[SOLVED] Best way to check if a fan is dying

[rightchea]

So I notice this morning that one of my fans are making a loud noise than stops. This is the second time that i have heard this happen in the last week. It doesn't last long probably a second or two but one of them is definitely making a loud sound. Temp and fans are running fine when I am gaming but it seems that this morning there is a problem. The one weird thing I notice was that it happens when I turn off my top two fans within the case.

AMD GPU - Sapphire 580
AMD Ryzen 1700 with stock heatsink
Case: two top fans and one side fan

 

[Mtop]

Please tell us about the fans! How are they connected, to MB, to Hub, to each other, to power supply. How are they controlled - full voltage, v control or pwm control?
Are you using any fan curves? Why are you turning the top fans off?

 

[Paperdoc]

Yes, that fan may be dying. Here is a typical pattern for fan bearing failure development.

As a fan gets older, the bearings wear out a bit so that the clearance between the fan shaft and the bearing sleeve gets wider. This clearance tightens up a little as the bearings warm up. The first sign of oncoming problems is that the fan makes significantly more noise than normal when it first starts up after being off for a long time so it is cool. That is because the shaft "rattles around" in the loose sleeve. But as it runs that way, it warms up and soon the clearance gets smaller and the problem stops, so no noise. As long as the system keeps running, it is normal and quiet. If you re-start without cooling down, there is no noise. As time goes on, this keeps happening and the period of noisy initial operation gets longer. Eventually it does not stop being noisy. And shortly after that, the fan will size up entirely and stop working. From now when you first notice it until final failure may be months or even a couple of years. But if you see that the noisy period continues to get longer, that will confirm the source of the noise. You should plan to replace the fan when convenient.

 

[USAFRet]

A fan making new noises is your PCs way of asking you to replace the fan.