Ati Radeon 9600 Pro Fan Problem

[w_zangar]

I have a Radeon 9600 Pro and recently the fan started making a weird noise, so I popped off the case and took a look inside, and the fan is actually turning quite slow but I guess the motor is grinding on it and hence the weird sound. So it's like the motor is not tight enough on the actual fan part. If I tap it, it catches again and spins faster, but doesn't last long and goes back to turning slow again. Anything I can do to fix it
Can i pull on (unplug) the fan of my Radeon 9600 pro ?
P.S. The card is only some months old, I don't even think I had it for a year.

 

[GavinO]

If the card is newish, it may still be under warranty. If it is, you can easily send it back for a fan replacement. If it's not under warranty, there are a number of places that sell aftermarket VGA coolers. If the machine has been running stable with the fan broken, however (no crashing/artifacting), you may be able to just disconnect the fan. There should be a pair of wires leading from the fan to a connector on the card. Disconnecting the fan almost certainly voids the warranty, though, and may cause instability in the future or shorten the life of the card.

Here are some potential replacement fans: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=list&SubCategory=62&bop=and&srchInDesc=vga

Note that sometimes it's really hard to get the old fan off; I'd try to remove it before placing an order. Some cards have the heatsink glued to the processor with thermal epoxy in addition to the standard pins.