So here a I have a good six year old video card that I can still use, if it wasn’t for two of the three fans dying on me, let’s just say my aluminium PC case was like a stove top, eggs anyone?

So, having some of this Sugru floating about, I felt I might as well give it a try.

First off buying replacement fans at the correct size was hard to track down, the fans that came with the video card where 70mm x 70mm x 10mm and all that I had access to where 70mm x 70mm x 15mm. The 10 mm fans are also very costly.

Please note that I do not have a image I can provide for this page.

Step 1: Step 1

First I had to pull apart the heatsink, and remove the two dead fans. Heads up using a 12v power pack (Plug pack) I was able to make double sure to remove the dead fans and leave the only working one, now before going nuts with the soldering iron, I made sure to check that the fans would fit, as you’ll see below, they fit fine.

Please note this photo was taken after the soldering, however I did check a few times before attempting this.

Step 2: Step 2

Remove the covering on the fan and with a de-soldering iron or a soldering iron and pryers or something else you can safely lift up the wires with please do so. You’ll also notice that the fan sensor is only connected to the centre fan, I will only be connecting the centre fan to the sensor, the other fan, and I’ll have just cut it real short.

Step 3: Step 3

First I’ll show you under the fan, as you can see there are four posts that secure the can to the plastic covering, because this fan will need raising; well will being using the Sugru to help with that and also securing the can as well.

Step 4: Step 4

I opened a packet and found that, I only needed just over half one small packet to help secure the fan. Then with a large pinch of Sugru, I pushed down on one of the posts:

Try to line it up as best as possible, next I used the heatsink to help correctly line up the fan.

Step 5: Step 5

Now take the aluminium heatsink, carefully use it to line up the fan, so that it is seated correctly and remove any of the Sugru that might catch on the fan or you could just lose the only working fan you have left.
What I did was place the heatsink on two new fans and then move it down and across the smaller fan and wiggled it about, unit it sat flush.

Now leave this to set for a day and then get back to it.

Step 6: Step 6

Make sure the Heatsink is clear of any dirt, dust, grime, heatsink compound, etc..
Now I am going to use the screws that held the plastic case to the aluminium heatsink for extra bounding support to the sugru.

Step 7: Step 7

Now going with a little bit of guess work, I made four posts, you might need more you’re less of these sugru spaces depending on the configuration of your video card. I only have four myself, by first making one, and seeing if that will fill the void space between the plastic and aluminium heatsink; once you have found one that is a little higher then needed, maybe a centimetre. I made three more, before carefully squeezing all the sugru spaces onto the screw mounts.

Step 8: Step 8

Alright, once you have the heatsink in place check each of the mounts to be sure the sugru has made contact with both the plastic and aluminium, as you can see with the image below, that didn’t work out with me so well, lucky I only had to fix up two of the four mounts, I used a flat head screw driver (small) to move the sugru into place.

Once you are happy that these is a even connection between both the aluminium heatsink and plastic casing allow to set for overnight or what is recommended on the packaging.

Step 9: Step 9 - Test, Test, Test!

Test, test, test.
To make sure everything is working, fire up the fans again, making sure everything works. I had a little issue with one of the power cables catching on one of the fans, that was easily fixed by pushing it back into place.

Please be aware that you will be unable to take the plastic case off the heatsink, because it has in a way been glued into place.

Still, test, test and test.

Step 10: Step 10

Now we can take the video card and reapply heatsink compound to the GPU, and then reattach the now fixed heatsink, and as a final test, I held the video card up and titled it, making sure it wasn’t going to fall off.

Please use this as a guide to resolving your own problem; I must admit I found this sugru very useful and if you need to hack a device like this, it is well worth giving a try.

I wish to also thank Hacker Space Hobart for putting up with me and supplying sugru and other tools to complete this project.