Help with a geforce4 ti-4280

[custer]

It's this one: geforce4 (http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/Nvidia-Ti-4200-8x.html)

I posted about the first one I had and Ram Electronics replaced it, but it's starting to do what the first one did..... sudden black screens and I think it's the self defense thing about over heating. I'd like to try replacing the fan. My questions are two:

What's a very good fan to replace this oem with?

What can I expect when I try to pull the old fan? Is it like glued on or will it just have thermal paste?

These are from powercolor.com and there's no support for these there. They don't even admit to ever having sold them.

Ty. :t

[Imperion1]

Is the fan on the heatsink still spinning?
If it is, then there is no reason to change out the heatsink and fan. You're not overclocking the video card are you?

[custer]

I wouldn't think the heatsinks were the problem. No, I don't go in for overclocking. And with my hand over the card, I didn't really feel any heat... it was just warm.

That picture isn't what this looks like, actually. There are heatsinks on all the memory chips. The fan spins and is clean. I was thinking the fan and the gpu don't have a good connection for heat transfer.

I was just curious whether pulling the fan would cause any damage. If I damage something, it would be an end to the aggravation, anyway. But I would like to get it going, it was expensive.

[mobo57]

Have one of those cards in one of my systems. Great performer. I replaced the fan/heatsink with the Iceberq Pro system. The heat sink is not glued to the core, it is held on by the retaining pins.
Check it out here:
http://www.thetechlounge.com/review.php?REVIEWDIR=iceberq4

[custer]

Thank you, mobo57. That's the info I was looking for.

Hmmm..... not even thermal paste under the fan/heatsink, eh?

Did you leave the original memory chip heatsinks in place?

I have that iceberg 4 pro coming from TigerDirect now. Thanks, bud. :t

[mobo57]

I think there was paste under the hs. Don't remember, but I used Arctic SIlver. Left the heat original sinks on the memory as they don't add much anyway to oc'ing the card. Nice thing about the Iceberq, if you have a case with a window/panel, the LEDs look real cool. Be careful though, I did have one of the plastic retainers come out when I had the Iceberq on my 9800 pro. Unfortunately, cooked my core. Obvious, but have to say it, make sure the retainers are securly fastened.
Good luck.

[custer]

I ordered that fan UPS Ground but it's already here. TigerDirect has a new customer.

Anyway, the oem fan hs has a poor finish on it. I can see the drag marks yet from the machining process. It wasn't ground or polished. It did have thermal paste between the hs and the core, tho.

The Vantec hs copper surface is highly polished like a mirror. I would think their thermal paste would be ok. I don't have any Arctic Silver around so I'll just use what they sent. The chips all have heatsinks on them, so I'll leave the oem's on. We'll see how this goes.

Surface finish on a heat sink isn't at all the whole story. It also has to be flat. Any old curved surface can be polished to a mirror-like state. I'll take the old and new fans with me to work tomorrow and check flatness with an indicator. I'll leave the core surface alone. If I did find that the core was badly curved, I don't know how I'd fix it, anyway.

With thermal paste to compensate, I'd rather have a slightly scratched but flat oem than a badly curved replacement. We'll see how it goes. Thanks again. :)