problem with heatsink fan on Acer computer

[corkydog]

hi the fan on the heatsink has failed can i continue to use the pc without it for a few days until i can buy a replacement. It does have a power supply fan and a case fan and a small fan on my video card but will that be enough? the heatsink is quite big but i dont want to do damage to the system. Its a AMD athlon 64 3200+
thanks
corkydog

[pauln90]

No do not risk it.Without the heatsink fan temperatures will rise rapidly and damage the processor

[Space]

I had a CPU fan failure once and I didn't notice it,
I kept using the computer for days or maybe weeks before replacing the fan. There was no damage at all.

But don't take a chance
I recommend one of those:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=4 5438&C=Maplin&U=SearchTop&T=AKASA%20FAN&doy=9m 5

(they come in several sizes)

[matt2971]

If your system doesn't have a utility to monitor the CPU temperature then download this free utility called Speedfan (it also monitors fan speeds):

http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

You'll need to check what temperature range your CPU is supposed to work within, either from the manual or looking it up on the web. If it's still within the range you should be OK.

You can configure the utility with the range for your CPU, and leave the utility running in the system tray to alert you if the CPU hits a certain temperature. The more load you put on the CPU (running applications that do a lot of calculations) the hotter it will get, so best not do anything too taxing!

Depending on the CPU type, there's a quite a lot of difference between their normal operating range. For instance, laptop CPUs will generally run a lot hotter than
desktop ones.