Annoying rattling coming from gpu

[idrankyourbeer]

so i build my rig just over a year ago and just recently theres been a rattling coming from what appears to be the fan farthest from the display ports on my asus strix 970.

heres a video i just took demonstrating exactly what is going on when i manually turn my fan on to 40% and then clearly the noise stops when i turn the gpu fans off. im still not 100% sure what it is but i can only suggest its my gpu fan or something inside of it?!?

https://youtu.be/ATBNVTiZfKQ

it only occurs when my gpu fans spin up past 30% and even without using my custom fan curve it wont even kick the fans on until it hits 60 degrees which is totally normal and all, but i do alot of gaming and of course the fans are gonna need to be running during that. for pretty much everything else the fans never really need to be on and i can use it as a regular pc and it runs pretty quiet. but then i put a game on and my computer suddenly becomes demonically possessed.

usually its always been dead silent but now something is going on with it and its making this annoying rattling which wont go away.

ive taken the card out of the motherboard and made sure everything was all tight and the fan cables werent obstructing the blades, blown air through the sink and removed what little dust was there, mounted it back in there snug and made sure everything in my case was all tight as well and nothing was obstructing, and at one point i thought i had it working good until about half an hour later and it started up again.

i think theres something wrong with it. the fan feels just the slightest bit more wobbly than the other. but it doesnt feel like its making contact with anything when i give it a spin

ive looked online to try to figure out what the hell to do and im leading to believe theres something wrong with the bearings?? im not much of a mechanic but i dont know how to go about fixing it, and my search for asus strix 970 replacement fans hasnt turned up much. to be frank, im not even sure if thats what my problem really is, but thats what im leading to believe that its a fan issue. i just dont know what to do to fix it

ive been trying to contact asus for technical support and its been over a week and nothing has been done with my ticket. it simply just says ( status: In Progress ) Service System is on integration, please confirm your mail box first on my support ticket, and nothing more has been sent to my email box. i was supposed to get a response within 48 hours, but its been over a week

now to my understanding asus doesnt have the most prestigious customer support from what ive been coming across scouring the net trying to find some solutions. in fact other people have complained about a rattling from their strix 970 and 980 cards as well and what they said was asus deemed it as 'perfectly normal' or suggested it wouldnt be covered under warranty because it was an issue with the fan. now if you ask me i think thats a load of crap, for something that says "0db silent gaming" right on the box and one of its selling points is that it runs cool and quiet, hell thats why i bought this model to begin with! it shouldnt be making these demonic noises inside of my case!! if i wanted to be annoyed by hardware noise when i try to play a game, i would turn on my playstation 4.

anyways, i kind of got a hunch whats wrong but i was wondering if anyone might have some insight on what i should try to do to resolve this annoying issue. i mean lately ive just been turning my speakers up, and throwing on my headset to drown out the noise. other than that the card has been fine, and my gpu temperatures still never dive over 66 degrees even on 5 hour sessions on the most demanding games, everything else it stays at 59-63 degrees and idles at 37 degrees which is totally normal as thats what ive always been seeing since i set this pc up, so to my knowledge the card itself doesnt appear to be damaged, in fact its still rocking every game i can throw at it, but theres something going on with the fan and id like the noise to stop.

but i get the feeling ill probably get the same runaround as ive read others have got from Asus, and ill send it in and a month later theyll just tell me that nothing is wrong with it, its fine, as i wait another few weeks for them to send it back to me while i bask in the glory of integrated graphics while i wait!

so i'd rather just try to fix it myself, or just deal with the noise until the volta series gpu's hit the market as thats what im holding out on and i really dont care to go out and buy a 480/1060 as my 970 still gets the job done for me just fine, but god damn i could sure live without the noise. i mean hell if i had to spend more money i'd rather just rip off the shroud and heatsink and put in a custom water loop, but that seems a little much just to get rid of some excess noise.

anyways if anyone knows what this sound is all about, maybe help me out here. i cant seem to find an Asus telephone number for support either, which is pissing me off so if anybody knows of one, preferably toll free or in canada let me know.

thats a huge wall of text but im pretty annoyed right now and feel kind of lost and i dont think im going to get anywhere with asus after trying to google search my issue to see what others have been dealing with with their cards.

 

[BadAsAl]

The way these fans are mounted they sort of float so there is usually some play. I would guess that when the fans spin up one of them is pulling away just a little and either making contact with something or it is the bearing inside the fan that is failing and it isn't noticeable until the fan is under load.

If you change the orientation of the fans, like if you turn the PC upside down and turn it on, does it still make the noise?

 

[idrankyourbeer]

The way these fans are mounted they sort of float so there is usually some play. I would guess that when the fans spin up one of them is pulling away just a little and either making contact with something or it is the bearing inside the fan that is failing and it isn't noticeable until the fan is under load.

If you change the orientation of the fans, like if you turn the PC upside down and turn it on, does it still make the noise?

its the same thing whether im running it normally, or if i turn that sumbitch sideways. it still rattles and its really starting to rustle my jimmies. though i havent tried running it upside down, but i doubt it would make any difference

though it would be kind of weird if it worked. im sure they dont suggest that you turn your computer upside down and then power it up in the troubleshooting manual lol. i got a pretty heavy heatsink and i dont even like to move my pc around as it is and i dont want to put any stress on the board or anything so im probably not going to try that. i hate trying to fix computer shit. especially hardware issues. its great when it all works though.

 

[junkeymonkey]

in a few rare cases the cooling fins that are attached to the tubes that make up the cooler can brake loose and rattle or some time the fans wire can fall in to the fan blades


a look at a cooler fins and tubes used that the fins maybe loos and vibrating or rattling on the tube part ?/

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GTX_970_SC_ACX_Cooler/images/cooler2.jpg

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_970_Gaming/images/cooler2.jpg

 

[idrankyourbeer]

i already checked the fan cabling and all looks well. the wires are all housed where they should be, are tight, and theres actually a few slot things build into the shroud that helps guide the cables to the power connector and prevent it from going up to where the fan blades are.

as for the cooling fins, im not too sure what those are, but all i can see is a heat pipe sticking out of the shroud which id have to remove the shroud to look any farther in there, and i just found out that the last screw id have to remove looks to be covered by some kind of sticker which i'd assume would probably void my warranty if i remove it

so basically im thinking what it comes down to is maybe i should either deal with it and turn the volume way up to drown it out when i game, or keep trying to pester asus until they give a response. apparently they do finally seem to get through to the customer, but only if you bitch about their product on facebook. strange though you shouldnt have to go through social media in order just to get some kind of a response from a company about their defective product.

im not that mechanically inclined, so i dont know if my original idea of trying to fix it would work. i think ive did all i could without tearing the guts open. if i cant just open it real easy and swap out a fan and put it back together with no struggle, i wouldnt have a clue what else to do. unfortunately the only specific replacement fans i could find for a strix 970 was like $30 and up off some chinese site. i dont even know if its legit. some were going for over $100. this is all in USD. its not like i cant afford it, but if youre going to fuck me like that at least take me out for a nice dinner before you start pulling my hair.

i dont know man. im just gonna have a few beers and play some games and contemplate what the fuck i should do about this. i really dont want to open it up if i can get it fixed under warranty or god forbid pay a little bit for those monkeys working at asus to repair it. its been over a year though so i dont know if that will work. still no reply from my support ticket so yeah im gonna have to press the issue.

it very well could be an issue with the heat pipes or the cooling fins vibrating onto the metal shroud for all i know. i never thought about that until reading your suggestion. man oh man.

if i send it in and they tell me something like that is normal and wont cover it under warranty, im gonna shit bricks. it says 30% cooler, silent gaming right on the box for crying out loud. and it actually seems alot louder at night, and more obvious than what i recorded in that video and i am now wearing a headset or turning up the volume on my stereo and sometimes even turning on my second television on the side while i game out to help drown out this noisy ass rattle.

 

[junkeymonkey]

I guess unless you take the card down to see if anything has came loose in it somewhere and causing the rattle could be screw or 2 as well need re tightening ??? or RMA it that's all your call

 

[idrankyourbeer]

well guys i finally got in contact with asus and i sent it in today for RMA. gonna be rocking the integrated graphics for a while in its full glory!

i couldnt figure out what exactly was wrong with it and i tried all i could to troubleshoot and fix it myself. i hope that the service guys cant figure it out either and that they dont have any more replacements and send me like a 1060 instead. i can dream right?

 

[junkeymonkey]

looks like a few have had that with there asus strik card

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkxvlwM_9Xg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0perPQsR9Ao

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/949647/gtx-970-strix-fan-noises/

just from a quick google of ''asus strix 970 rattling''

 

[idrankyourbeer]

yeah ive seen that first video and looked at the fan cable but all was well.

this is pretty much what mine is doing, though i already posted my video on the original post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dF6Mp9Pml0

i guess its a common issue

and lol the guy says asus told him there was nothing wrong with it and wouldnt rma it! oh boy i could be in for a pleasant surprise.

 

[junkeymonkey]

welcome to asus , thing is that ball is allways in there court and at there own digression

and you checked if the fins part of the cooler are not loose on the tube part . ?

anyway all you can do is what you can to resolve it or put up with it is asus wants to not play nice

good luck

 

[idrankyourbeer]

its already in the mail so theres nothing more i can do on this matter,

and i hope that those monkeys over at asus know what to do to fix that and dont just tell me that there is nothing wrong with it! ill be sure to point that out to them, seeing as the low temperatures and noise are the only reason people buy the asus strix brands of cards in the first place and even on the box it brags about 0db noise and "Silent Gaming" yet now it runs so loud that i need to put a pair of headphones on full blast just to help drown out the noise. I'm sure that those people working at Asus themselves would NOT EVER purchase a gpu that loud for themselves and their own use, but why should it be okay for their customers to have to put it up with it? yeah these people wouldnt last a month if they had to play games on a card this obnoxiously noisy.

im a little worried here after that last video. nothing wrong with it? despite the obvious rattling that drowns out everything in the room on a card that is supposed to run nearly silent??? i guess thats their new codeword for "We dont know what we're doing but we're not about to help you."

 

[junkeymonkey]

maybe that guy they refused was a jerk to them and they turned there back on dealing with him , and you may get a nicer guy to handle your rma ?

 

[idrankyourbeer]

just to follow up on things, there was a fan issue and it needed to be replaced. thats kind of what i figured from the start.

anyways all is well. my gpu is running cool and silent again. i dont have to suffer with integrated graphics in their full glory. i sent it across country and it got there in 3 days. took a week for me to get it back

meanwhile it took weeks before i originally got a response back from asus on my inquiry and had an RMA set up. which was odd because on their support page it says to expect a response within 48 hours.

anyways yeah i guess i did the right thing and sent it in for repair. even if i was 100% sure the fan was the problem and if i had tried a repair on my own it probably would have been costly and time consuming to try to track down the proper part number for the gpu fan and then remove the shroud and remove the broken fan and swap it out and rewire everything and then put it back together. so im glad that those monkeys over at asus were able to fix my shit for free. i never appreciated how quiet this gpu model is until it borked one day and im stuck having to throw a pair of headphones over my ears just to try to play a game because after a couple days the constant rattling started to drive me bonkers.

i played a bit of ps4 for the downtime and damn its fans can get pretty loud, but it doesnt seem as annoying as that rattling noise. if asus didnt get back to me i would have had call in a priest and have him exorcise the demons out of my pc.

 

[junkeymonkey]

welcome to asus .. but don't look that gift horse in the mouth they could of just as easy denied your rma and make you pay to get your card back ..

in my opinion this is where EVGA stuff pays off , they don't jerk you around and will cross ship ''•Upon receipt of your product, without damage, EVGA will ship via ground shipping to the address you provided within 1-3 business days.''

http://www.evga.com/howtorma/

they pretty well hold to that , not 2/3 weeks later

at least you got it worked out and happy