Chip fan from Asus A8N SLI board

[jweber]

I am having the same Chip fan problem that everyone else is having. I just received a new fan this morning. Does anyone know how to safely remove the old fan from the motherboard? Any help would be much appreciated.

[CCT]

I suggest you register on the Asus site and go to the motherboard section for your specific board and browse first then ask. Some great resources there. You don't hafta actually register your board, just sign up.

[street1]

http://forums.windrivers.com/showthread.php?t=75399

This is an earlier post on windrivers perhaps IT Len will be able to assist you.

[IT Len]

Jweber...welcome to WD.

First off, you're correct. After researching this for days, I've found that there are literally hundreds of complaints regarding this chip fan. The ASUS forum lists complaint after complaint about it. I note that the replacement fan seems to be a little beefier than the original. Apparently, there was a very cheap build of the 30mm fan itself, which allowed the base of it to rub on the housing.

Now, since you have the replacement in hand. D/c the short 3 pin wire that connects the fan to the mobo. If your view to the entire fan is unobstructed, you'll see two black plastic connectors holding the entire fan/heatsink assembly to the mobo. No need to detach the fan from the heatsink if you can see those connectors.

Those two plastic pins just get pushed into a pair of holes on the board. [I attempted to release them by pushing them in with a pencil eraser to see if they'd release...don't really know if it helped, but give it a try.]

I carefully just pulled on the pins with some needle nose pliers, which removed them. Watch it though. Bump the board with the pliers and you can destroy it. Also watch it if you have to pull too hard...it did not require all that much effort.

To install the new fan, just align it over the attachment points, and then push on the black pins to seat it, again with the eraser end of a pencil. Attach the wire to the mobo and you're done!