The mysterious and loud grinding noise

[sellmesanity]

Hey everyone, I built my friend a computer and here are the specs:

Athlon 64 3700+
2x512 corsair value ram
x1800xt 256mb
Asus A8N5x Mobo
Antec SmartPower 500w

I believe that one of the fans is making a strange noise, but I can't really be sure which one. Whenever i go into a game full screen, the noise gets even louder. Even when I am in Windows, when I move the mouse around and click things the fan grinds more, but then grinds less. Anyone familiar with this? Any suggestions?

 

[iss]

Disconnect any case fans. then you should be able to isolate wheter it is one of them. the CPU or the Video card fan.

 

[sellmesanity]

I concluded already that it is not the case fan. The complexity of the situation is that the power supply has fans, and the motherboard has a chipset fan. Chipset fans are often complained about. The sound sounds like it is coming from a small fan, I couldn't imagine the big fan of the videocard making that sound...hmm. That card is one day old, is this even possible? The cpu fan checked out fine as well. So it has got to be either the videocard fan, the chipset fan (which i am leaning towards) or the power supply fan, which i doubt because the sound sounds like it is coming from the lower portion of the PC, as indicated by my personal experience and friend himself. The problem now is, I can't stop these two fans to hear which one is screwed up.

 

[iss]

If you have another video card yuo could replace the one in the case and that should telll you if it is the video card fan or the chipset fan.

 

[sellmesanity]

I will do that, but man that motherboard is retarded. The pci express thing is really hard to release the card. And the case stops the card from coming loose...looks like I am going to have one hell of a time, huh?

 

[fimbles]

Super easy solution my freind.. happened to me.. called out tech support.. he turned on the pc.. and stopped the running fans with his finger one at a time( BE carefull.. press the middle gently and not for long..) and you will find the problem.. if its the one in the psu.. you will know because its usualy the only one you cant get to.!

Hope this helps..

Ps.. In my experiance its usually always a graphics card fan.. these are normally sleeve bearings.. if you carefully remove the fan.. peel the small label off the back and add a pinhead of greases to the bearing sleeve this usually clears it up! if its a ballbearing one.. youre knackered!

 

[sellmesanity]

Super easy solution my freind.. happened to me.. called out tech support.. he turned on the pc.. and stopped the running fans with his finger one at a time( BE carefull.. press the middle gently and not for long..) and you will find the problem.. if its the one in the psu.. you will know because its usualy the only one you cant get to.!

Hope this helps..

Ps.. In my experiance its usually always a graphics card fan.. these are normally sleeve bearings.. if you carefully remove the fan.. peel the small label off the back and add a pinhead of greases to the bearing sleeve this usually clears it up! if its a ballbearing one.. youre knackered!

Thanks, yeah I tried that, but the problem is that the graphics card is unreachable with my finger, along with the chipset fan. Both fans are extremely hard to replace. AHHHHHH why me? Never will I build someone a computer again.

He doesn't seem to mind the noise though, which brings me to asking, does this strange noise mean the fan will go out soon? And does the x1800xt have any recorded cases of a brand new card having a messed up fan that gets messed up only after booting into windows and opening a game? When i start the computer the fan sounds perfectly fine even when it spins fast and slows down. That is what confuses me, if the fan was bad, why would every fan run normally until i get to windows and start doing things? What other components can make that sound?

 

[iss]

I dont have an X1800XT, but I seem to recall that reviews stated that the fan was noisey.

 

[CrossFire851]

I dont have an X1800XT, but I seem to recall that reviews stated that the fan was noisey.

Especially while booting or entering/playing a game.

 

[sellmesanity]

The fan is noisy during boot, but that isn't the problem. It makes a noise that does not sound normal, like some sort of screaching grinding. I am not even sure if it is the graphics card.

 

[fimbles]

Hmm.... does the screeching coincide with your hard drive light??? ive never seen (or heard) one but i beleive hard drives screech when they are ready to die..

That would explain the noise at bootup.. and loading games ect..

 

[sellmesanity]

I will check as soon as possible, the computer is not next to me. This is horrible, now it could be the hard drive as well?! AHHHHHHHHHH

 

[kirock]

I'm not sure why you're having so much trouble determining which fan it is, other then the Video card fan. If you put your ear to the back of the PSU you should be able to tell, 1 down, 3 fans to go. CPU, chipset and video. All case fans are unplugged.

Unplug chipset fan, this is fine for a few seconds. But I mean a few seconds, five steam boats. Repeat with CPU fan. Again 5 stean boats maximum.
If the screech is still present is must be the video card. RMA it.

I also agree it could be a HDD going bad or even from the speakers and not a fan at all.

Let us know how/what you find.

Cheers.

 

[sellmesanity]

Conclusion

I'm not sure why you're having so much trouble determining which fan it is, other then the Video card fan. If you put your ear to the back of the PSU you should be able to tell, 1 down, 3 fans to go. CPU, chipset and video. All case fans are unplugged.

Unplug chipset fan, this is fine for a few seconds. But I mean a few seconds, five steam boats. Repeat with CPU fan. Again 5 stean boats maximum.
If the screech is still present is must be the video card. RMA it.

I also agree it could be a HDD going bad or even from the speakers and not a fan at all.

Let us know how/what you find.

Cheers.

Ok, so I went to my friends house to deliver a part I bought for him on eBay, and I proceeded to further inspect his computer with your guys' suggestions.

1. Put ear against power supply, nada. *To my hearing ability

2. Unplugged case fan, chipset fan, cpu fan, nada. (for sure)

3. Hard drive activity was not consistent with noise.

4. Graphics card fan, all the symptoms pointed to that. Sound got louder when 3d graphical aspects of games showed, which means the RPM of the fan was shifting up, thus causing more noise. I couldn't stop it or check it, but there was nothing else in the system to test. Being that it doesn't seem to bother him, I will not take further action unless he gets artifacts or crashing.


Looks like it is the graphics card, that really angers me. OH WELL!

I feel like trying a new psu and graphics card to know 100 percent. Im 99 percent sure it is the graphics card. Thanks for your help all, PEACE

 

[nork]

I just read this post and i have the answer for you. video cards are bad for making noise and for going bad pretty quickly sometimes. At least that is what i have read and i have had a few issues with vid card fans as well.
Anyway, i wrote a tutorial to take care of your problem, here it is. I guarantee you success unless the fan is really shot:

https://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?t=52936