Fan check-up...?

[Medea]

One of my fans is starting to act up. It sounds like it's slowing down & then picking up - like a small plane whose engine is dying. While it's only intermittently, it seems to be acting up more frequently, and I want to pinpoint which fan it is before it dies and causes more problems - plus the sound is annoying as hell.

What have other people done when this happens? I've never had to do this before and want to make sure I don't screw anything up.

 

[Medea]

^bump

 

[wasnlos]

did you already figure out which fan's going bad ?
graphics, cpu, housing ?

 

[ledzepp98]

what fan? most power supply fans are thermaly controlled and are known to do this...if it's a regular case fan make sure it's not caked in dust

 

[wasnlos]

good idea, look for dust, and check the PSU also

 

[Medea]

Haven't been able to figure which fan it is because it's not consistently doing it. Noise was there when I booted up but by the time I took the side off the case, it had stopped. :frown:

I noticed my case fan (a Sunon 80mm) was a little on the dusty side when I was tightening my hd a few days ago, so I'll clean it and see if that's the problem.

If it happens again and I can't tell by sound which fan is the problem, is it safe to detach one fan at a time until I can pinpoint which one?

 

[ledzepp98]

i would not recommend unpluggng the fans while the computer is on...

 

[wasnlos]

just took a look at your first-born,
i guess the ABIT-mainboard has a little fan on the chipset,
if so, i tell you these fans are just crap and tend to get noisy

if that's the one just pull it's power-cable, makes no difference

 

[Medea]

Thanx for the suggestions. I'm probably going to have to check all the fans for dust - probably leave the side off when I bootup, too.

 

[flood]

Medea- try out this method. Its worked really well for me. I do it to all my fans. You can get a tube of lubricant in a pen type applicator at radioshack for a few bucks.
I also clean the fins of my fans with q-tips