Can a loose CPU fan cause PC slowdown?

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Help_me_please

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Feb 10, 2014
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Hello. My fan has been making a louder noise than usual so I opened up my cabinet and greatly dusted up my fan. But I found that a few of the screws/clips just wont fit anymore and my heatsink has all dried up. So it's not as tightly bound as it should be. Also recently my PC seems to be slower, more prone to crashes, sound often cuts out from YouTube videos when changing tabs, some videos often don't play unless you give it a rest for a minute, games take a long time to boot up, etc.

So I'm wondering if this is a fan issue. Should I get a new fan with some heatsink? I'm hoping I don't need to replace my CPU.
 
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smorizio

smorizio

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Jan 22, 2010
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if your cpu over heats you can damage it. depending on your case and mb you may have to pull the mb if you pick up a newer evo heat sink and your case does not have an opening to get to the rear of the cpu. they do make bigger clip on cpu coolers with plastic feet.
 
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InvalidError

InvalidError

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May 18, 2007
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If the CPU's HSF is not installed properly, there will be poor heat transfer from the CPU to air, the CPU will overheat and start throttling to avoid destroying itself, possibly your motherboard and other components connected to the CPU.

So yes, that can be a "kind of major" issue. Prolonged exposure to extreme temperatures may damage the CPU so, depending on how long and how badly this may have been going on, your CPU might still need replacement.
 
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Akarin

Akarin

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Nov 19, 2014
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If it isn't fitting anymore for some reason, then you should buy another cooler, then apply a bit of thermal paste (I recommend Arctic MX-4, one of the best) and carefully install it, then test the temperatures again. Remember that the only thing moving should be the blades, not the entire cooler loose.
 
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Help_me_please

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Feb 10, 2014
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So I put some thermal cooler on it, properly insert the fan and even installed a case fan. My PC didn't get any better and the Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool tells me my processor is fine. Maybe I should format.
 
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bmacsys

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Jul 4, 2013
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Heatsinks don't "dry up". Do you mean your thermal interface material? If it is dried up clean it off and put some fresh TIM on the cpu heat spreader. Also, a heatsink is either properly installed or its not. If it isn't properly installed your computer would overheat and stop functioning in very short order. It probably would barely get past POST.
 
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