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Hi there,

On my new computer though its got a quiet foam padded case I do hear a high whine when its busy, seems to go in cycles of 2-3 seconds rising and lowering in intensity, have a feeling it could be the fan on the heatsink of the cpu or the graphics card.

1 If I was to try a different fan on either of above would I need to buy a fan with a special spec for the cpu or graphics card? The cpu is a
AMD PHENOM II X4 945 SOCKET AM3 (3.00GHz/8MB CACHE) and the graphics is a 1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 4650 PCI EXPRESS

2 Its a asus motherboard ASUS® M4A785TD-V EVO so if i removed the graphics card does it revert itself to using internal graphics or do I need to do something in the bios ?

Hope someone can give me a little advice,

many thanks
Joe

Last edited by joemardo1; 02/09/10 07:22 AM.

joe
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**Brand new computer, first thing to do is see if you can't get a warranty exchange replacement or the like**

I don't know if you can replace the fan on a graphics card, most of the ones I've seen, the fan isn't attached such that the user can snap on another as we can with CPU fans.

But first you need to find out which fan is the culprit and that can only be done by opening the case and turning the thing on, have a look, have a listen, find the thing that is making the noise.

An unbalanced fan can often make this kind of irritating noise that comes and goes.

A fan can become unbalanced by house dust on its blades. If you see dust, use a can of compressed air to blow it out and see if that helps. There are also other reasons for an unbalanced fan that can only be solved with fan replacement.


HTH,


--Mac

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My hp tower had a Nvidia graphics card with a fan. Was driving me nuts. I thought it was one of the other fans, unhooked them and discovered this one on the card. Turns out they have a recall. I filled out an online form, gave them my Visa number and they shipped me a new fan came by UPS next day. Put it in, had a paid return box for the old fan, took that to UPS the next day, no charge at all.

The Visa # was in case you didn't return the old one, cost $50 bucks or something if they didn't get it in 10 days. I bought the thing at Best Buy, they wanted a week to do the same dang thing. You do need a good magnifying glass, lots of light, a small screwdriver and some patience, those connectors are not for my big fingers and arthritic hands. But I have a good magnifying glass on an old fly tying vice with a led light and that made it a piece of cake.


John Conley
Musica est vita
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It is normal for the fan(s) to change speeds as the CPU heats up. In fact, you want that to happen or overheating will occur. There are some monitoring programs that may be of interest to you.

PC Alert 4 will show you what the temps are of your PC case and CPU. It also shows other things such as voltage. You can't override anything but you can see what is happening when the noise starts - probably a rise in temp.

Speedfan does the same but lets you tweak the fan speeds. It won't let you damage by undercooling. I don't see the purpose but I'm sure some people love doing this stuff.

Best bet would be to clean out the dust from your fans and heat sinks and see if that helps. If not, fans are cheap to replace.

Rachael

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Since this is a new computer I am disinclined to blame dust for unbalanced fans, etc. I would disable, if it is enabled, the AMD Cool 'n Quiet feature, and set the fan at different speeds to see if you can cause the the sound to reappear. This should be available in the CMOS, or what some people call the BIOS. You'll need to enter the Setup at boot to do that.

If you have the ATI Catalyst Suite installed, you should, you can vary the fan speed as well to see if it's the culprit.

Finally, you may have a bad fan in the case.

On the other hand, it may be a hard drive, as well.

Gary


I'm blessed watching God do what He does best. I've had a few rough years, and I'm still not back to where I want to be, but I'm on the way and things are looking far better now than what they were!
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I find it economic to purchase a few fans at once. Saves on shipping and then I always have a backup.


I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
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New PC, variable fan speed - gotta be CPU fan as already mentioned changing speed to provide extra cooling when the CPU heats up, usually when it's getting busy.

One option is an aftermarket heatsink that is physically much larger than the one you have which in turn uses a large diameter slow revving fan. The smaller a fan is, the faster it needs to spin in order to move sufficient air to cool the CPU - faster revving=more noise.

As this is a new PC I would advise talking to the supplier to make sure you don't void your warranty. If it is a "white box" assembled by a local PC supplier this shouldn't be a problem, OTOH if it is a "name brand" I doubt you'll find much sympathy.


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I specifically shopped for a video card that was fan-less on purpose just to avoid this issue. Didn't get the most powerful graphics card on the planet of course, but I can say that it's never made a peep!

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The best fan noise occurs after you do a stellar job on a song and they give you props.


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Props?


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Props: Slang; n. Praise, credit, approbation, applause.

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Thanks for the clarification, Richard.

As an actor, I assumed they were something used on stage but not from the audience!


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Turning that corner again - I have to keep following that dream, no matter what
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