ATI e-mail told me to come here about the G4 card

Question

I helped a friend to get a computer and one of the things he got was a nice new shiny MSI G4 MX440 card with 64megs of DDR RAM and TV out!.
It has been about 1 year and 3 months now and one day his computer started sounding funny. He called me up and I had a look and it turns out that his FAN was CRACKED and APPEARED to have LEAKED out some GREASE or OIL onto the heatsink. The FAN was cracked and off balance through and it bugged him when he tried to play CS with it.
WELL. I sent e-mail to MSI (the support address) and THIS is what I got back:
To our Valued Customer,
Thank you for purchasing & supporting MSI product.
This E-mail is an automatic reply which is to notify you that you have
reached [email protected]
In order to give you an overall technical support, we have listed some
common problems and solutions for your reference.
Please take time to read the useful FAQ which we have compiled from the
technical support e-mails we have received as link and see if it helps
the problem you are facing.
http://www.msi.com.tw/html/e_service/main.htm
We hope the directions below answer your question. If your problem still
cannot be solved after going through all the suggestions, then you can
reply this e-mail containing the automatic reply with your original
e-mail. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
I. Read the Manual
Most users have tendency not to read the manual under the presumption
that they already know what is written in there. However, we have seen
that there are percentage of technical support calls & e-mails as a
result of not reading the manual
II. Keep your MSI CD drivers
MSI CD drivers provide easy driver installation via auto-run. Losing it
would require you to install driver manually
III. Contact your Reseller
Your reseller or the store/company that sold the motherboard or system
to you should know well what your system contains & have the necessary
resources to help you in your problem. Since they can see your system
clearly, it is easier for them to identify if your problem was caused of
wrong installation or wrong assembly or defective product, etc. It would
be advisable to contact your reseller for those having problems like
system cannot power on or need to send board for repair
NOTE: there is a tiny percentage that the board might be defective & by
contacting your reseller at an earlier time prevent your warranty being
voided. Some resellers provide certain period of time for
return/exchange, after that you have to either send the board to them
for repair or you are on your own.
IV. Check our website
Some of the information you are looking for might be already posted in
our website
V. Search in MSI Forum
Your problem might have encountered by another user in the forum or you
might find answer in the Good Article forum with a lot of useful posts
written by moderators & power users. You can also post a message there
to get help
VI. Read the FAQ
Attached Link is a list of useful FAQ which we have compiled from the
technical support e-mails we have received
http://download.msi.com.tw/support/dvr_exe/user.exe
Best Regards,
MSI Technical Support
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This was a simple problem to fix. Why the hell was I told to come here? You mean I can just DOWNLOAD a new fan?
This is what I need: A NEW FAN DAMMIT!
Not stories from other folks that had the same problem. Geeze, you would think that was the DEMOCRATIC way solve this problem, let's all just talk about and maybe it will fix itself...
Sorry, it has been a long day and this email was the straw that broke my camel's back.
Does ANYONE know of a REAL email address where I can actually ask a REAL person for a replacement fan?
AND, SINCE I am here,. WHY was this a SEALED fan with OIL or GREASE in it in the first place? is UP with that?

Answer 1

Hi Stilly,
Did you notice this in the e-mail MSI sent you:
------------------------------------------------------------------------- We hope the directions below answer your question. If your problem still cannot be solved after going through all the suggestions, then you can reply this e-mail containing the automatic reply with your original e-mail. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
I don't know much about this, but you may be able to buy a comparable fan fron your local computer store - take the card in and ask the guy about it (I understand computer/graphics card fans are not very expensive).
It might be worth a try.
Of course, the card may not accept any other kind of fan - it all depends on how it attaches to the card.
If you do return the card to MSI there may be be postal charges etc. so the computer store MAY be your best, quickest, and cheapest option.
Anyway, it's up to you now - good luck and let us now how you get on.
Axel  :D