You can try to replace the motor/clean and oil it up.
Blades are attached to the case VIA an flexible metal ring that holds it in place. Remove the bottom sticker, remove the ring and pull out the fan blade with magnets.
Also, its high chance that it wont have a metal ring, but an plastic shitty one that can break.

Thank you! I will see how I go 😀

Very easy job and something I learned on my own almost a decade ago 😉
Just peal the sticker on the back and apply oil to the barring then give it a spin by hand till it spins easy.

I usually just pull the fan off and see if the chipset is cool enough without it. Sometimes the CPU fan moves air through the chipset heatsink too.

I'd really like to keep the fan and everything authentic 😀

Will try the oil method tonight. Just got to source some oil. Any tips?

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

I'd really like to keep the fan and everything authentic 😀

Will try the oil method tonight. Just got to source some oil. Any tips?

cheap 10W40 motor oil. Seriously. I have a quart that's half full that i've used for YEARS.

Over the years I've switched from oil to grease, tends to last longer in my experience.

swaaye wrote:

I usually just pull the fan off and see if the chipset is cool enough without it. Sometimes the CPU fan moves air through the chipset heatsink too.

This is what I'd do - or find a similar looking heatsink that doesn't need a fan; for example I've got an Abit heatsink off of a board that didn't use fans on my AN7 - the colors match up, but I don't have to live with the 10,000 RPM screamer than the AN7 originally came with. You'd only really notice the "switch" if you're looking at a picture of the AN7 against mine.

If it can run cool enough with the fan off, maybe just leave the fan hooked-on for decoration?

I never had success replacing fan motor. I tried twice long ago and both times the propeller lost its balance. I oiled the fans up for some time, but recently I have found goodish fans growing really cheap, so I don't bother anymore, fans became consumable for me.

If I were you, I would go for something like this:
http://www.izarmicro.net/fotos/productos/ZM-NBF47.jpg
http://pontoppidan.info/lars/passivevga/zmnb47_2.jpg
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTAwMFgxMDAw/z/HX0AAOxyoeBSBJI0/$(KGrHqZ,!oQFHdmQw1M(BSBJI0fmrQ~~60_35.JPG

The mounting mechanisms is a bit different with this board. But I agree that active cooling might not be needed for stock operation (I have no plans to overclock).

I've used sewing machine oil in the past with success.

If you want to use something thicker, but not quite grease, you could try engine stop smoke or chain oil.

I've been dismantling chipset fans for years, and I assure you, it just takes patience... and sometimes a needle. Those plastic retaining washers are harder to remove because they are tiny and fragile in comparison to a metal c-clip. But I clean all the parts with alcohol and usually put them back together with transmission fluid or engine oil.

Sometimes a squirt of WD-40 gets the job done without taking no more than just a few seconds of time.

i've had good experiences using engine oil. for fans that is

Used some oil and the fan is working great 😀

The board still has some issues, might be caps. It locks up at certain times, even when not under load. Like during POST or when formatting a drive.

Reseat the CPU once in a while, just in case. It does sound as if you absolutely have bad caps either on the motherboard or in the power supply or both.