Mechanical or electrical?

Maybe just a bad brand.

[Admiral]

Mostly mechanical.
1 Sunon, 2 F.T.C (Fanner Tech CO) and 1 Power Logic

Put another Sunon in today, wish it has a longer life than the others.

[Greebe]

Why is this topic in the Soap Box?

[Admiral]

Because it was more of a rhetorical "rant" and... well, sometimes I like to post hardware related stuff
in TSB ( ).

[Greebe]

Are they sleeve or a ball bearings type?

[Admiral]

ball bearings

[Greebe]

Use a very light weight oil to free them up

[Admiral]

I'll try

[Patrick]

P3 Hoover?

Does your computer operate in an extemely dusty environment? If it's sucking in a lot of dust, that might explain all these fans failing prematurely.

Use a vacuum cleaner to remove household dust, not your computer!

[2Whyzzi]

invest in a UPS and/or power supply

I would suspect power related. If you live in a remote area, perhaps live in an old house, or get frequent power spikes it could be doing some wierd and wonderful things to your PC.

As always, best of luck
Whyzzi

[Greebe]

Dust can cause this problem, but I have found that fans that fail like this is due to the lack of lubrication... or what was there has dried out leaving a caked up film that binds the bearings.

If it were power related his system would be crashing all over the place.

[Admiral]

Could be many things.
On the dust side, I ran my PC with the case open for the last 14 months. So it does take more dust in than normally. I do take time to clean the room and from time to time take each component out and brush the dust off it .
I run it with the case closed now.

On the power side. I've had some problems in the last month. Power cutting just for a sec or two enough to reset the PC, became more frequent till it culminated with a total blackout on a 2 block radius. Power company fixed it now.
Looking to buy a surge suppresor and a backup source.

Could also be what Greebe said.