Yes, then the fan should separate from the heatsink.

Oil should be cheaper than a new fan (you'll need a few drops), but it is your choice.

On some coolers there is a hole for applying machine oil under the sticker. It is sometimes covered by rubber cork.
However, not all coolers have this "feature" (it is normally present on CPU/PSU/System fans), and if your cooler is small and came with video card, then this feature may be missing, and in this case the only way to oil it would be to take cooler apart, which may be a bit complicated.

Anyway, IMO cheaper way is to apply oil (unless in your area/country machine oil is made of unicorn blood).
Replacing fan may be easier (depends on many factors). Your call.

For applying oil try reading this article.
You may still need a thermal paste if new fan has to be installed along with new heatsink.

I didn't know that you can oil a fan, I thought that you would have to remove the blades and likely break the fan.

Would this count? I know the picture sucks, but from what I can tell it looks like one of those "sleeve bearings", but I might be looking at it from the wrong side. I can't seem to get the fan itself to come off so I can look at the underside, though; the screws are in way too tight.

Wrong side.

The hole is in the stationary base, not in the spinning blade assembly. You have to remove the screws.

It might be easier to remove the screws without the risk of breaking the board if you remove the heatsink, but then you will have to buy thermal grease to reinstall the heatsink.

Never mind about the screws; I just needed better leverage (I used a pair of pliers to grip the screwdriver with). I finally got this thing disassembled, and the sticker/rubber cap removed...now all that's needed I suppose is to find something I can oil it with. I really don't know what we have around here, though. I suppose for now I can leave it as it is (I'll seal the sticker at the very least, though), and I'll ask if we have some machine/vaseline oil, and if not, if/where we can get some.

I would suggest taking it apart. There is a white plastic piece on the axis in the hole, push 2 ppins into the place where it is cut and take it off (carefull, it likes to fly away from its elasticity)

Why ? the old oil, perhaps mixed with some dust is what stalls the fan. New oil won't remove that, just dissolve it temporarily until it all hardens again

when the fan is opened, just wipe it all (including inside the tube of the sleeve bearing) with some paper towel

Use synthetic oil like what is used in cars (go to a car repair place with a small test tube etc. they might give you some for free or very cheap)

Yes, I meant the white push pins that attach the heatsink to the motherboard.

You can put a very tiny drop of 3 in 1 in the center of the fan, after cleaning it. BTW, I opened a similar thread when I had this issue. The suggestion about cleaning the fan worked fine for me, but as another poster predicted, around 2 or 3 weeks after cleaning the fan, it stopped working (not sure why), so I had to replace it with a new heatsink/fan (you can try cleaning it anyway; maybe you're luckier than me).

Err...are you talking about the tiny little white ring that's around the fan's hinge? I have no idea how I'd get that off (what exactly do you mean by "push two pins where it's cut"?).

Okay, sounds doable...

?? I'm really new to all of this; this is the first time I've really had to dig in the guts of an individual piece of hardware, so I know virtually nothing. I'm seriously afraid I'm gonna ruin this card (if I haven't already ).

Right now I'm just thinking the best idea might be to put a drop or two of oil in the bearing as it is (I'll probably screw up if I try to take the fan itself apart ), and see how that does me. If it turns out to fail after another couple weeks, I'll just see about getting a new fan.

Have you tried clearing the fan of dust and debris with compress air?

Over time a blanket of dust can overheat components and boards.

If you break the fan, you can buy a new fan that fits the card's mounting holes.

The only way you can damage the card is if you bend it too much or fry the chips by static electricity (either wear a wrist strap or touch only the corners (they usually have no circuit traces)).

I've done this many times in the past...just peel that sticker back, put in a few drops of sewing machine oil, turn the blade both directions till it turns freely,perhaps put a couple more drops of oil in there, button it back up and there you go.
I've used an air compressor to blow out the dust from my computers before, also, and that never seemed to hurt anything...

But...your mileage may vary




~ornery~

The white ring is cut in one place. If you push a pin (or 2) into it you can push the sides apart and it will get off. Carefull, it is elastic and sometimes flies away when released so cover with your hands over the hole when it is about to go to not lose it

WD40-like oils are not recommended, they sometimes die very soon

The fan usually fails after a short time if the old oil is not removed completely or if there is not enough new oil. When i oil i put a drop thet fills the tube of the sleeve bearing, when the blade is inserted just enough to block the bottom of the tube




Static can kill the card if its discharged into it when you take the card. No voltage is generated between you and the card when you allready hold it. Avoid static by simply :

Put your hand on the case and hold it there while you remove or insert the card into the slot with your other hand (when the card is inside it is grounded, so no caution neded when taking out / in the bracket screw etc)

When you take tha card to your hands after it has been out of the computer, touch it first by the metal bracket. After that its safe to handle it freely and touch the components

Dont put the card on stuff that generates static like styrofoam / plastic bags / clothes / etc. Wood surfaces are ok

Sorry for the very late reply, but I finally managed to get some 3-IN-ONE from the Home Depot, and I went ahead and put a drop of it in the fan bearing (the fan's really small; one drop just about filled the bearing), put the whole thing back together, reinstalled the card, and everything's working beautifully so far!

I dunno how long this'll last, but now nvidia-settings reports temps around 40°C (this is with xfwm4 in stacking mode; it'll probably go up to the 50s if/when I try Compiz again).

Thanks to all for the help!

What about cleaning the old oil and dirt off with rubbing alcohol before adding the new oil?