Whining Radeon Fan

[cbuchach]

My computer had been making a very annoying, very high pitched whining for several days until I tried to track it down today. Well, after unplugging all my fans and hard drives, I finally unplugged the Radeon's fan and low and behold the whining was gone!

So, is it OK to run Radeon without the fan going (I think I remember a post about this a while back saying it is ok), and what might be some good replacement fan options?

 

[tazdevl]

If you want to fry your GPU and end up buying a new card... sure leave it off and don't have any active cooling.

Otherwise, if common sense prevails and you haven't tried this and killed your card, you need to replace the heatsink/fan.

You first need to remove your old heatsink/fan. Put it in the antistatic bag (if you still have it) for about 10 minutes) or a ziploc. Then slide a credit card under the edge of the heatsink/fan and get a flat head screwdriver (credit card keeps you from damaging the board and traces on the board). Gently pry it up and it will pop off. Freezing it makes the glue brittle.

Go out and buy a ThermalTake Blue Orb. Radeon doesn't have the 2 mounting holes so you have to attach it otherwise. If you want it to perform well when/if you overclock you're going to have to use thermal epoxy. You can buy some Arctic Alumina thermal epoxy and compound here. Follow the instructions on the arctic silver website.

If you don't plan to overclock your card, then just use the thermal tape that comes with the blue orb and smack it on.

 

[Rand]

<< If you want to fry your GPU and end up buying a new card... sure leave it off and don't have any active cooling.
>>



You'd be surprised
The ATi Radeon 7500/8500 run surprisingly well without a fan. A HeatSink is necessary, but they will actually run reliably without any fan at all.
It's certainly not the ideal solution, and I wouldnt dare try overclocking w/out a fan... but at stock clockspeed they get along quite well without any form of active cooling.

I can't say if this is true for previous Radeon cores made on the older process, but for the current R8500 and R7500 it is indeed quite possible to run without the retail fan.

Generally the fan that comes stock with the R8500 and R7500 is quite quiet however, so you might wish to contact ATi about a replacement as it shouldnt create much noise at all really.

 

[cbuchach]

Any suggestions besides Blue ORB as a replacement? I have one on my northbridge and am not too impressed with it. Just seems pretty cheaply made.

The card actually seems ok, when I run 3Dmark2001 overclocked at 182 (I have a 32DDR Radeon) there is a bit more snow than usual, but it completes the benchmark. Nevertheless, I'll quit overclocking until I get a replacement fan.

 

[Killrose]

Actually you can try removing the fan by the screws at all four corners, then underneath the fan remove the round sticker exposing the pinion shaft. You can give it a small drop of your favorite lube. I did, and mines been very quiet ever since.

 

[McCarthy]

That's what I love about Radeons, run cool. My (guess it's called a 7200 now?) runs without even a heatsink. But I put one on anyway, big passive sink, can overclock and it still doesn't get warm.

So two ideas.
Either get a big passive sink - if you don't mind giving up the PCI slot right underneath you can put something truly impressive on there. This is assuming you have decent case airflow. or
Do the blue orb. They run fine at 7v btw, very quiet then and probably still more than enough cooling for a Radeon.

 

[vss1980]

The fan probably just needs some lubrication.

If you can find some machine oil, you could lubricate it anyway. If it still makes a noise, replace it.

As Killrose said, under the sticker of most fans you will find the main spindle exposed. A drop of machine oil should usually do the trick.