Source of replacement fan for AppleTV?

[dmchapman]

I've got a 160GB AppleTV that although not in heavy use, is handy at times. Recently, it's been making an annoying whirring noise so I pulled it apart this morning - it's the cooling fan. Initially I thought this would be less hassle than the HD dying but no, seems not.

As far as I can tell, the fan is unique to the AppleTV and isn't available anywhere. Even the local Apple repair place can't get them - they just swap out AppleTVs for 125 quid+VAT - no way do we get that much use from it to make that worthwhile :-(

So, if it's not possible to find a real fan for the thing, has anyone replaced it with anything else? I can't be the only person with this problem!

Cheers,

Darren

 

[dynaflash]

Mine did the same thing about two months ago. I removed the fan and it has been working non stop with no issues now. Once you remove the fan you will see that it really has little to no effect on cooling that I can see.

 

[macfaninpdx]

Mine did the same thing about two months ago. I removed the fan and it has been working non stop with no issues now. Once you remove the fan you will see that it really has little to no effect on cooling that I can see.

Mine also had issues beginning a while ago. After it is on for a short while (1-2 hours) I start seeing video card artifacts (tearing, menus glitchy) and it will lock up. If I un-plug it for a few hours, it is fine again. I assumed it was the fan and the unit is overheating.

Did yours exhibit strange behavior or lockups? Do you think my issue might be the fan?

 

[dynaflash]

Did yours exhibit strange behavior or lockups? Do you think my issue might be the fan?

Nope, mine was performing just fine, no problems. The bearing in the fan just started making noise. So I unplugged it and removed it an just took it out. Works great and even quieter.

Mind you I have the rubber pad on the bottom removed so there is some ambient airflow through the perforated metal bottom. Imo this does as much as the fan to be honest.

 

[dynaflash]

A bit off topic but related to cooling. Are you using wireless ? I think it was cave man or someone that noted that the wireless card in his atv would get extremely hot, with mine open and running it felt pretty much cool. I am hooked to my aebs via ethernet so am not using the wireless. I wonder if those using wireless are getting the excessive heat. Though I do not know if the card is supposed to get hotter if its in use. Just a thought. Anyway, I would remove the rubber foot and clean the glue off of the perforated foot to allow some air in there, of course putting some felt feet on the four corners so it is raised up a bit. Just an idea.