This post is titled "Finding a CPU Fan in Maitland".

A couple of weeks ago, the fan in one of my machines died. After running for quite a few years, the oil dried out, and it slowed down enough to cause the heatsink/CPU to get too hot, and the machine locked up.

I ripped the fan out, put some more oil in it, and it was fine again. It went for another few weeks, until I got home this weekend, to find it buzzing away, very loudly.

It's in a machine I need running all the time, so I couldn't do anything about it.

When I went to work, and was near some shops, I decided to find a new CPU fan.

I went to Dick Smith first, expecting them to either not sell CPU fans, only sell ones I don't need, or have one I do need, at a ridiculous price.

The guy in there told me that they don't sell them, and recommended the computer shop down the road.

I went down there, and the guy in there told me that he doesn't deal with any AMD stuff, and doesn't have any of the fans for socket 370 left.

He suggested another computer shop, too far away to walk to, or Harvey Norman. Somehow I really doubt HN will sell CPU fans, I don't think I've ever seen one in there.

It's right near work, and I had no other choices left, so I went in anyway. I looked around the computer section for a while, and then I went over to the counter.

There was a guy behind the counter, and a chick standing on the other side. I was waiting to speak to the guy.

I'm not being sexist, but I really didn't expect the chick to know what a CPU fan was. Before the guy behind the counter asked if he could help me, the chick did.

I explained that I was after a CPU fan, and she gave me some look like "CPU fan" was some crazy thing I'd made up, because she'd never heard of it, so obviously there was no such thing.

There was another guy behind the counter, up a ladder, he chimed in, and said that if they did have them, they'd be over in their computer repair section, in a different shop nearby.

I left, went to the computer repair place, and I asked the guy in there about a CPU fan for an AMD Athlon. He said he didn't think they had any, but would look.

He came back with a box of filthy, dusty and broken old fans. He dug through it for a minute, found 2 fans/heatsinks, and a fan on it's own.

They looked ok, just a bit dusty. He pulled off the cover of a pc nearby, and tested them, they seemed ok, he gave them to me, which was pretty cool.

He had to point out that I didn't get a warranty on them though. Hmm, I really expect a warranty on stuff I get for free :-) (He could have given me a 100% cash back refund though :-)

When I got home, I fitted the fan on its own (not attached to a heatsink) into the machine, doing a hot swap, to avoid the downtime.

While doing that, I accidently put my finger in the blades of the fan, and they're called blades for a reason, it took a chunk out of the tip of my finger.

It didn't help though, either during swapping the fan out, or sometime before or after doing so, the machine locked up, probably from a heat issue.

After getting that sorted, I tried relubricating the stuffed fan again, which worked. I think that fan would be more happy working horizontally, in a desktop case, instead of vertically like it was, in a tower case.