Geforce TI4600-replacement fan? (Urgent!)

[Falkentyne]

Greetings,
Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, but it's important that I get some help :(

Anyone know where I can get a replacement fan for the Ti 4600 (stock heatsink?). It's a visiontek card, so nothing special there. I know I could simply buy a completely new heatsink for it, but I can -not- get the old heatsink off--at ALL. It won't budge.

And I don't want to risk damaging one of those tiny resistors prying it off with a knife.....

Any advice?
1) Where can I find a replacement fan for this card? Links please; I just spent an hour looking all over, and couldn't find anythinig.
2) If I absolutely must go the route of replacing the HS, how do I remove the damn thing? The pins come off easily, but it seems like it's REALLY glued on to the GPU...how can I remove it without ripping the GPU off the entire board? (That's why I'd MUCH rather do #1...I've seen posts about people that ripped the whole GPU off.....).

[GlowStick]

Hello,

Hi, VisionTek has stated that they will honor their warrentys on their legacy Geforce products. You may want to contact them at http://www.VisionTek.com

If they cannot help you, then you can find replacement coolers from such sites as

Xoxide.com

Here is a link to a cheap Geforce4 cooler

http://www.xoxide.com/thergef4cool.html

Im sorry i cant help you on how to remove the heatsink because i have not had a geforce4, however i suspect there should be some mounting pins/screws that go though the pcb that hold it on.

[Fam Money]

If I remember correctly the HS were epoxied on and people had to put the cards in the freezer to harden the epoxy to get it off. I'll see if I can find any info for you.

In the mean time I would definitely contact VT if they're are in fact honoring the warranties.

[Fam Money]

What not to do:
http://forum.osnn.net/showthread.php?t=40352

What to do:
http://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=4397&perpage=15&pagenumber=2
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=8717

[Sovereignxp]

I had that same problem way back.

I used to have a VIsiontek Geforce 4 Ti4600... damn fan was starting to go bad, so I replaced it with this heatsink kit http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/video/ThermaltakeGF4_CoolMOD_1.html

Worked great!

To remove the old heatsink, you gotta use your card and let it get hot, ( run a 3d game for 20-30 Min. depending. If your fan is not even moving, then this option may not be for you.) this will loosen the yellowish thermal material that has bonded to the chip. Remove the video card, pop the pins and then gently twist the stock cooler clockwise and counter clockwise and it should eventually pop off.

[Falkentyne]

Thanks, guys.
I'll grab some ziploc plastic bags and freeze the card for a few hours.

(I'll try the "hot" method first...heatsink will get very hot just having the card on, but it will load windows (I won't risk 3D)..if that doesn't help, then in the freezer it goes :)

BTW, the fan has apparently been dead for many months (maybe more than a year). I never caught it because I have a huge 120mm sunon case fan blowing a _lot_ of air directly on the card and motherboard (that did a great job).. I have a new copper Ti cooler on order.

[ricercar]

If i understand, you want just the fan and not the aluminum. The plastic fan comes out of the aluminum with three screws.

I have an unused engineering sample GeForce Ti4x00 fansink. If this seems compatible with your needs, PM me your postal address and it's yours.

[Sovereignxp]

Good Luck. :)

[Cota]

why not use a cpu fan instead?

I put a panaflo on my visiontek ti 4600 with some strips and it worked great

[Falkentyne]

The card is in the freezer now. I had it in almost an hour, but that epoxy did NOT even begin to move....its stuck on as much as it always has been (help?)

I'll let it stay in awhile longer.

That epoxy stuff simply is NOT budging whatsoever.....

[Falkentyne]

Well Jesus Christ.....

I froze the thing for 3 more hours and the epoxy STILL didn't budge.
Impossible to twist off, unless you're superman.

I then tried to chisel it off with a (bare) razor blade, but that didn't work. All it did (and with a very mildly cut finger to boot) was let me see the very edge of the epoxy. :lame: :bash: And I couldn't use the blade holder since it would probably rip off resistors.

And all of this is with carefully trying to avoid ripping any small parts off the card.

So then I decided....well I might as well attempt to pry it off with a knife again, while the card was still frozen, and hopefully, not crack anything.

So I pried..and pried.and pried....

then after a really huge pry........ Klunk......the heatsink pops off.
JESUS F**** CHRIST.....

This thing was probably the HARDEST thing I've ever done ever since I started using computers...

Put the TT copper heatsink on, after cleaning the core with AS5 and nail polish remover, put it in...and......it worked...
It actually worked.....I was SURE I had mucked up something with all that prying and stuff....

Set core to 320 mhz and did some Quake3 for a half hour....no locks at all. (previous high was 310 mhz). Of course I don't know if it's stable at 320 mhz, because openGL stuff has always run at higher clocks than D3D(8+9) stuff. But man.....

If my Radeon9800 Pro is also glued on with superman glue, I might just give up PC gaming forever....I'm NOT going through THIS again......


Thanks to all who helped.
(and yes, I still would like that replacement fan, check your PM).

[Sovereignxp]

Congrats. Yeah that Thermal Take copper cooler is nice. Works way better then the stock cooler.

[GlowStick]

Congrats!

Also on the 9800 pro, it shoudlnt be!

[Banko]

You could grab yourself a Blue Orb, had one one on my geforce 3 before, cooled nicely should work on a geforce 4.

[subbo]

I've done this for two Ti4200:

1. unscrew the original fan (not the heatsink)
2. tie a 80mm case fan (silicon electric wire is best and gives noise damping, but you can use thin cable binders too linked into eachother) onto the bottom of the card so the fan blows towards the heatsink and is in contact with the heatsink.

This gives low noise compared to noisy small fans and proper cooling quaranteed, and the fan wont fail from dust and use for years.

[chigger_ns]

Yeah, I have a Thermal Take copper cooler on my xfx ti4200 and It is a great replacement. nice heat sinks too! :)