First post, by Ozzuneoj
- Rank
- l33t
EDIT: Videos should be working now... Google Photos seems to have issues at times. The quality is horrible right now but I think they will increase the resolution later.
This thread is partially a PSA and partially a request for help.
First off... if you're looking for replacement 50mm fans for old heatsinks, DO NOT BUY the ones on a certain popular markeplace named "5 x cooling fan 50mm x 10mm 12V DC, part no. EFB0512HA for 1 price" unless someone else can verify that they got some that work properly.
I have heatsinks from the late 90s that use this identical model of fan and they are still functioning perfectly, so I bought 20 from this seller (4 lots of 5).
I got them today and tested them right away. They all work, but they ALL vibrate terribly. It's like the plastic center of the fan is out of round or not attached evenly? It's hard to explain, so I took some high speed video on my phone to show what I found. I thought at first they might be fakes, but these are like 90% identical to the old one I have, aside from the updated Delta logo and the China\Taiwan manufacturing. They even have the white printed number on the same side (though all of the new ones have the same number). The tone of the fan spinning is nearly identical to the old one too.
Here are the videos. Two are of one of the new ones, and one is of the really old one. Look at how unevenly the new one spins! All 20 are like this.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ww51jvJALryBn4iP9
What causes this? Is it fixable? The bearings seem completely smooth and quiet... its just that the fan itself is spinning unevenly.
You may think "It's a stupid fan, who cares?" but these are normally $9-$11 each and apparently last decades. I bought 20 of them for less than $30, and I intended to use most of them immediately (I have lots of things that need 50mm fans). I'm not sure if they are fakes or if they came from a defective batch. If there's any way to fix this, it saves me over $150 versus buying them new from a store, but I'm not too hopeful. Most likely I'll have to return them and eat the return shipping cost. Joy!
Now for some blitting from the back buffer.