My new video card's fan squeals...

I bought a 7800GS card three months ago. It works perfectly fine
except... once in a while, the fan makes a loud, high-pitched squealing
sound that lasts for about half a second. It scares the heck outta me.

I have no earthly idea why it makes that noise. I've heard it happen
at least half a dozen times in the past 3 months. It probably occurs
more often, but I'm not around to hear it most of the day.

I bought one of those manufacturer "overclocked" models from eVGA, with
the high clock speed and the super big fan and everything. I have a
bad feeling that this squealing sound is the first step to a complete
breakdown of the video card fan. Anybody else experience a similar
problem? Is this squealing sound something I should be worried about?

wrote:
I bought a 7800GS card three months ago. It works perfectly fine
except... once in a while, the fan makes a loud, high-pitched squealing
sound that lasts for about half a second. It scares the heck outta me.

I have no earthly idea why it makes that noise. I've heard it happen
at least half a dozen times in the past 3 months. It probably occurs
more often, but I'm not around to hear it most of the day.

I bought one of those manufacturer "overclocked" models from eVGA, with
the high clock speed and the super big fan and everything. I have a
bad feeling that this squealing sound is the first step to a complete
breakdown of the video card fan. Anybody else experience a similar
problem? Is this squealing sound something I should be worried about?




Yeah I've had it on a Powercolor. Some fans are crap out of the box, it
happens. Often worse when spinning up from cold, yeah? I did mess with
mine after 4 months, I took the fan apart and put oil in it. 2.5 years
on it still runs smoothly. But really, you gotta RMA these things mate.
It happens. And if nothing is done, be pretty sure it will fail.


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wrote in message
oups.com...
I bought a 7800GS card three months ago. It works perfectly fine
except... once in a while, the fan makes a loud, high-pitched squealing
sound that lasts for about half a second. It scares the heck outta me.

Does your card have a tiny speaker? It is cylindrical in shape and has a
hole in the center. Some brands (BFG, XFX) have them on 7800GS cards. The
squeal may be coming from the speaker and not the fan itself.

I have no earthly idea why it makes that noise. I've heard it happen
at least half a dozen times in the past 3 months. It probably occurs
more often, but I'm not around to hear it most of the day.

Twice a month isn't so bad. :-) Do you happen to have a BTX-style case,
where the video card fan faces the top rather than the bottom? Some
sleeve-bearing fans make more noise in this orientation, though usually it
doesn't reduce their service life.

I bought one of those manufacturer "overclocked" models from eVGA, with
the high clock speed and the super big fan and everything. I have a
bad feeling that this squealing sound is the first step to a complete
breakdown of the video card fan. Anybody else experience a similar
problem? Is this squealing sound something I should be worried about?

In the event the fan dies later on, either:
1. Submit a warranty claim (you may be able to get eVGA to cross-ship you a
replacement fan),
2. Remove the fan but leave the heat sink in place. Then zip-tie an 80 mm
case fan to the opening. Not really a big deal either way.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

First of One wrote:
I bought a 7800GS card three months ago. It works perfectly fine
except... once in a while, the fan makes a loud, high-pitched squealing
sound that lasts for about half a second. It scares the heck outta me.

Does your card have a tiny speaker? It is cylindrical in shape and has a
hole in the center. Some brands (BFG, XFX) have them on 7800GS cards. The
squeal may be coming from the speaker and not the fan itself.



Hmm... I don't remember seeing a cylindrical tiny speaker on the card.
However, I just made a quick test and realized that the sound occurs
everytime I switch resolutions. I'm guessing that you are correct, and
that the squeak is really just coming from the speaker, not a faulty
fan.

Why on earth would eVGA have my card squeak whenever I change
resolutions? That makes no sense at all.