Mac Pro Dead Cooling Fan - common?

[iriejedi]

Early 2008 Mac Pro.

Bottom Front Cooling Fan has a nervous twitch... moves a little but does not spin. Air Dusted, physically moved it and with comp air it spins freely in the breeze.... tried fan control tools... still just twitches, like a nervous tick.

Seems like a simple repair.... can anyone shed light on weather or not this may be more than the fan or do they just go bad some times...

Not bad after almost 8 years....probably cost me the DIMM modual/Riser board being fixed today with parts I just ordered... but feel better thinking the fan is the root cause.....

Thanks for any insight into cooling fan failure modes.

Cheers
IJ

 

[Machines]

Early 2008 Mac Pro.

Bottom Front Cooling Fan has a nervous twitch... moves a little but does not spin. Air Dusted, physically moved it and with comp air it spins freely in the breeze.... tried fan control tools... still just twitches, like a nervous tick.

Seems like a simple repair.... can anyone shed light on weather or not this may be more than the fan or do they just go bad some times...

Not bad after almost 8 years....probably cost me the DIMM modual/Riser board being fixed today with parts I just ordered... but feel better thinking the fan is the root cause.....

Thanks for any insight into cooling fan failure modes.

Cheers
IJ

If these cMP case fans are going to die , it's when they were first installed in a new Mac and used briefly before failing .

I have worked on hundreds of Mac Pros , PowerMac G4s and G5s and have seen maybe 4 or 5 dead case fans in the last decade .

Your fan sounds like it died .

Oh. Maybe you can remove the fan , wash it under tap water , then distilled water and then dry for a day . The fan is sealed , so don't worry . Maybe it will work after you do that ? Long shot here ... And yes, I've done that with Apple desktop case fans when I needed to really clean them good .

You'll need to find a good replacement for the rubber fan mounts , as you'll destroy the original mounts during fan removal .

I have some third party replacement mounts that work somewhat well , but not entirely perfect . Does anyone have any suggestions ? Maybe Apple catalog ?

 

[h9826790]

2008 front fan, this one?

http://www.dvwarehouse.com/922-8497...ide-for-Mac-Pro-Early-2008---NEW-p-37629.html

 

[iriejedi]

2008 front fan, this one?

http://www.dvwarehouse.com/922-8497...ide-for-Mac-Pro-Early-2008---NEW-p-37629.html

That is the one. Just bought one on Amazon for $20 (used) - but I like the earlier post that fan failure is rare... and I have no clue how long this one has been dead... while I doubt all 8 years... who knows.

Also figure I'll take one for the team and get the Apple Diagnoses... given its 8 years of life... it could use a tune up.... just really wish there was a 2016-ish tower... the 2013 tube is not my cup of tea...

 

[ActionableMango]

Seems like a simple repair.... can anyone shed light on weather or not this may be more than the fan or do they just go bad some times...

I had the equivalent fan fail on my 2010. Well, it didn't really fail outright, but it did start to make knocking noises on an intermittent basis. I ended up replacing it.

On the 2010 it wasn't a particularly difficult process, nor did it require special tools. But it was lengthy process because there were so many other things that had to be removed first.

 

[iriejedi]

Good to know - found a spare on Amazon and pre-ordered proactively... but will follow through on my Apple appointment... based on estimate... may just pony up and let them deal with it... if it is insane as a 'obsoleete' model repair... I am skilled enough to do it.... but with time as a factor I hope they keep their repair cost reasonable.