Annoying fans Created 12 years ago2011-06-25 13:53:55 UTC by DiscoStu

No, this isn't about Justin Bieber. It's about my computer. These past few weeks one of the case fans has been making this horrible grinding noise that drives me mad. Mostly I just open the side of the case and gently slow it down by pressing it with my finger, just enough for it to stop that noise. The problem is that it's almost immediately resuming now. I'm going mad, what could I do about this? Dump all of them and get new ones?

Any insight or useful comments will be appreciated.

Unplug the fan that is causing the noise? Unless you have really dodgy airflow, your computer will be able to cope with a missing case fan.

Fan probably has a dirty or loose bearing causing it to be slightly off-balance, resulting in a loud noise when it spins up to speed.

I have 6 fans in my computer, totally. I wouldn't be able to give any of them up!

figure out what size it is and get a new one. or take a toothbrush to it and get the dirt out.

I don't think these fans have bearings at all. I'll look into cleaning it.

My last computer also had this problem. I don't remember exactly what I did, but it involved physical violence. That might be related to that computer's hard disk crash.

If you remove the fan, and see evidence of the blade scraping on the fan's structure you could probably fix it without buying anything. I'd sand away at the edges of the blades to make sure they have clearance. Could be worth a shot.

figure out what size it is and get a new one. or take a toothbrush to it and get the dirt out.

Or put the vacuum in reverse.

@Blitzkrieg - I'd have done that if it were new. BUT, it's only doing it after about two years of use. (curiously, the 7-year-old CPU fan and PSU fan are almost as silent as new)