Another year, another CeBit. Of course I visited ASUS again, in case that there are any news. There is news:

If you have a faulty Chipset Cooler, you can get it replaced easily!

As everyone knows the active northbridge coolers (the little fan on your mainboard) are of not-so-good quality and tend to fail after a few months (3 to 6, your mileage may vary). At least for German customers there is a remedy now:

At CeBit2002 ASUS was giving away free passive chipset coolers. If you failed to get one, you can get it by mail. Simply send a fax or mail to them stating that your A7V, A7V133 etc. chipset cooler is broken. Provide them with the serial number of your mainboard, so that they can verify that you indeed have a A7V series board with active chipset cooling. You can find that "S/N" number on a label on the lowest slot (most times the lowest PCI slot) or on the boy your board was sold in.

The contacts for Germany are:

Fax 02102 / 959911
http://www.asuscom.de/support/contact/forms/a7_nb_fan_form.asp

As already said, write your Serial Number as well as the statement that your fan is faulty and you want a replacement passive heat sink. The Serial Number is on the lower side of the lowest slot (AGP is the uppermost slot), or on a Label on the LPT Port.

The passive heat sink seems to be reasonably sized and should be easily replaceable. Unmount the board, squeeze the two holding pegs on the lower side until they can be pushed through the board and the old heatsink is off. Now take the new one and insert it's pegs into the holes. If you want extra cooling then remove the pink heat transfer pad from the cooler and replace it with thermal grease.

This is how to remove the
pegs that hold the cooler