Rattly graphics card fan

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Dudley

Active member
Hi there,

4-5ish month old PC here, Palit Geforce GTX460 2GB.

The fan has recently started to intermittently but frequently rattle on it.

Anyone know of any useful repair I can attempt (some sites suggest just a drop of oil) or if this is likely to involve an RMA of the graphics card, which I think we'd all hope to avoid.

PCS staff - Have you seen this frequently on these cards? If it helps my original order number was 364566
 
Meds

Meds

Moderator
Moderator
Are you 100% certain that it's the graphics card fan? I'd give Tech Support a call to see what they can do, worst case scenario, they can send out a brand new graphics card in exchange for the faulty one.
 
Pete

Pete

Bright Spark
yeah, i thought the same recently, when the fans speed up a bit there's a slight rattle type noise. i'm fairly certain it's the top case fan power cable though which is touching another bit of the case (i've taped it down but it persists) so maybe something similar.

i wouldn't recommend oil, when the fan speeds up it's going to come out.

i'm sure Tech support will help you identify the culprit though, hopefully you won't need to swap parts though.
 
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Dudley

Active member
Meds said:
Are you 100% certain that it's the graphics card fan? I'd give Tech Support a call to see what they can do, worst case scenario, they can send out a brand new graphics card in exchange for the faulty one.
Click to expand...

As sure as you possibly can be without a stethoscope. It rattles even when cool.

I'll give them a call, maybe record it first ;) I'd be happy to do the card swap myself.

Thanks :)
 
Gorman

Gorman

Author Level
[video=youtube;0B68UFbRx7Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B68UFbRx7Q[/video]

I had wondered where we put that old thing.

Doesnt sound like your typical fan noise, faulty fan noise that is.

I call wire in a fan (although clicking is a bit slow for that) or maybe a hard drive.
 
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Dudley

Active member
I'll make damn certain of the wire thing but you've got me thinking with the hard drives. It's very difficult to localise a noise like this isn't it but the hard drives are at that "level" in the case.

Good thinking, will investigate.
 
Pete

Pete

Bright Spark
keep in mind that it might not be a cable IN the fan blades but as in my case, an attached cable in contact with the case or another card etc... so vibration is travelling along the cable until the cable comes into contact with something else.

hope that makes sense?

now if it were me, i'd have the side off and power up to see if i could localise it. But if your not comfortable then best to phone support who will guide you through; they will also know what equipment is in your pc and may know from experience what it is.

Edit : doesn't dound like a hard drive to me (but i've been wrong before) :¬)
 
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Dudley

Active member
No I don't think you are. I'm fine with pulling the case off. It's certainly coming from the graphics card side not the hard drive side. I'm not entirely sure I follow you with the cable but I'll investigate properly tonight when I'm not theoretically working.
 
pengipete

pengipete

Rising Star
Looking at one of your earliest posts, you appear to have the Titan Fenrir cooler. If you look at the cable from the fan, there's a fairly large label wrapped around it - it could be that as the CPU fan connector is very close to your top fan.

It may not be catching in the fan's blades - just flapping in the breeze - which would fit with the irregular beat and wide spacing of the tapping sounds.
 
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Dudley

Active member
You're correct about my cooler sir but the only label is a small green one that isn't moving. Interesting suggestion though, led me to investigate all the other cables in that way.

I'm now pretty much certain it's the card fan though. Will get my equally computer savvy flatmate to 2nd opinion this evening and then call support.

Unless anyone has another suggestion to trump the wrong but brilliant ones so far :)

If it helps even a tiny bit, here's a picture.

IMG_3796.JPG
 
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PokerFace

Banned
Dudley said:
As sure as you possibly can be without a stethoscope.
Click to expand...

When I worked in a garage years ago, if there was a tapping/knocking/rattle sound coming from the engine (or sometimes things like dashboard rattles when driving or going over bumps), we would put the end of a screwdriver against your ear and the other end touching where we thought the noise was originating. It emphasises the sound and helps you pinpoint the source (a kind of layman's stethoscope I guess).

CAUTION: Put the handle side of the screwdriver to your ear and the metal 'pointy' side to the object, otherwise it can hurt like hell! :eek:

One other thing, is it possible to disconnect the power from the graphics card to stop the fan spinning or removing the card completely to see if the noise is still there?
 
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Dudley

Active member
I've very carefully stopped it briefly with a pen lid and the noise stops, difficult to tell for 100% certain since you don't want to do it for long and it's intermittent but I'm convinced.

Flatmate concurs, even when it's not rattling, now I've put the PC on the floor and listened it's pretty clear the fan doesn't seem to be running right.
 
Meds

Meds

Moderator
Moderator
Fair enough, thanks for looking into it further. Give Tech Support a call and they'll arrange a brand new card to be sent in exchange for the faulty one.
 
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