sigh - need a video card fan

I installed the nVidia GeForce 6200LE PCI-E 128MB into my HTPC. Renovations on my home created a ton of dust which appears to have gotten into the fan on the video card, and stalled it out (the fan actually melted off the spindle). I've removed the fan from the card, but can't find a replacement online. Obviously, given that I paid $20 for the card, I don't want to spend very much on the fan. So two questions

Can I run the card without the fan, and use it for video playback, without ruining the PC? Will the card overheat at some point and just die?

Is there someplace to buy a replacement fan?

I'd check eBay for a fan if you haven't already, I've found a few of them floating around on there before in my browsing.

Also, I would not recommend running it without the fan. It's going to have zero cooling unless the interior of the case has a fan in the near vicinity that is keeping the case [i845f8c5d88]extremely[/i845f8c5d88] cool already.

When I had a small vga fan go out on my card, i bought one of these

super long ebay link that doylnea fixed[=http//cgi.ebay.com/Heatsink-Cooler-Cooling-Fan-for-VGA-Video-Card-CPU-PC_W0QQitemZ160188516792QQihZ006QQcategoryZ80151QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem]super long ebay link that doylnea fixed

You can take out those 3 screws to remove the casing and have the fan only, which will hopefully fit directly where the old one went.

I would not recc using the vc without the fan, if it wasnt necessary, it wouldnt be there.

Yeah you'll need the fan. That ebay fan seems to fit the bill but you'd have to verify the fit and JOSHBOX would have to tell you how loud it is.

I have the stock heatsink+fan from a 6600GT (again, it should fit but we'd have to measure) that I could give you but I wouldn't recommend it as it is way too loud, and that was for regular PC use. That's why I had to take it out.

As it's for an HTPC, I'd probably spend $25-30 for one of those zalman fanless vga coolers. Mind as well take the occasion to upgrade...

Thanks for the tips. I'm trying to decide if it's worth buying a new fan, or just buying another video card, given that I only paid $20 for this card. I like the nVidia control, and it's already proven to be an adequate card for what I use it for. I bought it to replace an ATI x300 that came with the computer, because I thought I had a video problem with the ATI card - however after re-seating the RAM (after installing the nVidia card, and it not working initially) the computer started right up, so it's entirely possible that it was the RAM and not the video card at all.

Anyway, worst case, if I run the video card without the fan, the worst thing that could happen would be that the card would overheat, and burnout right, it wouldn't damage the computer, or cause a fire or something, right?

If you have a PCI-E slot I could sell you a 7600GS (512mb DDR2) video card for about $40-50 shipped if you decide on getting a new card. Just throwing that out there, hehe.

Looking to upgrade myself. =P