A client's dusty office in Austin taught me a new way to check for fan failure

I was fixing a slow computer in a small law office downtown last month, and the machine kept shutting down. I opened the case and saw the CPU fan was spinning, so I thought it was fine. Then I actually put my hand near the back vent and felt almost no air moving out. The fan was spinning but the blades were so caked with dust, maybe a quarter inch thick, that it wasn't pushing any air. I cleaned it and the temps dropped 30 degrees. Has anyone else had a fan look okay but fail because of buildup like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

elizabeth_jackson22d ago

That's just basic maintenance anyone should do. A visual check for dust is part of the job, not some special trick. Calling it a new way to find fan failure seems like overstating the obvious.

mason_flores2122d ago

A quarter inch of dust on a spinning fan is actually insane. That's not just a little buildup, that's a whole new ecosystem. No wonder it wasn't moving any air.