Quote:
Originally Posted by SneakySnake
The fan fell off the CPU! Hopefully we can recover the hard drive.
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I'd like to know how that was possible. CPU fan assemblies in most systems are rather carefully designed to
not fall off, unless they haven't been properly attached to begin with. On the motherboard on my desktop, there's a socket the CPU plugs into, with a latch to lock it in, then the fan assembly covers it, with expanding posts that fit through holes in the motherboard and expand to lock once fully inserted. (Of course, they have to
be fully inserted, which can be a pain to do.)
The prior motherboard I used had temperature sensors on the mobo, and if the CPU overheated, the entire machine would be halted to preserve it. I found out about that feature when mine did: enough dust and cat hair had accumulated inside the case to jam the fan and stop it from rotating. It was nothing can of canned air couldn't cure, but it was the first time I'd had to.
Meanwhile, the CPU overheating shouldn't zap your hard drive. Worst case, you might need to run CHKDSK as a precaution to repair any file system damage caused by an improper shutdown. Your CPU might even be okay, once the fan assembly is properly re-attached or replaced.
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Dennis