Hi,
Over a year ago, I had a case fan installed in my computer to help cool it down because my video card was getting hot. A few months after I had the thing installed, it started making this very loud grinding noise. And I mean loud. The thing sounds like an old lawn-mower...its awful. Its been doing this longer than it has not. I finally got sick of it and decided I would try and take the thing out. But to my dismay this contraption has no intention of leaving my computer. It is lodged in their like some kind of parasite. It looks like part of it is snapped directly on to the side of the chassis. I grabbed these two "snaps" and tried to get them to budge. They would only move slightly. I then took the snaps in one hand and the side of the chassis in the other and I tried to get the snaps off. I finally got the snaps to release their death grip, only to discover that the fan must also be connected somewhere else. But I do not know where. I don't see any screws or any other place the piece of junk could be connected. Its as if it sticks to the case through some dark powerful and evil magic. This clinging, growling monster is trying my patience. I am tempted to take a hammer and bash the thing until it lets go.
I don't know what manufacturer made this thing. All I can tell you is, its a 5x3 inch box that sits just underneath my harddrive towards the front of the computer. If anyone can tell me how to purge this rattletrap from my computer, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

Jack R.

PS: While I was trying to remove the snaps from the side of the chassis, I was pulling on the chassis at the same time. Unfortunately, this is the same side the motherboard is on. I happened to notice the motherboard would move when I did this. I am worried I may have bent it and damaged. Do you think I damaged the motherboard? Everything appears to be functioning okay. I am able to boot my computer up get online and post this message. So is everything okay? Have I damaged anything?

in my old case you basicly pushed in towards the fan where the connectors where and they let go

it is a sort of ramp latch type thing if this fails you could always just unplug the case fan from the motherboard

it will stop working but you will have a heat problem again

if you do get it of try removing the sticker from the fan and put a spot of machine oil or wd40 in and seal it with tape

this may fix it

Hey, thanks for the advice. It came down to unplugging it. There were black and red cords going every direction, but eventually I found out where it connected. Now, about my overheating problem. The thing that was overheating was my 3d card. At the time I had the fan installed, I was playing a lot of graphics intensive 3d accelerated. I was talking to a technician over at the computer shop while he was working on the computer. I complained that my computer would often crash and i thought my card may be overheating. He touched the card and it was very hot and he suggested a get a fan. I really wanted a PCI fan at the time, but they would have to order it. He suggested installing a case-fan. It didn't cost much(about ten bucks) so I said to go ahead and install it. Anyway, I don't play as 3d games anymore so I don't know if this will still be a problem. However, at the time he touched it and claimed it was hot, I don't believe it was running a 3d application at the time(if that had anything to do with it). So, I don't know. Right now, the most graphic intensive games I play are 2d games. Like starcraft. I don't play quake, unreal, halflife or anything like that anymore. So should I be okay? Exactly what type of permanent damage(if any) are we talking from overheating? It shouldn't crash on me since I'm not playing graphics heavy games anymore. Should it?

By the way, do you think the mother board is alright?

Thanks again for your help.

Jack R.

you should be ok i think i doubt it was helping that much anyway as it sounded like it was barely working

and it was at the front of the case i only have a case fan at the back of my case

what type of graphics card is it ?

try it and see if it starts crashing again
you might have to try something else like
a fan for your gfx card or a pci slot fan for underneath the card

Hi, rob. My card is a rather old voodoo 3. If I ever decide to get back into gaming, I'll probably invest in a better card, like a geforce 3 or something. If I start getting problems again, I'll just get a pci fan and while I'm at it, probably a new card too.
This might sound kind of ridiculous, but would it be helpful to place a fan(you know, one of those big cheap square things...) next to my computer with its case open? One person suggested this, but I don't know how common(or useful) it is.

Also, about my motherboard again
Will it be okay?

i have a voodoo 3 2000 in my old computer but it never crashed although i remmember it was very hot

(but would it be helpful to place a fan(you know, one of those big cheap square things...) next to my computer with its case open?)

i have heard of people doing this but i have never tried it you might have a dust problem

i think your motherboard is ok i have accidently bent mine plugging in stuff

i think if you had broke something it would not work as ther would be a break in the circuit

btw back to the original problem i remmember that my old case fan also had a small screw holding it on as well as the latches this may be why you cant get it off

just buy a vantec stealth fan, quiet and moves air, PCU slot fans are not ideal since they break the "flow" in your case, the guy at the shop who said you needed a FAN to cool a gfx card lied, EVERY card gets every hot, he probably just wanted to sell you something. You have a Voodoo3, I had one too, not even considered hot when compaered to geforce4 ti4600. alsom, about your fan, form what it sounds like, your case fan is enclosed in a snap-in fan "holder", thus, explainign the latches, sice fans regularly are attached by 4 screws, one at each corner

Right now, I'm primarily concerned with any damage my motherboard my have sustained from my meddling. I repeated the action again to ascertain exactly what type of movement of the motherboard was taking place. I don't know if the mother board was only moving parallel to the side of the chassis or if it was actually being bent. I am worried that if in fact it was bent repeatedly that its structural integrity(for lack of a better term) has been compromised and that the board, even if functioning now, will be susceptible to bending, breaking, or otherwise being damaged in the future.
Could someone lend me some perspective on this? Should I worry about the motherboard breaking easier in the future because of being bent? I'm pretty sure it was bent. And repeatedly bent I might add.

basicly try not to put anymore stress on it as this will not help matters

if you damaged it moving it will only aggrevate the problem more by repeating what you did

if it is ok you might brake it testing it

basicly if you broke it i dont think it would work at all

as long as it is not touching the case it should be ok